<p>Iam not sure what else I can do, I consistently miss at least 7 questions in each of the three sections. Out of 20 sentence completion questions, I miss at the max 2-3. I can't seem to get any of the cr questions right and its extremely, extremely, frustrating. I finished a Barrons Cr Workbook, and on the Hard questions i missed 11 our 45 questions. It seemed easier in Barrons. I've read 3 books this summer on different literary subjects, consistent reader of time and the economist. Took a Kaplan Prep course and Iam still missing the same amount on the kap tests and the blue book. I thought kp tests were harder?
What can I do? i've went through at least 5 bb practice tests and tried to understand traps and so forth placed by cb, but some reason I have 2 choices left and I pick the wrong one. I also went through Grammitax. Should I purchase a copy of Barrons 2400 or something?</p>
<p>at this point i think the issue isn't that you're not a good reader or that you haven't come across a good approach, considering the wide variety of sources you've used and the type of reading you tend to do.</p>
<p>i think you're probably reading too well, if that makes any sense. try to read in a very, very literal way. also, only use the College Board tests--even if another source is harder, that doesn't mean it's preparing you to do the same things.</p>
<p>after you look at the answers to a college board question you've gotten wrong, can you see why the other answer was better? if not, why not post a couple of questions like that in this thread, along with your reasoning, and we'll go over them?</p>
<p>My suggestion would be to spend time doing an entire section under no pressure so you get time to go over and link it back to the passage. If you can do that now then you should be getting less wrong. A good method is just to highlight key words or etc.</p>
<p>Also maybe you should try reading the whole passage (speed read) if you haven't already and get the main idea of each paragraph (or at the minimum the whole thing as a whole), that way you can instantly eliminate choices and see which is better.</p>
<p>I would assume you are going through the same dilemma as i was in the past, you are down to a few answer choices and have no idea which one you should pick... If you are constantly second guessing yourself in a question and your "gut" tells you to go one way, maybe try a different approach and go the other way. That has worked for me in the oddest sense.</p>
<p>Also as xitammarg has said you are probably reading too well which i do at times also. I usually try to put everything into logic and "logically" support my answer which is good for some but for others is impossible and i just end up choosing the wrong one b/c of a "false logic". If you are doing that, maybe you shouldn't explain it anymore and just link it</p>
<p>My method is as follows, I read the passage, and highlight any useful areas that make an impact on the passage, after each paragraph i try to sum up in my head the gist and direction the author is taking me. After reading the passage I answer all the cr easy questions such as in line 64-14 what is this talking about etc. before i look at answer choices i go back into passage sum up in answer in my words, then immediatly attack the choices and eliminate all that is wrong or have no connection towards passage, then I pick my answer. Then i go back to the inference and global q's, since i have understood the detail questions. Yeah i try to understand the logic behind q's I am not sure how to read literally but i will try.</p>
<p>by reading literally, i mean confining yourself only to the things that appear on the page, and not trying to rephrase the text or draw any inferences from it.</p>
<p>i'd recommend that you try not summing up the paragraphs and not answering in your own words before considering the answer choices. instead, take the answer choices and the text exactly as they are.</p>
<p>this is kind of hard to explain without examples--is there a particular blue book question we could look at?</p>
<p>I'll second Xit's advice.</p>
<p>Since your results are not exactly what you'd expect, it is obvious that the method you use is not working for YOU. One of the problem with CR is that there is NO universal method that works for everyone. </p>
<p>This said, I believe you should try something new and different. In general, the kiss of death for CR is too MUCH inference. In my opinion, it's dangerous to try to UNDERSTAND the entire text and find the logic of the author. The reason is that ETS/TCB spent a lot of time and money to make is very dense and avgue. On the other hand, the questions posed by TCB usually have ONE very identifiable answer ... as long as you do not let your mind wander in circles. </p>
<p>I would advise you to spend less time reading the text AND trying to rephrase the author's words. Reading the text quickly or with great attention should not make much difference in time, maybe 1-2 minutes tops. This should give you plenty of time to study the ANSWERS. Try to read all the questions first to develop a sense of what will be asked. Then pick the non-inference questions, pay attention to the question, try to answer it in your words (if possible) or go look at the text for a possible solution, then look at the answers and eliminate everything that presents a direct conflict or offers too much information (too specific) or too little (too vague.) Typically, this process should eliminate 3 or 4 answers. If left with 2 plausible answers, rephrase the question to add some added precision. This step should eliminate one of the last two choices. </p>
<p>It is important to remember that every answer can be found WITHIN the four corners of the text. Do not let prior knowledge confuse you. The process requires you to find the best choice among 5 answers. Nothing more and nothing less. The last thing you need is to understand the silly text that was butchered by the ETS torturers.</p>
<p>Thanks for the great advice, xiggi.</p>
<p>I'd also like to mention that for the CR, if there's a SINGLE word that makes a choice wrong, then the whole choice is wrong. For example, if a word/idea is mentioned nowhere in the passage, this automatically makes that answer choice wrong. I know it sounds easy and obvious when written, but the ETS try to reword their answers so as to confuse you and put you off track.</p>