I'm not going to sugarcoat it: I bombed the CLAST two times before I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. The first time I walked in completely unprepared, figured it couldn't be that hard since it's a college placement exam. Wrong. The second time I crammed for a week straight and still missed the math cutoff by 4 points. I was honestly embarrassed to tell my advisor.
What finally worked was being really systematic about it. I found a solid CLAST practice test site and started timing myself on each section instead of just reading through questions casually. That changed everything — turns out I was spending way too long on the essay and rushing the math. I also picked up a study guide that broke down the essay prompts by type, which helped me stop panicking when I saw the prompt.
Anyone else here preparing for the CLAST right now? Happy to share what worked for me. The reading comprehension section especially has some weird question styles that tripped me up until I figured out the pattern.