<p>so i got my score (M 710, Wr 720, then Cr 580)
i can pull up the other scores but CR i dont know what to do
i bought grammatix and i tried the strategies but i only moved up a little bit from before
i dont know how to effectively skim the passage
when i try to do the cition questions i end up reading them 3 times or so trying to figure out what he is saying and on general passage question i usually dont have a clue because i didnt read the passage and the cition questions didnt give me enough information to get the main idea of the passage
how do you 750+ scorers do this section?
should i take a class or something?</p>
<p>3 words of advice: read, read, and read. I read the New York times for an hour every day and memorized vocabulary for 20 minutes each day and pulled my PSAT score of 500 on CR to a 750 on the SAT CR. Vocabulary really helps because ETS tries to confuse you by wording their passage-based questions with complex vocabulary. With a better vocabulary, you will be able to understand and answer more of those passage-based questions and you will be able to answer more sentence completions correctly. By the way, if you are willing to set aside some time to study, you really don't need to join a class. Classes are for people who need extra motivation, or for people who don't have the time to study on their own. And from what I've heard, they usually don't help all that much.</p>
<p>Freshman year, my psat CR was a 57. On the January SAT, I got a 760. It really comes down to practice. Unless you are not a native speaker, you don't really even need to build vocabulary.</p>
<p>Critical Reading isn't something you can improve right away. Read, preferably the editorial sections of newspapers.</p>
<p>U should definitely write down any words that you don't know. This practice really helped me A LOT in my CR skills and got me a 800. I know most SAT words are predictable but sometimes they just give you a really weird one that you've never seen before (like picayune). In that case, you could still get the right answer by crossing out the words that you DO know. So yes, get in the habit of looking up words!</p>
<p>I don't think there are any 'strategies' the CR section... The strategies described in review books and grammatix are no more than common sense. The only way to answer questions correctly is by understanding the passage. To practice understanding passages, you have to reeeeeeeeeead</p>
<p>I read the New York Times everyday, and if thats the way you want to go, don't read like news/sports. What's probably more helpful the SAT are the book reviews and the articles in the Magazine (which you can get to from one of the links on the left). The book reviews are pretty abstruse, depending on whose writing it, so they help for some of the more difficult prose passages. The Magazine articles have to do with the other kinds of passages on the SAT - the science and social science stuff. </p>
<p>However, I don't really recommend reading as a way to improve CR scores. I mean, if you have time, read as much as you can. But in reality, the best way to improve scores is to do the CR passages in the test prep books. There is no better way. Do a passage a day or something like that. It'll prolly take ten minutes and help you increase your score so much more than reading an entire book will. BTW, I got 80 PSAT and 800 SAT in CR, so I'm not just blowing smoke. </p>
<p>Also, random tip:
Look at the questions first and underline the sections that they point to before you read it. Then, read the entire passage and answer the questions as they come. Then, answer the questions about the passage as a whole, the ones that don't direct you to specific lines.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, AND DON'T FORGET VOCAB. That's really what reading (other than, of course, the intellectual pleasure) is good for. You build a strong vocab base. But, if pressed for time - try one of those wierd SAT vocab books.</p>
<p>thank you so much evilmonkey
that sounds like very good advice
btw what test prep books do u recommend for the best practice other that collegeboard's guide</p>
<p>I haven't taken SATs yet but just out of curiosity, I was wondering if the question with "picayune" was easy in that POE could be easily applied.</p>
<p>Yeah - I reiterate what the others have said. Improving your vocabulary not only helps you with the sentence completions, it definitely helps with the passages as well. They put really funny words in the answers, passages, or questions themselves and it really helps to know what those mean.</p>
<p>But you know, I still believe that good CR scorers are very lucky. Sometimes you know all the words; sometimes you know none of the words. Sometimes the passages are interesting; sometimes they are extremely boring. This coming from a person who scored 650's on practice tests and then 760 on the real thing (in January); I firmly believe that luck is a big part of a good CR score.</p>
<p>Oh and guardiandevil, process of elimination could be applied to essentially any of the questions if you know what the other words mean. I personally did use PoE for that one - it was between picayune and benign. Luckily, I chose picayune (see, it's luck again).</p>
<p>I agree with aquarocket, a lot of it is sheer luck, if your lucky all the passages will be interesting and you'll know the vocab. Coming from a person who scored awful on his practices but nailed 800 on the real thing. Read, use tons of practice tests, and relax.</p>