<p>I'm only a sophmore, but I'm trying to prepare for the SATs/PSATS for my junior year. I've been taking practice SAT tests from the Princeton Review. My math has been 590, 620, 700 so definitely a consistent jump. My writing is also similar 480, 530, 620. However, on my critical reading I can't get past a 600 I've gotten 520, 480 and most recently, 590 but my scores don't seem very consistent. I know with writing I will have to memorize grammar rules because I don't know many, but how do you improve on critical reading? I feel that I have a fairly large vocabulary, considering I get about 85% of them right, but critical reading and all that jazz gets me way down... Any tips? Should I read a lot of news articles? Take practice tests? Memorize more vocab?
Anything for math? I feel that I know how to do all the problems... it's just the little mistakes that get to me. And also, how do you stay awake during the last few sections of the test and try not to daydream? I find that after 3 hours of test-taking, my brain begins to wander.
Thanks!</p>
<p>Hmm... I noticed with my critical reading it was just because there slight nuances in the wording of the problem. When I read the explanations, I understood the subtleties I wasn't picking up on, and by reading a prep book I learned a lot of tips. You could buy a Verbal Workbook. I know that Kaplan publishes them, and so do a lot of other companies. They're specifically about the Verbal part of the SAT.</p>
<p>To improve on critical reading, the best thing you can do is just read. You naturally improve your skills on these types of questions as you go through school. I suppose doing practice is always good, but I never did any and ended up not missing any critical reading. Just use logic and read for fun.</p>
<p>i did just passages every night for about two weeks before the SAT. I went froma 630 to a 750 verbal, and 11 cr wrong to 2 wrong. Take practices, and then when you got something wrong see why and why the answer they gave is right. Give the answer they want....</p>