<p>If you have a lot of time on your hand (3months+), will reading books noticeably help your critical reading score?</p>
<p>Not really. I know people who read a lot and get low 600's on CR. I never read anything and I got a 760. How? You've gotta practice reading SAT passages and answering the questions. Build a sense of intuition for the test. </p>
<p>Anyone can read novels pretty easily; it's when you have to answer some pretty deep questions about what you've read that the heat gets turned up.</p>
<p>if you a) read a lot of DIFFICULT novels (classics)
b) look up words that you don't understand and make an effort to remember them
and c) make sure you take the time to read AND analyze what's going on (don't just skim parts you don't understand)</p>
<p>well, reading books is one thing, reading books with a CRITICAL perspective is another,
and it is the latter that you need to do to increase your CR scores.
just reading books will prob get you nowhere-alluding to arach's post.</p>
<p>read difficult material, like classics--analyze them, try to find out the author's point of view, why he/she wrote the book, the purpose of a passage/chapter, and the like.
also, i strongly recommend you read the newspaper.</p>
<p>if anywhere you could build up a CR intuition, its the newspaper.</p>
<p>hope i helped =)</p>
<p>I read the funny pages occasionally and I got a 780 on the CR section. Hope that helps. The best way to prep for CR is not intentionally prepping, but being around intelligent people your whole life.</p>
<p>I agree with post #5. Being around intelligent people, especially in academic environments where your analytical skills are challenged constantly, is the best preparation; unfortunately this describes law school which comes long after taking the SAT exam. This is a benefit of attending high schools which have small classes of selected students who were admitted based on an academically competitive basis (e.g. magnet schools & most private schools).
Re: Post #4's suggestion of reading the newspaper may only help if the newspaper is of the New York Times or Christian Science Monitor quality, in my opinion.</p>
<p>If your problem is vocabulary, reading the newspaper may help. We found it helped our son quite a bit to select a couple of articles a day from the New York Times and then then look up every word he didn't know and make a card for it. It helps to pick a range of articles - some politics, some science, etc. At the start of this exercise he had to look up many words within six months he rarely found one he could look up.</p>
<p>That said, vocabulary is only part of the CR score. I'd suggest getting a practice book from the library. Take two or three tests and look at what sections you are getting wrong and work from there. If you haven't already read a prep book that's a good place to start.</p>
<p>I think so. I did absolutely no studying and pulled off a 730,
the only difference between this time I look the test and last time I took the test was the amount and difficulty of novels, poems, plays I read.</p>
<p>I think kids who read a lot usually do better, but it's hard to know if it's the reading itself that makes the difference. My older son got an 800 twice. He reads very, very fast which is a huge help. He also read over 100 books a year - nearly all sci fi and fantasy. I think all that reading helped give him a good vocabulary and increased his reading speed. We have a set of SAT flashcards at home - both my kids know nearly all the words already form their reading.</p>
<p>Yes, in the long run. I read the New York Times online. Articles have a ton of "SAT words."</p>
<p>i moved from a 670 to a 800 on the oct sat after reading over the summer.</p>