750 Math for 800 Critical Reading

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>I took the June SAT (1990)- 560 CR, 680 WR, 750 M</p>

<p>and the October SAT (1960)- 550 CR, 660 WR, 750 M</p>

<p>The schools I want to go to require a higher score, perhaps 2100+. I can easily bring my Writing above a 700, but how can I raise my Critical Reading to an 800, 750 even.</p>

<p>If anyone offers their advice or endeavors to help me and needs help in math I'll be glad to help. </p>

<p>I can learn fast, and I have 1 month to prepare as I am taking it in December, any suggestions?</p>

<p>Also, is taking the SAT three times detrimental to my grade? I heard they average your SAT scores if you take it three times...someone clarify please.</p>

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<p>----------- bump -----------</p>

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<p>In CR, one thing I always try to remember is that when you put down an answer, you NEED to go back to the text and make sure there's a textual justification for it. I think that one helped me a lot. :)</p>

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<p>Well, I rape sentence completions (18/19), but get raped on reading comprehension (23 wrong). Yes, I suck at reading. How can I improve it in one month?</p>

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<p>It is very hard to raise your critical reading score by 200 points especially in one month. And, the sentence completion is the easiest part of the reading to improve on, so improving the reading will be a lot tougher.</p>

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<p>Actually it's quite easy to raise reading comprehension, as long as you know how to work with it.</p>

<p>Just read quickly but thoroughly, and make sure EVERY PART of the question you choose is right, the other choices may sound right, but there is always a part of the choice that makes it wrong. Make sure you can point in the passage and say there's my answer before choosing an answer; you have to have evidence for your answer or else it's wrong.
Clear your mind, don't have any bias, imagine yourself as the author, and don't make your own assumptions. It has to be in the passage.</p>

<p>My CR score was like yours (540), but now I can get most of the reading passage questions right, it's just the setence completion that kills me :/</p>

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<p>OH thanks, but it's so hard for me to distinguish between the right answers and wrong answers..but then again I've never used the Official Collegeboard SAT Book. I'm gonna use it now.</p>

<p>Sentence completions are really easy, I use a barron's technique that works everytime</p>

<p>Basically when you're reading the sentences you read em to yourself, and when you get to the blank you just don't say "blank," you fit the blank into the context of the sentence like..."He blanked him." That helps you get an understanding of the context, and then you bring a word to the blank that closely fits the sentence, then you assign a positive or negative value to the sentence...is the sentence pessimistic in nature, or does it have a positive notion/attitude. After that, you should get a reall good understanding of the sentence, and THEN you look at the answer choices, and boom it becomes really easy. You dont even need to know vocab, it becomes second nature for me at least, but sometimes towards the last 2-3 sentence completions, vocab is a must, you just pick the longest word that fits, using your judgement. I practiced like 200-300 sentence completions, so I'm an expert at it now...I never memorized words.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>Any more suggestions?</p>

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<p>*******<strong><em>bump</em></strong>*******</p>

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<p>I don't know which Prep book (if any) you are using, but Princeton Review is a big help for the critical reading</p>

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<p>Don't go aiming for an 800 right away, dude. Try hitting 700...</p>

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<p>yeah when i first started prepping i was getting mid 500's on the CR.
After PR, I got a 710 on the Oct 4 SAT :)</p>

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<p>do the entire blue book and qas and CB online tests for critical reading
after a bunch of tests you should recognize the cr patterns... make sure to ALWAYS review every answer even if u get it right (i went from 2090->2330 and 630cr to 760 cr</p>

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<p>thanks for the feedback guys, i'm especially happy.</p>

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<p>It's DEFINITELY possible to raise CR. It just takes practice. You can raise any section of the SAT by practice.</p>

<p>If you keep missing a question because of certain vocab words, be sure to jot them down so you can review them. THat way, you won't be missing easy sentence completion points because you don't know a word even though you've seen it before.
I went from a 590 CR my sophomore year to 710 my junior year just with practice using the blue book in the summer. </p>

