What You Need To Know About The CSET

Whichever subject you intend to teach, you’ll find that passing the CSET test will require you to make use of two sets of skills: recalling the knowledge that you possess; and answering CSET exam questions quickly and accurately.

Both of these skill sets are vitally important on the CSET. A good CSET study guide can help you develop these skills.

What is the CSET?

The CSET is a single subject exam, intended to replace the old Single Subject Assessments for Teaching and Praxis II tests. There are three types of tests in the CSET:

Single Subject Teaching Credentialsare mainly used from grades 7-12 and authorize a teacher to teach one particular subject. Tests for these subjects include CSET Mathematics, CSET Social Science, CSET English, CSET Spanish, CSET Science, CSET Art and many other CSET tests.

Multiple Subject Teaching Credentials allow teachers to teach a range of different subjects and are generally used in elementary schools for grades K-6. The CSET exam required for this type of California teacher certification is the CSET Multiple Subjects exam.

Education Specialist Instruction Credentials allow teachers to teach students who have a particular disability or special need in grades K-12.

Each exam in the CSET contains a number of subtests and lasts up to five hours. The CSET sub-tests themselves are not timed however, allowing you to spend more time on areas that you find difficult and less time on the parts that you know best.

Time management will be an important element in getting the score you need to pass the CSET exam and become a teacher.

Two Types Of Questions, Two Types Of Challenge

CSET exam questions come in two forms: Multiple-choice questions ask you to choose the best answer from a number of options. In these CSET questions, it is important to remember that the best answer isn’t necessarily the only correct answer. You may find that two answers look correct but one answer will be more correct than the other. (This also means that when two answers look the same, you’ve got a 50/50 chance of guessing the right one.) A good CSET exam study guide with CSET practice questions will give you the necessary practice required to master multiple choice questions.

Constructed-response CSET essay questions ask you to discuss, describe, analyze, explain etc. Often you’ll be asked to complete more than one task. Always read the question carefully and make sure that you have completed all the tasks.