<p>Suleyman, take people’s advice. Have you taken the exams?</p>
<p>lol u guys no understanding he b trollin</p>
<p>
I have taken the October SAT. I believe I failed it–1400-1500. I’m already registered to the December SAT. I’ve finished both volumes of Direct Hits and almost finished rocket review’s 323 words. In addition, I have a Jane Austen’s collection–her 5 novels. I’m going to read it.</p>
<p>Suleyman, great job learning so much English in under one year, but even if it isn’t your native language you should be aware of the essence of test preparation. Getting a good score on the SAT indeed requires a strong vocabulary, so you’re not wrong in memorizing DH + RR, but reading Jane Austen? How is that going to help you? Believe me, native speakers have difficulty even understanding her novels. How do you expect to fully understand them before your Jan. SAT? Reading them won’t help you increase your reading speed, it’ll barely improve your reading comprehension, and it’s a plain waste of time. A fellow CC’er once got a 2340 and he’d never finished a novel in his life (I don’t know if that’s still the case today). If someone who doesn’t emphasize novel-reading can get such a great score, doesn’t that prove something? I can’t help but laugh a little when I read the sentence “I’m going to read it.” An English neophyte reading 5 Jane Austen novels in less 3 months… It’s not impossible, but you won’t understand a lot of what’s going on.</p>
<p>Stop dismissing everybody’s advice and start studying. There have been at least 10 posts on this thread that have provided excellent tips but you kept rambling on about how novel-reading is the way to go. What’s the point of this thread if you’re not going to accept the help of anybody else? Were you expecting people to wholeheartedly agree with you and write, “Oh yeah! Novel reading FTW!”? Grow up and start listening when your upperclassmen speak to you. Where are your manners, boy?</p>
<p>Thanks for the answer. I have a couple of questions.
*According to your words, SAT’s passages much more easier than Jane Austen’s novels?
*If I refuse to read such novels, what I should do? To study only the vocabulary?
*My SAT is in December 2010. I need at least 2000. What EXACTLY I should do?
*Now my vocabulary “power” is combination of Direct Hits(both vol.)2010 ed. and Rocket Review(almost done). What list should I study then? Barron’s High Frequency?
Thanks.
Suleyman H.</p>
<p>i reckon the best piece of advice (though this has probably been stated a billion times in guides/books) is that the answer comes directly out of the passage. its almost directly stated, you basically have to find it.</p>
<p>its kind of common sense, but i found it hard to get my head around literally searching through the passage. but after a while, answering questions by finding direct quotes from the passage, and i felt it helped alot.</p>
<p>P.S
The phrase “even for natives it’s hard” is very familar to me…In the time of my TOEFL preparation, 6-8 months back, my teacher said that even natives are getting hard to pass it…and? what in conclusion? I can take it now and get 120/120. But in that times I got 55/120–I prepared 3 months from cat/dog level. I dealed up that times and now I’ll deal up too!</p>
<p>Have you actually taken the TOEFL and achieved that score? Anyways, vocab’s gonna be tricky for a student like you because SAT vocab deals with more advanced words than the basics and you’re unlikely to have integrated ALL of the more basic English words into your vocabulary. By integrated, I mean that you can use them fluently and properly. By reading many of your posts and previous essays, it’s apparent that you’ve yet to fully grasp English grammar and mechanics. This flaw will turn out to be much more hurtful to your SAT score than a kink in your vocab or reading ability. Your essay will likely not get a good score, and without mastery over the language, writing MC questions are going to be painful losses for you. You can get 600+ on CR with much diligence, but you have to remember to build your foundation. You can only pile so much on a shaky foundation before it gives way and topples. Every Chinese student who’s gotten 1900+ has a solid grasp of English, meaning he/she doesn’t make many mindless errors in usage and grammar. Granted that they can implement “tricks” to get a better score, the ones who rely solely on strategy and disregard actual knowledge are just kidding themselves. Sure you can penetrate a thick wall with a sharp nail and hammer (techniques), but you can’t knock it down unless you have a sledgehammer or something (foundation). It’s going to be very hard for you to raise your English to that level, even if your TOEFL score is perfect, so don’t work only on DH/RR; learn English too.</p>
<p>Ok. Here goes my “advanced” essay.
