I've been preparing for the CALT for about 14 weeks now and I still don't feel 100% ready. Working full time as a reading specialist while studying makes it hard to get more than 45 minutes a day on weekdays. Weekends I manage 2-3 hours. Is that pace realistic or am I going too slow?
The Orton-Gillingham structured literacy framework is something I know pretty well from practice, but the assessment and diagnostic sections of the exam are where I keep stumbling. Specifically the reading fluency benchmarks and which assessments are norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced - that distinction comes up far more often on practice tests than I expected.
I've also been working through the IDA knowledge and practice standards document carefully. Some of the phonological awareness sequence questions require you to know the exact developmental order, not just the general stages. That level of specificity surprised me.
Anyone who's passed recently - was the oral language component weighted heavily? My practice scores are solid on decoding (82-85%) but I keep dropping points on the language comprehension side.
The phonological awareness sequence questions are brutal. I made a one-page chart of the developmental sequence and reviewed it every morning for the last month before my exam.
45 minutes a day is manageable if it's focused. I did something similar for 18 weeks and passed. The key for me was doing timed 30-question blocks three times per week rather than just re-reading content.
The norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced assessment questions tripped me up too. There were at least 5 questions where I had to choose between specific test names, and knowing which bucket each falls into was the only way to get them right.
I studied for 16 weeks and passed on my first attempt with a 78%. The oral language and reading comprehension theory sections were weighted about equally in my experience - don't let the decoding focus of the field fool you into underprepping language development.