TExES Core Subjects 4-8 (211) Secrets Study Guide: TExES Test Review for the Texas Examinations of Educator Standards Stg Edition

The tests in the back are helpful. Don't expect to see test questions from the examples in this book, but the test format and language reflects how the actual test will look.Content is well written and easy to follow. I focused on English and Social Studies mostly because that's where a lot of content is that you need to know by heart. The science section is pretty easy, you may not even need to study it assuming you already have a bachelors. I SUCK at taking tests, but I passed all sections on the first try after studying this book for about 3 hours per day for a month prior to the test. I think this is a good study guide for the money. It will definitely get the job done and quick! There's no reason to spend 70+ dollars for some of the other study programs out there. Get this book and some highlighters. Practice teaching the content to a friend or your pet, then go nail that test!

Overall, this study guide is well organized and thorough. I particularly appreciated the consistency and relevance compared to the competencies. For example, the guide typically followed the order of the competencies. Since I had defined terms and studied the competencies first for all the subjects, this guide deemed most helpful in comprehensively highlighting the competencies and providing key points to consider. In addition, since the sheer volume of information from the competencies itself is overwhelming, this book consolidates and targets key information in preparation for the exam. There weren't too many study guide options for this exam through Amazon, and although the other guide was less expensive, I chose this guide. Primarily, because the front cover was professional looking, serving the purpose of what the book actually is...a study guide, and I was able to "see inside" the book and look at what the book had to offer. I'm quite please with the content and structure of the book, so it was worth spending a bit extra.

Material was easy to grasp and understand, the breakdown of information was easy to comprehend, and the material covered in the manual is exactly the information that will be on the test. The features of the product I found most helpful were the step by step study instructions, and how to study helped tremendously.

This is a truly bad book. Why? Because it doesn't teach the concepts that it claims to teach. The cover says it's "your key to exam success." It has study material for each of the 4 test subjects, then a sample test for each subject and an answer key with explanations. All that seems fine until you get to the sample tests and try them. In the English Language Arts and Reading, section, for example, you need to know the following topics to perform well on the test which appear NOWHERE in the study material: Argumentative essay, language load, three tiers of words, consonant digraph, signal words, Collaborative Strategic Reading, syllable types, ORF, code knowledge, Test of Silent Contextual Reading Fluency, Scaffolding, and Phonological Awareness Assessment. By the way, knowing what these are will not make you a better teacher, but that's a problem with the TExES system rather than this book, since it's supposed to test what you know _before_ you begin your certification training (you could be the finest writer who ever lived and still not know this stuff). I'm giving the book two stars instead of one only because there's still some benefit from having the practice tests, and the small amount of study material isn't completely useless. You'll just have to research a lot of the information you need to actually do well on the test somewhere else.

I haven't taken the exam yet... but so far it is answering all the questions I've been asking. A lot of programs out there assume that just answering questions works... but if you don't understand the 'why' to the question, you will never improve.This book is easy to read, straightforward, and I'm finally improving my test-prep scores... Oh and I know figured out the difference between a graphene, phoneme, and digraph.Well worth every penny! Plus it's re-usable... so my wife can use it when she is ready to certify.

This was the perfect study guide for me. I haven't taught school for 18 years and I felt very overwhelmed going into the test. I was hoping to pass at least one of the subject tests. I was shocked when I passed all four of them. Nothing short of a miracle! The practice tests in this book were very helpful. I highly recommend this study guide.

I am finding this book very helpful. The only thing I would like different is maybe a timeline of the history section. I feel like some of the information is repeated when talking about related topics. I LOVE the practice test section with the answer explanations.

I just bought the product and I am already impressed. The information is thorough but straight to the point. The practice exam matches the TEA website and the answers key provides a rationale to every answer.