<p>Do you mean "classical" books or "classic" books? There's a big difference. While Plato, Aristotle, etc. ("classical") can certainly teach logic, they don't improve language skills. </p>
<p>Melville, Austen, Chaucer, Eliot, etc. ("classic") can improve language skills but they often use English in odd ways-take James Joyce as an obvious example. </p>
<p>Therefore, just read whatever you can lay your hands on. I'm a virtually indiscriminate reader, and I read pretty much anything (although I've never read The New Yorker!) I can find. Even reading seemingly unrelated books by authors like Elizabeth Peters can be extremely valuable because they use obscure or unused words. In one EP novel, for example, she uses the word "crepuscularly." Pretty good prep, I'd say! Reading a lot is definitely the best way to prep for the SAT. I've always read a lot, and I've read ~650 books (I keep a reading log) in the last four years; I scored an 800 V three times. I'd say to read as much as you can, but aim for at least 2 hours a day.</p>
<p>These two together is what will produce a good test result. Reading novels is not always the best way to gain cultural understanding in the mid point of learning language. Current topics will/should help with both vocab and understanding the multiple uses of a word. If you begin with 1 hour and gain some additional mastery which I think you will...........adding time will come naturally. Take this a step at a time. You might read for 1 hour on M/T/W/TR but read much more on F/Sa/Su......as many folks do.</p>
<p>I read a lot of Chomsky (the political stuff) when I was in highschool. Pretty high level of vocabulary, very interesting stuff. Generally tougher than whats on the test, but more interesting as well.</p>
<p>If you want some really tough reading, try Kant or Derrida. </p>
<p>its just that i try to read when i come home from school at like 4, but i cant really concentrate on reading cause there is soo much stuff going on....Does this happen with anyone elsE? when is the best time to read??? </p>
<p>Sanguine007, I know how you feel. Do you have assigned books to read for school or even any type of 'well'-written articles at home? I have found that I dramatically increased my reading speed and comprehension level by just really focusing on what's going on. If there's a word I'm not familiar with, I'll ignore it for the time being and go back to it to look up the definition.
You just REALLY REALLY have to focus on what is being said in the text. Perhaps you should try reading at a faster past (not necessarily super fast) but fast! I noticed that when I read too slow or even slow at all, after 4 or 5 sentences, I'll ask myself.. "what did I just read?!?". I think this happens to me, because I'm just reading toooooo slow. Try reading faster and see if that helps you at all. Good luck! I hope I was clear with my explanation</p>
<p>Keep doing the practice tests. (My kid made NMSF with only a 59 in CR,
but got a 740 on the SAT CR only 5 months later). You really need to analyze the types of questions you are getting wrong. Have someone mark the questions you get wrong without putting in the right answers. Then look for the right answer on a second try, and, more importantly, figure out why the wrong answer misled you. Read the passage thoroughly but quickly. Don't let unfamiliar topics and jargon trip you up or make you panic and waste time. (What if you're from Nebraska, you've never seen the ocean, and the passage is about marine biology? What if you're a white male math geek and the topic is African American feminist literature? Remain calm). Move on to the questions. Find the part of the passage that contains the answer you're looking for. If you are directed to a particular word or line, make sure you read several lines before and after it because that is where you will find contradictions to the "obvious but wrong" answers that people jump on when they are trying to go too fast. Also, watch out for the "less familiar definitions" of words if you are asked for the meaning of a word in the passage. You might have to read a few sentences around the word. Don't go for a dictionary definition that you might know without looking back at the passage. Sometimes none of the answers seems exactly right. You have to pick the BEST one. Sometimes an answer with three elements will have two that fit and one that doesn't. Don't pick it. . . The questions are tricky, but you will start to see patterns in the types of wrong answers used, and that will help you find the right answers more easily. If you have two years you should be able to get an 800! Read anything. My kid hates novels and reads things like news magazines, newspapers --Wall Street Journal is good. Editorials are good. Even the comics are good. A variety of topics and short articles will help more than long novels, in my opinion. Reading novels is good, but only taking practice tests and analyzing the answers will really help you increase your score.</p>
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Have you read "Letter to a Japanese Friend"?
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<p>nope. respect to you if you have at age 17, I have trouble with descarte sometimes =)</p>
<p>I agree that those names specifically are a bit much for SAT prep however philosophy majors have the highest average Verbal GRE scores (the verbal GRE section, as you probably know, is very similar to the SAT CR section) and if you can read Kant or Derrida, you can read most philosophy.</p>