Topic: Should books represent world as it is or as it should be?</p>
<p>According to the Old Russian folk wisdom, “Book is the best gift”. Books are our sources of the knowledge, examples of a peaceful and yet a severe life. There are different kinds of books; the most prevalent are: mythology and fiction, science, and others. The majority of books about mythology and fiction, portraits unreal creatures, events, or other inscrutable issues; consider characters of those books: Hercules, the monster killer; Asclepius, the first doctor; Dionysus, the creator of Greek fraternities. These types of books are more likely tend to make our life more panache, but, in the same time, these books about mythical characters are only the “cover” to the “real word”. Thus, we can conclude that this is metaphor or in other words, simile; as demonstrated by scientific research, children in kid garden or in first five grades of school can see only unreal things; the real meaning is concealed for the humans in this age. </p>
<p>Consider the another major type of books—science. In this case, these books are less likely to reflect or conceal our real word. For instance, let’s take into account my school physics encyclopedia. Unlike fiction books, which represent life problems, it represents direct rules of physical world, like sphere, height, weight, speed. Hence, we can see light that, despite any controversies, science books are very important: engineering, medicine, ecology, chemistry, history, all these subparts of science are based on this.</p>
<p>The nineteenth-century moralist’s view was that in general, any kind of the book should represent the world as it should be, without problems, without conflicts, without evils. To prove that this claim is too vague or too dispute to verify, let’s analyze Gomes’s “Iliad Odyssey”. For the first time, we could relate it to “unreal world”, a world that doesn’t have any similarities with tangibility; but it’s not as it actually is. Every book has its meanings, lessons, suggestions, extrications from confounded life problems. And what is the most important is that these all issues are directly connected with actual world: the same problems, the same conflicts, the same characters. Books that show the ideal world, nullifies the main reason why we are using them, because, according to scientists, books’ job is to provide help, extrication, and foster in the severe and draconian reality. Therefore, the claim that every book should represent the paradise, the result of all learned lessons, is too skeptic, too harsh, and maybe somewhere misadjusted. We don’t need to know how it will be in paradise; we need the road that shows us how we can achieve it…</p>
<p>
yeah? how? I suppose that you are not suggesting me to study silverturtle’s “guide”. For WR, I shall use narrative essay and for MC --Barron’s 23rd.</p>
<p>‘we can conclude that this is metaphor or in other words, simile’</p>
<p>are you saying that a metaphor is a simile?</p>
<p>nope.
Metaphor=compares 2 things that are not common.
Simile= “similar” compares 2 things that are very similar and have something in common.
I said “in other words” to explain latest assertion. </p>
<p>P.S Don’t be too harsh!</p>
<p>What score would you give for this essay?</p>
<p>‘we can conclude that this is metaphor or in other words, simile’</p>
<p>What you’re basically saying here is: we can conclude that this is a metaphor, also known as a simile… e.g. you’re saying metaphor = simile</p>
<p>you use way to many semi colons such as here:
‘The majority of books about mythology and fiction, portraits unreal creatures, events, or other inscrutable issues; consider characters of those books: Hercules, the monster killer; Asclepius, the first doctor; Dionysus, the creator of Greek fraternities.’</p>
<p>Use full stops more, otherwise it’ll sound kind of like dot points. Using full stops also makes it flow better. ‘Consider characters’ - you’ve listed those characters. You should expand on how they are linked to your thesis.</p>
<p>You need an introduction and a conclusion, introducing and summarising your points. </p>
<p>This might be harsh, but imo you haven’t even presented your side of the topic. If it’s there, it’s not evident. You seem to be waffling on about HOW books present the world, not arguing one (or discussing both) sides of that 'books represent world as it is/as it should be. '</p>
