<p>I have been studying, doing practice tests, and reviewing answers on PR tests and CB tests for a while now but I am not seeing any improvements in either section. I am starting to feel hopeless now since my first SATs are about ten days away. </p>
<p>For critical reading, i have been scoring in the low-mid 600s. The sentence completions are not much trouble, but the short and long passages kill me. I usually end up getting like 15 passage questions wrong per test. Also, many of them are ones that i narrow down to two choices.
The method i am using right now is bracketing the lines from the questions then reading through the passages and answering the questions simutaneously. I have tried other methods such as going straight to the questions and finding references and just reading taht section. This worked similarly to my current method. Also, i have tried reading first, then looking at the questions(failure). </p>
<p>How do you do well on this? I hope to get at least a 650 on the Jan test.</p>
<p>For writing, i have done questions for a while and know all the rules but i always end up getting 5-7 wrong, especially in the identify sent error questions. How do you guys get all these right?</p>
<p>I feel your pain, but you shouldn’t give up. What I do is I first read the passage underline important information and then answer the question, but you need to concentrate hard when you read. Then when you answer the questions always make sure your answer is backed up by the passage. I know this sounds cliche but it’s the only way to improve. you should buy the Collegeboard Official Study Guide and just keep practicing. Also just stay calm</p>
<p>Just keep at it bro. The writing will come after some time (make sure you understand each rule you miss and each mistake). The CR will come a bit after the writing comes. lol.</p>
<p>I tried reading and underlining first then answering the questions. This turns out horrible for me. </p>
<p>Either way, i get stuck on two possible answers that seem to be supported in the passage. (in my view) Funny thing is once in a while, i will get like 22/24 on one section then 14/24 on the next lol.</p>
<p>I actually found that reading and underlining is a good technique for me. You need to also understand if the passages are being positive/negative about particular ideas discussed. If skim and bracket before reading approach works for you to get somewhere in that range at least, keep doing it. </p>
<p>Here’s some advice: Introduction will always introduce the rest of the ideas in the passage; context of lines given in a question where it refers to dashes or semicolons means the author will try to imply or define a place, thing, or event; if asked what a word means you should plug in the answers into the word and see if it makes sense that follows the sentence.</p>
<p>Look… 600-650 isn’t terrible. Alot of CCers have trouble with the CR. So be happy. If you raise it up… go ahead… but if you can’t, don’t get too upset.</p>
<p>For CritRead, I am a huge fan of elimination before choosing. I read the question, read the part of the passage that pertains to it, and then look at the answers. Any really obviously stupid answers I cross out immediately. I leave the “maybe” answers. Then I look at those and think about whether or not they are EXPLICITLY supported by the text. Do NOT interpret the question abstractly. Almost always the question’s answer is definitely and explicitly in the text, just reworded. Any answer that doesn’t have anything to do with the passage, that misrepresents what the author is trying to say, that is too far a stretch to connect is not the answer.</p>
<p>That’s how I look at things, and that’s how I got a 80 on my PSAT’s CritRead.</p>