<p>I've been trying to apply the CR tactics in the forum, especially by Notarep (sorry if I got it wrong). Other strategies are more or less the variation of this technique. Yet, I have not gotten past the low 600s mark. English is my second language, and I am a recent immigrant. However, I don't think I want to settle down with this score because I know most of the words on the CR section, invariably get around 0-2 wrong on the sentence completion part.
Therefore I have some questions for the CR experts, those who consistently get 750- 800 on tests:
1) How much time do you spend to do the long passages? It takes at least 15 mins for me to do those, plus 5 mins for short paragraphs and SC, leaving only 5 mins to check. It is very rushing
2) Have you applied any of the tactics from this forum and improved from a low score to your high score now? Did you do anything different from the guides to improve? Please don't tell me it comes naturally since it does not come naturally in my case.</p>
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<p>There’s your problem.</p>
<p>I know most of the words on the CR section, invariably get around 0-2 wrong on the sentence completion part.
And plus there are certainly others who speak English as their second language yet manage to get high score on CR</p>
<p>I always manage to miss a sentence completion or two throughout the exam. The most difficult part of the Critical Reading section, I find, is knowing for sure that you have picked the absolute best answer (in reference to the short and long reading passages that succeed the sentence completion bit).</p>
<p>As far as SC goes, try to first break up the word into its constituent roots; this has helped me immensely.</p>
<p>As far as advice goes, I would say, like many others, that the single most important thing that you have to keep in mind when answering the reading questions is that the answers need to be supported by the text.</p>
<p>^ Exactly. And honestly, you’ll improve with practice, OP.</p>
<p>I don’t worry about SC, please enlighten me more on those long passages
and well, there are stuff that are directly straight from the passage, but when they ask you, for example:</p>
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<p>1) Which would be most likely to learn the “essential lessons”?
A) A class setting out on a field trip
B) A young athlete playing on a soccer team
C) A small child attempting to roller skate
D) A bear defending its young
E) A kitten playing with a ball of string</p>
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<p>2) the author mentions “Loyalist women” to demonstrate that:
A) women who demanded property rights during the American Revolution were not considered disloyal
B) women on both sides of the American Revolution engaged in political activities
C) Loyalist women were more vocal about their political views than other women
D) loyalist women were noted for their tea boycotts and fund-raising
E) Loyalist women tended to be more socially influential than those that supported the revolution</p>
<p>You see, those two questions are based on the paragraph. Yet for the first one, you have to infer from the passage using the direct information provided; the second one, you have to read that whole chunk although the question specifies only at a certain line. I would think hard on these questions, yet I usually don’t have enough time. Can you tell me how you divide your time in the CR section for reading and checking and re-checking?</p>
<p>Answer to number one is B…</p>
<p>I don’t want to seem arrogant and all, but that was a really easy inference question.</p>
<p>For #1, here’s what you should have seen:</p>
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<p>Now look at your answers and see which one exemplifies a situation of an individual of a close-knit group. Oh look, there’s only one: B.</p>
<p>Oh yeah… This was also a thing you should have seen too…</p>
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<p>That also makes B the standout choice.</p>
<p>For the second question, I believe the answer is B. When I saw what was in the brackets and re-read again, I was pretty sure that they mentioned them to show that the political actions were a universal issue and not just one-sided. Then, I looked at the answers and found that B matched my prediction nicely and that none of the other options are supported by the text.</p>
<p>And about your time issue… I don’t really know what I can tell except to keep practicing.</p>
<p>When I take a CR section, I usually go through the vocab in about 2-4 minutes, possibly circling one or two to go back to if I wasn’t so sure about the answer. Then I just answer all the questions in order and use the “mark line references” method on longer passages. Then I’m usually left with 5 minutes to go back and answer the non-line referenced questions and questions that caused me a little trouble. Finally, I just check to make sure I didn’t misbubble anything on my answer sheet, and if time is still left, I just look over each answer and double-check my reasoning for it. </p>
<p>TBH, you shouldn’t need time for re-checking your answers, at least that’s what I have come to realized; the only time I have ever changed an answer was when I misbubbled the wrong one.</p>
<p>Hey Wishontheairplanes
You are correct both times. I got the first one wrong because I miss that close knit group, perhaps because I was too rushing.
The second one I got wrong because I only read the part that was specified, and thus chose C. Maybe this because English is my second language, when i read fast I could not see the link between the sentences.</p>
<p>what do you suggest on the time budget?</p>
<p>If you finish with 5 mins to check, then you are fine on time. I agree, that you really don’t even need to check your answers anyways. I usually finish each section with a couple a mins left.</p>
<p>really?
I think I need time to check so that I won’t make silly mistakes</p>
<p>Silly mistakes…?</p>
<p>When I think of silly mistakes, I think of math questions where they ask for 3x instead of x. The only silly mistake would be to misbubble something, and checking that shouldn’t take more than a minute. If you can’t spare this one minute, then you probably should keep practicing.</p>
<p>Answers to both are B.</p>
<p>If you take 10-20 seconds to analyze the second short passage, you’ll find that B is the ONLY answer choice supported by the text.</p>