<p>Suleyman, your thread is titled “CR help!” and yet you’re posting an essay. You just shown us all that your incompetence to follow simple rules is an inherent trait and not due to your below-average skills in English. Btw, epicgee, it’s okay to put semi-colons in his case. It’s like listing cities in different states; adding semi-colons reduces confusion. Suleyman, When I say “learn English”, I mean to stop messing around on CC and LEARN ENGLISH, NOT THE SAT. </p>
<p>And no, I’m not saying you should read silverturtle’s guide, which I’m willing to bet you’ve already done so. What’s with adding quotations around the word “guide”? Are you saying that silverturtle’s guide isn’t really a guide at all? If it’s been stickied by CC moderators, then it has to have some value. CC’s been around for a long time and during that span of time, there have only been a handful of posts that have been stickied, so mind your manners and respect the ones who try to help you. You never respond like a normal human being; you keep spazzing out when people criticize you and that’s only because you criticize other people’s advice. Others try to be nice to you, but you instead degrade them. For example, a fellow CCer’s essay was perfectly capable of getting an 8 or 9, but you called it, I think, a “slobbery sketch” and gave it a 1. You ■■■■■ around CC with nothing to show. You get what, 1500 at most on your practice tests? Yet instead of studying, you impose your “tactics” (this is where quotations are appropriate) on others who don’t know how much of a ■■■■■ you really are. I don’t know if you’re stubborn, can’t understand what I’m trying to tell you, or just plain stupid, but STOP MESSING AROUND ON CC AND GET A LIFE. I’ve seen a lot of internationals on CC and they don’t give other members half as much crap as you do. I think I speak for almost everyone when I say: ■■■■■</p>
<p>Oh you do speak for everyone, Redemption. I’m an “international” too and i’m irritated by his ■■■■■-ishness</p>
<p>Good luck passing your SATs with this attitude. Follow some Jim Kawagucha guy no one knows (after all he’s from Singapore and ETS stands for Educational Testing, Singapore), don’t learn vocab, don’t follow guides on here, don’t take people’s advice.
Read Pride and Prejudice a month and a half to the test, and Romeo and Juliet while you’re at it. Ask people to not be “straight” while evaluating your essays. On the test day there’ll be a little box that says “Tick this if you want the readers to go out of their way and be lenient with your essay”
Seriously man…</p>
<p>
Yeah, you’re right–I have already done it–I regret for the time I waste for that “golden guide”.
I had a reason to do so. You know that.</p>
<p>
I suppose you can imply, from my quotes, my attitude/experience toward that “golden guide” and it’s “golden author”. I’m not coercing any one to take into account my opinion, I’m just saying what I think…</p>
<p>
First-- it’s not "at most. It was many months back. Now my score is 1700-1800. I believe you should take into account that 10 months ago my english level was “cat/dog”. And it expains all of it…</p>
<p>
where are your manners, kid?</p>
<p>
I’ve almost memorized Direct Hits and Rocket Review…</p>
<p>oh really?</p>
<p>what happened to “as Jim Kawagucha said “vocabulary is waste of time””?</p>
<p>And I understand you’re entitled to your opinions but can you point out the reasons why you call Silverturtle’s guide a waste of time?</p>
<p>Wow, that’s the most loosely based argument ever. If you wanted to post your essay, make another thread instead of digressing from this one. I doubt you even know what “digress” means. If you’ve checked my previous posts, you’d know that I’m a senior and two years older than you, kid. I’m a positive contributor to CC and you’re the only person I can’t stand. I’ve tried being nice to you in the beginning, but reading more of your posts made me regret ever chatting with you. 1700-1800 isn’t something to brag about and certainly isn’t something that justifies your ■■■■■■■■ around CC.</p>
<p>Silverturtle’s arguably one of the most valued contributors to the CC community. You can dislike him and/or his guide, but show some respect for him. What have you contributed besides your degrading remarks and blatant disregard for other people’s opinions?</p>
<p>
Really? I claimed that I’ve memorized Direct Hits and Rocket Review. The word “digress” (stay away from main subject) is from first volume of Direct Hits. This evidence means that you are not familar with the “Direct Hits”.
Sure.
*Too long(not in means of pages, in means of grammar section)
*It expains only general definitions, NOT rules that are neccessary for MC.
*Lack of mathematical formulas, rules.
Again, it’s only MY opinion. You may agree or disagree–your choice.</p>