<p>Hi!
So technically my score range for CR is currently 620-680. I have one big issue about time management:
Normally, if I read at a normal rate, I always need 5 additional minutes to finish each CR section, but I only get 2-3 questions wrong per section
If I try to speed up (read faster), I do it exactly 25 mins, but in return I get many questions wrong -> poor accuracy.
What should I do now?</p>
<p>Here is my time allotment
*Sentence completion (2mins-5mins depending on if there are 5 or 8 questions)
*Short passages(5mins): This is the worst part! I find this the most time consuming especially when it comes to paired passages.
*Long passages: (18-20mins) Again, I do extremely poor when it comes to pair passages</p>
<p>I really want to push it to 700+ in October. Is it possible?</p>
<p>BTW, MAY I ASK WHAT IS YOUR TIME ALLOTMENT?</p>
<p>I’m guessing your biggest problem is reading quickly enough. It might be difficult to actually increase your reading speed too much in the coming months, but you can try some strategies to get through the section faster nonetheless.</p>
<p>My CR strategy consisted of skimming the passages quickly to get the general idea, and then referring back to it to answer the questions. However, other people have also had success using strategies such as reading the questions beforehand (so you know what to look for), and reading carefully the first time (to avoid having to refer back…but personally, I disliked this method). Do a few sections and vary your strategy to see which one fits you the best.</p>
<p>I took SAT prep and focused in speeding up my CR section. Some general tips that my tutor gave me:
[ul]
[<em>]Skim through the questions first and try to get a general idea of what type of passage it is, and also what you should be looking for.
[</em>]For shortcuts on some questions: usually, the College Board isn’t going to put something super opinionated as one of their passages (i.e., it won’t be super harsh or political or anything). So, if you get a question like “What is the tone of this passage?” it’s usually safe to rule out things like “aggressive” or “argumentative”
[li]I love reading, but I had difficulties with reading speed. There are books you can get to help with this… I don’t know which one I used off the top of my head, but you can look around. I originally was reading something like 100 words/minute with 100% comprehension, and eventually got to 400-500 words a minute with something like 95% comprehension. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a bit of comprehension for speed.[/li][/ul]
I don’t assign myself specific times for each passage… it varies depending on the subject/style. I got a 760 on CR if it matters.</p>
<p>I hope this helps a bit; best of luck :)</p>
<p>I read slower than average, so time was also a problem for me. What I did was underline what I thought was important and write down adjectives about tone or other thoughts I had while I read. When annotating is paired with skimming, it’s easier to get a faster way of figuring out what the passage is all about. It may seem counterintuitive that taking precious time to take notes saves time, but it really does. </p>