<p>I'm giving the second attempt of my SAT general test this coming October. I gave it for the first time in December 2011. I got a CR score of 530. I want to improve it to at least a 680. Is it possible? What should I do? Please do help! Please!</p>
<p>It’s definitely possible. Read if you have the time, but focus on taking practice tests. Personally for me, vocab was a problem in both the fill-in-the-blanks and the passages, so studying vocab can help you in the reading section in general, not just the first part of the section.</p>
<p>Ok so I was struggling with improving my reading scores from 670 average to about a 720 which is what I got in June. I found a very interesting thread on some forum that explained some tips on reading. This involves something called “active reading” which is very common in college and useful throughout life. What I did before long passages was read the questions which referred to in-text citations (i.e. blah blah blah in line 24 the author most likely blah blah blah?) and I circled the area where the question was referring to and wrote down one or two key words that would indicated the question that is being asked. Then while reading, when I hit one of the areas I circled, I would read past the area by one or two lines then answer the question. This helped me TREMENDOUSLY as I went from missing on average 3 questions on the long passages to 1 miss. Try this for the long passages and see if it helps you. It takes time to perfect and you have to get fast at it or you will run out of time but it really helps. Good Luck!</p>
<p>Does anyone have any good CR-specific book in mind which I can practice from? :)</p>
<p>Buuuummmmppppp!</p>
<p>@ Paduap</p>
<p>There is no CR book that gives you valuable tips to increase your reading comprehension ability. All the CR book gives you is numerous practice tests and chains of vocabs. </p>
<p>All you can do is really keep practicing from the blue book and memorize vocab/roots. Use either the line reference method or straight forward method (read -> questions -> go back to passage) to see which fits you best!</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>I would also suggest taking small notes about key ideas in the margins of the page as you read. This shouldn’t be more than 2 or three words per note but they are excellent ways to job your memory if you have to look back at the text. Plus, by writing down something rather than just reading it silently (the worst way to thoroughly engage with any text) or highlighting/underlining (not significantly better----how much of what you highlight do you actually remember) what seems important, you are forcing yourself to engage with the contents. This will boost your comprehension regarding the key people, ideas, and themes in the passages.</p>
<p>Yes, writing things in the margins will slow you down. But the time you spend on the questions with practice will more than make up for it. Stick with it: there is no “quick fix” to the CR section, but getting good at this section is really helpful for your ability to do work in college and later in life anyway. It may be the only truly “practical” section of the test (minus how painfully obtuse the passages are).</p>