MTEL Communication & Literacy Skills (REA) The Best Test Prep for the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure: Field 01 (Test Preps),   ISBN:9780878914500

Customer Rating: 

I read the customer reviews for all the MTEL study guides on the market before buying this one; this seemed like it would be the best. However, it's got serious problems. Note: I haven't taken the MTEL yet; I'm scheduled for it in two weeks, so I can't definitively tell you how well it prepared me.

I'll start with what's good about it. The instructional sections in which it sets out grammar mechanics and rules, provides tips on critical reading, and how to write an essay are all fine. They adequately prepare you for the exam. But it should be noted that this is book is now outdated since the structure of the exam has changed, as of 9/09: there will no longer be short-answer vocabulary and grammar questions.

The 3 practice exams are the big problem with this book. These were created by the authors and are not, and have never been, real MTEL exams. There are several blatant errors in the answer sheet. For each answer, the authors provide an explanation; in several cases, the explanation clearly supports a different choice. For several other questions, I can only state that English professors would answer correctly only about 50% of the time--the questions are so misleadingly stated. I may sound a bit disgruntled and over-confident, but you'll just have to trust me on that. I can only hope that the MTEL administrators are not bone-headed enough to ask some of the questions the authors of this book asked; if so, they're going to get plenty of incorrect responses. Finally, on the last practice exam, 10 questions in the Reading Subtest were left out altogether--though the answers are on the answer sheet! This book--or more specifically the practice exams--was poorly edited.

This book served me well enough because I now have a general idea of what the exam will be like. As I've written above, the instructional parts were fine. But it is now outdated, and one would have thought that the publisher would have held the authors to tighter editing standards.

Customer Rating: 

Just received my passing scores on the Reading and Writing Subtest areas of the Com and Lit test. I have never written a review for anything on Amazon before but feel compelled to tell my story. As a career changer I haven't cracked an academic book in ten years or so. My writing skills were never great to begin with. In fact, they were downright dreadful.
This book lays out clear instructions for its intended use. I suggest following them. Take the first practice test before you do anything. Try to recreate the 4 hour test marathon. Then score yourself and determine which areas you need to work on most. Pay particular attention to those areas as you work through the book. The writers do a good job of explaining some fairly abstract concepts. Continue through the book a little each day until you are finished. Then take your next exam. You should be doing a least a little better in the sections you initially had trouble with. This time go back and focus mainly on the areas you had trouble with. Force yourself to work on those sections until you are at least competent. Finally take you last test and repeat review.
In addition to the book I met with a middle school English teacher friend of mine for a couple of hours to learn how to write a five paragraph essay. The Mtel testers want to see that you are capable of constructing a basic, coherent, and standard 5 paragraph essay. Once you know the formula it is really quite simple. I am not going to get into how to do that here. I mentioned it because that has to do with my main criticism of the book. The book lacked a thorough explanation of how to write a simple 5 paragraph essay. If you have trouble writing, find someone qualified to show you the formula.
Aside from that I would definately recommend this book. In fact I am passing it along to my brother.

Customer Rating: 

I decided to change my career path 3 years after graduating with my BA in Business so it had been a while since I had taken any type of exam so while I wasn't completely out of touch with my studying skills, I still needed a little refreshing. This book is pretty thorough in its detail and explanation of the material. I passed the exam on my first try and I know I would have not have been successful had I not used this study guide. I recommend this book to assist in mostly anyone's preparation for the MTEL Comm/Literacy. There were some errors in the practice exams though. On several questions, the book indicated the wrong "correct" answer. This might sound like a contradiction, but the book's errors helped me to reinforce what I had learned. I learned the material so well that I KNEW the book was erroneous without hesitation. Definitely worth the time and money!

Customer Rating: 

This book, the three included practice exams, some vocab practice flashcards and the single practice exam offered on the MTEL website were all I needed. I passed this exam the first time I took it, and I give this book lots of praise and credit for my good score.

Make sure you take the three practice exams included in this book - my pracctice exams' scores improved dramatically as I got used to the exam's format this way. I found the grammatical and reading comprehension sections especially helpful.

My essay question on the actual MTEL was word-for-word the same as one I did for a practice test in this book!

I found it helpful not to simply skim or read, but to take hardcore notes as I went through this book. It was major overkill for the MTEL but has helped prepare me for any other exams I'll need to take in the near future (GRE, etc).

To improve vocabulary, I used a set of GRE vocab flashcards instead of the lists in this book - I wanted to overprepare quite a bit, and it worked. Again, extreme overkill. (Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary in a Box)

Customer Rating: 

This product covers too much info--grammar, vocab, etc., and is not an excellent product. It does have some helpful sections, however.