Most people who score highly in CR are lifelong readers. It is intuitive to them when they read the choices. I know that is not helpful to you… just keep going over examples at this point.
^Actually I don’t agree. I can score an 800 in Writing but I’ve never been a “lifelong reader”. Just keep on taking practice tests and going over the questions you miss; you will surely start to identify a similar pattern (there’s always one redundancy/parallelism question in the end for instance).
@CHD2013: I meant that in the last few questions of the Identifying Errors problems there is always at least one redundancy, parallelism, or inverted subject-verb agreement problem.
My problem is mostly with idioms. They are really hard (as intparent said, they seem so intuitive, though I found a list online of idioms. Not a few are there in the world wide web!).
@intparent - I’d suggest using CB materials to practice, making sure the review of each section takes as long as the time it took to answer the questions. Wrong answers or guesses need to be evaluated thoroughly. The student needs to do more than just understand the right answer; they should understand the concepts behind it and be confident that they can get similar questions right in the future.
For math and writing, the subject matter is limited. Learn all of it and the patterns and keep practicing. If its a CR question, the student should find exactly what in the passage supports the answer and why every other answer must be wrong. If a student is typically getting 2 -3 questions wrong per section on CR, and they spend 30 -60 minutes reviewing a few sections, they can often eliminate all mistakes on the next few sections. Continuing this process can lead a decent reader to a perfect score.
This answer’s getting too long, but finding a method for practicing the essay (great advice is available on this forum) is necessary too.
CB materials are limited. Pretty quickly you are through their materials and sample tests. CR is very hard to prep for, IMHO. You either have the analysis skills, or you don’t. You either have the vobabulary and ability to parse complex and ambiguous passages, or you don’t. It isn’t like math with standard, limited types of problems. It is much broader, so hard to study for. I agree that continuing to work through sample tests is best.
Thankfully I am really great in CR. Usually I get maybe only 1-2 wrong in each passage set of questions (which is really impressive IMO). When I took the ACT, I would also get my highest score in Reading. So yes, I agree that it’s intuitive at many times, and something built gradually over the years, not over 40 nights. However, consistent practice for beginners does yield as good scores as no practice for savants.
I think there are enough CB materials to fully prep for the test. Any student who understands and can teach all the problems in the blue book and the online course, can get an SAT score that will be helpful at any school in America. Some people do work through all these and look for more. But, I’m guessing they could still improve by continuing to review the BB and online course tests.
I agree that CR is hard to prep for, but it can be done. The Critical Reader is really a wonderful book that can help readers who are slightly above average approach a perfect score. Learning how to read for the main point, what kind of questions are usually asked, what kind of answers are likely to be correct/incorrect, etc. can be accomplished with the book and a lot of hard work. That combination can lead to a significant score increase; I’ve witnessed multiple CR improvements of 200+ under the circumstances described above.