Pam Raby of Oklahoma emailed me this question about the Oklahoma General Eduation test and the Oklahoma Subject Area Tests:

Hello, I am studying for my OGET and OSAT.  I was wondering if you bought the OGET or OSAT study guide book?  My OSAT will be in Business Education.  I pulled the study guide offline, but I just don’t know how accurate it is to the test.  Any info provided would be great!  Thanks for your time and you blog!

Hi Pam!

Thank you very much for writing me. Per our emails, I wanted to share our email conversation on this site so that others with the same question can benefit from our experiences.

To answer Pam’s question: I did not buy the study guide — just downloaded the free PDF from the CEOE website. I am not fond of math, so in preparing for the OGET, I spent my time learning a bit of algebra and how to use the formulas provided in the study guide. (For the record, those formulas are included on the test.)

The books I used to prepare are:

Personally, I found the Practical Math book to be the most useful, both personally and in respect to taking the test.

I also took the OSAT English. All I did to prepare for it was review the study guide and brush up a bit on my grammar and English literature history. If you majored in English though, and are halfway decent at taking a test, you should be fine.

Pam says that she plans to take the OSAT Business Education test on Jan. 30. (That’s the same day I’m taking the OSAT Journalism!) She asked if I’d recommend purchasing the “OSAT Business Education (040) Secrets Study Guide.” After reviewing the study guide at Amazon (you can just do a search for that title), I would only recommend it if you don’t understand the psychology behind multiple choice and essay exams.

Back in high school, I took a couple of seminars on the ACT and/or PSAT/SAT, which explained how to understand what the exam writers are looking for by what they ask in the question (how it’s phrased, what answers are given, etc.) That information has helped me immensely, in my opinion, in taking the OGET/OSATs. So, if you’ve taken any of these seminars or read similar books, then I suggest that you stick with the free CEOE study guides.

If you haven’t taken any of the major test seminars or read the books that explain how these tests are written and what the examiners are looking for, then the Secrets study guide may be worth it.

Pam, if you decide to buy the guide, I’d love to read your review of it.

Thank you!