Test Prep on the Cheap

I took a really ugly and painful test for teacher certification in my state this Saturday. I had forgotten about the test until about a month before, and then put off studying until about a week before. I didn't have any books, certainly didn't have time to take a prep class, and just needed to get a basic idea of what was going to be on the test and what my approach should be. My dirty little secret is that I teach and tutor test prep classes for a major company but have never used more than my Internet connection and free materials to study for any test I've taken (including the SAT, GRE, Praxis I and II, and various state tests).

The basic list of things I think it's important to know about a test before taking it includes:
1. The content range of the test
2. The structure, format, and length of the test
3. The position and any biases of the test makers
4. The way in which the test is scored
5. The approximate difficulty of the questions

With that in mind, here's how I prepped for the test I just took.