<p>That is the question!</p>
<p>In my struggle to pull off a magic 1450 (M+CR), every practice SAT I've taken in my prep class has come out the same, until the very last one, where I stopped rushing so much, and calmed down. lol....</p>
<p>Math 700<br>
Reading 630
Writing 690 ( This shot up 150 points, even though I would have loved that to be my reading section...)</p>
<p>I'm sure I can boost my Math score even higher, just need to focus more on my time management, but it is my reading score I'm worried about. Despite my somewhat helpful prep classes, my reading score has only risen 40 points, when I could really another 100 points more. But I'm exactly sure what I'm doing wrong. I understand you guys can't directly help me since you aren't by my side understanding where my reasoning goes wrong, but does anyone have some tips or advice that may help me in my quest?</p>
<p>My writing score also randomly shoots up 150 points sometimes!</p>
<p>Boosting CR, I think, would most mean improving vocab. Some people use flashcards; this worked out well for a friend of mine, but I prefer less rote methods. To me, it’s best to learn vocab through reading. So, perhaps newspapers, eg the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. I like Nabokov, if one opts for novels. His vocabulary is insane. Eleemosynary, for example.</p>
<p>Try changing your approach. </p>
<p>Check out noitaraperp’s guide on this forum, it helped me bring my CR score of 580 to a constant 650-700 under 2 weeks practice; I’m quite confident I can bring it to 750+</p>
<p>Also take the ACT, you may do better on that.</p>
<p>BTW…are you running out of time in the CR sections?</p>
<p>Oh no, I usually have time to answer most of them, unless I choose to skip one which I really have no clue to.</p>
<p>Reading helps boost CR scores in the long-term - as in more avid readers will do better on that section, and students who are thinking ahead 6 months or more can benefit from reading more. But just picking up WSJ two months before the exam every day will probably show marginal returns at best.</p>
<p>Vocabulary work can help - even if you don’t like flashcards there are other ways, such as writing sentences and such. I suggest not buying the flashcard sets that are offered by Kaplan because IMO the words are too easy; better to buy Barron’s book with the 3500 word list and make your own.</p>
<p>Also, which types of questions do you find yourself having the worst time with? Go back and look over the sections. Are they sentence completions? Are they reading comprehension questions? If so, which ones (global, inference, etc.)? Since you’re taking a prep class you should have access to the old tests; comb through them and analyze where you went wrong, and then improve your strategy appropriately. There are dozens of guides on CC and elsewhere on the Internet and in print that have good SAT strategies.</p>
<p>Try number2.com as a starting point.
What are your weaknesses in the CR section? That’ll give everyone a better idea of how to help you/make suggestions.</p>