<p>Hey, so I'm getting around a 650 in critical reading and I hope you guys can give me some tips to get up to 750.</p>
<ol>
<li>How do you answer passage reading so correctly? I heard that you guys write on the margin, but how do you know what to write? What do you write?</li>
<li>What lists did you remember? DH 1&2 or Barron or some other list</li>
<li>How do you stay un-bored when reading these uber-boring passages -___- or at least passages that doesn't make sense to you?</li>
</ol>
<p>Dorkyelmo, give up on Critical Reading. I’ve been on this forum for quite some time now, and time and again, you have attempted to up your performance. This is not to say you haven’t succeeded, you have! You’ve upped your score from a 400 to a 650 or so. Don’t you think this may be your limit? Don’t you think you may have reached the full capacity of your capabilities? Maybe CR just isn’t your subject. Don’t be discouraged, because we all have our weaknesses. You’re very good in Math, and you score above 700 regularly, others who have scores of 800 in CR find problems surpassing 600 in Math. What kind of answers do you expect? How do you read the passage so correctly? Because they’ve been reading novels and newspapers for a life time. They’ve made reading a habit of their daily life, so much so that their reading comprehension has become extremely proficient. Hey, you could be like them too, only if you’re a Sophmore, or Junior, but not as a Senior, because reading is a life-time habit, and its results will only show after a very long time (years of reading novels and challenging material.) For the second question, haven’t people already answered this for you before? Some people memorized DH 1&2, others have memorized Princeton Review etc. People have done what has worked with them. Some have found success, and some have found failure. But this question has been answered a million times. Most people find the greatest success with DH or 300 Essentials. And finally, for question three, this is once again related to question one. They have made reading a life-time habit. They have been reading for years. Let me put this on a more common scale. You’ve been doing Algebra for quite some time now. If I told you, solve this equation in terms of X: (x+3x)^2 + x^3 = y^4. Chances are, you’ll be able to do it with very little effort. On the other-hand, if you bring an individual who has never done Algebra before, or has knowledge of only basic first degree equations, he’ll run into a great deal of problem before being able to tackle the problem.</p>
<p>My point is, Dorkyelmo, please consider the thought of moving on. Be satisfied with the achievement you’ve already made. Hell, you’ve made a 250 point increase from 400-650. That’s amazing in it’s self. But is it an absolute impossibility that this is just as good as you can get?</p>
<p>LOL. Yeah I agreed. But people told me that 550 as my limit. And I proved them wrong. But I can’t stay at a score at 650 because my parents (and I) have high expectation for me. So I probably am NOT going to give up now.</p>
<p>But thanks. If I don’t score higher than 700 in the next two months, I’ll give up.</p>
<p>I hear AP lang helps. If you’re a sophomore, I would maybe give it a rest until you develop further. That is, unless you’re flat out determined to take the SAT sophomore year (which I would not recommend doing, given where you stand. Come back next year).</p>
<p>But seriously, CR passages don’t have any magical trick or content that can be memorized. Quite unfortunate.</p>
<p>Don’t give up. People have raised CR scores by 150 points just in that section alone. I think you can raise 25-75 more points if you study studiously AND correctly.</p>
<p>I PM’ed you.</p>
<p>in the similar situation here
just wondering… how many can i get wrong to score 700+ on CR?</p>
<p>@rlaqhaud 3-4, in my experience. Correct me if I’m wrong. Are all your scores in this range, or is CR dragging you down?</p>
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<p>Record shows raw score of -9. That is about 7~9 wrong (depending on how many you decide to omit)</p>
<p>@supine
:My scores in Math and Writing seem to be stable in the 700s, but CR seems to be the problem, woah 3-4wrong? thats tough</p>
<p>@JeffreyJung
: 7-9…i mean… then is it better to like, just omit the prob that i’m not sute of??</p>
<p>If you can eliminate even one answer, it is statistically smarter to guess. If you have absolutely no idea, then you should omit.</p>
<p>@JJung, oops, sorry! I never omit, thanks to overconfidence that I will get everything right. So that’s why I reasoned 3-4.</p>
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<p>Even if one answers 4 questions incorrectly, that is only -5 raw score. 7 incorrect answers yield a raw score of -8.75, which is rounded to -9.</p>
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That’s personal preference. Cynosuree is absolutely correct that it is always statiscally smarter to guess. However, keep in mind that CB always plants at least one “trick” answer that looks extremely appealing.</p>
<p>I would highly suggest, at this point, to pick up a book or even go on thenewyork times and begin actually reading. After purchasing my kindle, I began reading a multitude of books (without thinking of doing SAT practice). To my surprise, the reading proved to be a serendipitous endeavor that greatly improved my reading pace and my ability to comprehend the passages. </p>
<p>I would suggest (although this may not be for everyone) to go to the questions FIRST and make line-markings that correspond with each question. If you do this, I guarantee that you will be able to answer questions as you go along in a more accurate fashion (I mean jeez, you JUST finished reading that part! Get the question down while it’s still fresh in your head)</p>
<p>Another method would be the skim, go to questions, in depth reading. I do not feel like that method helps you understand tone/pov as much as the method where you answer questions as you go along. When you do my above method, you answer questions quicker too, and spend less time revisiting the passage and analyzing the text. </p>
<p>Give it a try and tell me how it goes! </p>
<p>(Reading a book will help your speed-reading immensely in case you want to try out the standard method)</p>
<p>I made a CR guide (I improved from 60 on CR PSAT to 800 on SAT CR). Hope it helps.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1024138-how-i-got-800-sat-critical-reading-story-guide-5.html#post13615668[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1024138-how-i-got-800-sat-critical-reading-story-guide-5.html#post13615668</a></p>
<p>Honestly, just do more practice and read. Perhaps spend less time on collegeconfidential and more time reviewing would be a good use of your time as well.</p>
<p>hah, its weird. i went from getting a 680 on my CR after doing a few practice sections the week before the test, to an 800. the only prep I did for the 800 was making sure I actually remembered how to do the section. If you can pick thing up quickly when reading, you’ll have no problem. My advice: don’t over think it. The correct answer’s always the most logical one. It might be a bit hard at first, but you’ll get the hang of it. I guess what I try to do is answer the questions before looking at the answers, and then I’ll pick the one that’s closest to what I thought. That usually works for me</p>
<p>Dorkelymo can you please tell me how you got from a 400 to 650 please?</p>