<p>And for writing, it's really easy to raise your score if you get yourself familiar with all the mistakes because they just keep showing up over and over again.
Pretty soon, you'll know exactly what mistakes to look for (parallelism, subject/verb agreement..etc)</p>

<p>Went from 580 W to 790 (biig surprise). I just started seeing a pattern after doing alot of practice tests. (blue book) My sophomore year, that was my lowest score (horrible at grammar)! Now, it's my highest!
It's really just about finding those patterns (once again, you see the same ones over and over again) and practice (I struggled with the time limit).</p>

<p>Getting used to taking the test, waking up early really calms you down the day of the test. You just feel like you're taking another practice test so your nerves don't get to you as much. That messed me up the first time because I was so nervous..didn't know what to expect. </p>

<p>Underlining/jotting BRIEF things down for the passages helps too. It'll keep you more active so you absorb more information. (it kept me from falling asleep as well haha)</p>

<p>Also, for the essay.
When you buy the big blue book, you can access some collegeboard online thing. There, you can find sample essays for the ones you see in the practice tests. After reading those, you usually notice that if you follow a certain structure, you'll probably get 8+ on the essay. (Intro, 2 examples, Conclusion..usually examples from literature/history/past experience) Just doing the practice tests...and getting used to writing an essay in 25 minutes helps. Leave a couple (like2-3 min) at the end to check for silly grammar/spelling mistakes.</p>

<p>HOpes this helps!
800 CR is going to be hard but good luck! Yeah, most colleges take your best scores from each section.</p>

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<p>well, im sorry for bringing u back to reality, but a 750 in the math, doesn't necessarily make u good at it (i got a 780 in Oct. and i suck at math)...In one month, you might be able to increase 100 max....believe me man, I studied my ass off for the SAT's it was torture, but i could only bring up my score from a 600 to a 690. (maybe cuz im not native, idk?) but my point is: ITS HARD.....how about u improve the writing to a 750 (easily done) and focus on getting at least a 650, cuz an 800 is out of ur reach.</p>

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<p>@BigWeight</p>

<p>Thanks for your insightful advice, I was hoping to receive a more optimistic stance than what you've presented. I know you're talking about being realistic, but I think I can face the challenge..I mean last year my PSAT score for my writing was a mere 38/80...and I've boosted it upto a 680/800 on the SAT, by simply tackling it, and it's not like I've even spent much time on it, either. I know that sounds a little arrogant on my part, but what I'm trying to say is that I can tackle almost anything...I mean a 300 point increase in writing alone (even though it was from the low end). As far as critical reading's concerned, I've only practiced on sentence completions in preparing for the SAT, and my sentence completions have been up to par--19/19 in June, 18/19 in October of this year. So..all I'm requesting is advice on how I can BEAT reading comprehension (advice that transcends the normal "...you must be an avid reader", and perhaps improve my score drastically. That's all I want.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

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<p>i'd even be surprised if u were able to bring ur 550s CR to a 650. really, CR is just something that blocks many people from getting 2200~2300s. i spent my entire summer doing CR, my score only went from a 550 to a 630(couldve done alot better,missed 4 vocabs,knew all the words), and.. studying for CR is pain in the butt, its just not that possible~, aiming for a 650 might be alot more realistic..</p>

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<p>Everything is possible as long as you believe in yourself! Guys, you're very helpful with your advice! Thanks</p>

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<p>Don't be discouraged. I went from 590 to 710 just by practicing.
Good job on the sentence completion! I missed 4 in Oct..that really brought my score down. </p>

<p>But definitely get writing as high as possible--easy to improve!</p>

<p>FOr CR, mark the passage, underline things, make brief notes..like a couple of key words. It allows you to be more actively engaged in what you're reading so you can absorb more and understand it better. (It also kept me from falling asleep hahha)</p>

<p>Math--just avoid careless mistakes. That's where I mess up.</p>