<p>I'm a rising junior and I'm taking the official SAT in October. I'm having severe issues with the CR section.
I've taken many many practice tests and these are my highest and lowest my scores:</p>
<p>CR: 640
M: 740
W: 790
(2170)</p>
<p>CR: 600
M: 670
W: 770
(2040)</p>
<p>I'm trying for schools like Duke, which is my top choice right now. But with these scores it seems like I don't have a chance. My math shouldn't be a problem because I just made completely stupid mistakes.</p>
<p>But with my CR, I just can't seem to get above a 640...I usually seem to misinterpret the main idea of the entire passage so I answer a ton of questions wrong because I think the passage is about something it isn't. And I always infer something from the passage that isn't stated.
Any tips? I'm looking for anything that can help me in the next couple weeks. Thank you.</p>
<p>First of all, i think a 2170 is more than qualified for duke...</p>
<p>but as for CR, how are you reading the passages? you have to give us a bit more info. I've found that reading 1 paragraph at a time is a big help, some people like skimming the questions first, it all depends on the individual, really.</p>
<p>I usually read the entire passage to find the overall main idea or purpose of the passage and then answer the questions. That is the way I want to do it because usually it works, unless I somehow misinterpret the main idea. My main problem is that misinterpretation.</p>
<p>So you're saying that you read the whole passage to find the main idea but then get the main idea wrong. </p>
<p>yeah, if I were you, I would try reading one paragraph at a time. Then do the question on that paragraph. This ensures that you understood what you just read, especially on the harder passages. This works very well for me, you should give it a try.</p>
<p>Main idea questions are best answered last, don't ever answer one first EVEN if it's the first question. In the critical reading section, you must remember that the questions arranged are in sequence with the passage. In other words there is no order to the difficulty.</p>
<p>In the math sections, questions are arranged from easy to hard. So it makes perfect sense to start at #1 and go in order. But in the CR section, your first question on a passage could very well be the hardest one. So the key is to SKIP AROUND. YOU determine the order in which you want to answer the questions.</p>
<p>Usually, this means picking off the specific questions first, the vocab-in-context questions or ones that ask you about a particular line or two. It's really up to your intuition to decide which ones are easiest.</p>
<p>What happens is that with each question you answer correctly, your understanding of the passage is improved by a little bit. You're actually using the questions to help you understand the reading. Then by the time you get around to the main idea questions, you've already done a lot of analysis on the passage, you're more than a reader, you are now somewhat engaged in a discussion of the passage.</p>
<p>If you try to answer a "Primary purpose of this passage" type question FIRST (which it very often is!), it requires you to do a lot of thinking and analysis of that whole thing you've just finished reading and that can be very confusing. Get yourself involved in the passage, find the easy questions and answer them all first and those "main idea" questions will be easier by the time you get to them.</p>