<p>critical reading is my lowest section of the sat reasoning. so i was wondering, is it best to read the whole passage first and then answer questions or read questions first then find answers in the passage?</p>
<p>^ any other tips about this topic is great too... I suck at CR</p>
<p>I would suggest reading the whole passage, but some people apparently do better when they read the questions first. I personally don't like the latter because I have tried it and it didn't work at all for me(I missed more than 75% of the questions). You probably want to try both and see which one's better for you.</p>
<p>What I do is I read a question and then read the paragraph that question is in. If it's a long paragraph I just read the general area around the question (5-10 lines). This way I'm being more efficient without sacrificing information. I'm not reading the whole passage only to have to come back and read key lines again but I'm reading the whole passage in chunks rather than just a line in a question so the broad and sweeping questions are answerable. It's a combination of the ideologies you asked about. I think you'll find you're more attentive if you have a goal for a small portion of the passage as well. </p>
<p>Also, you've probably heard this before but GO GET THE BLUE BOOK (The Official SAT Study Guide) if you don't already have it. I've been focusing Critical Reading which means I've just been doing that part of the test. I only do the 3 Critical reading sections of the test and then I call it a day. In between sections I check all of my answers, right down the definition of sentence completion words I don't know, and reflect on why I got some questions wrong. It's usually because I had overlooked the importance of a line or didn't understand the question. I've been scoring around 700-750 but I started around 650 and have a good amount of tests to go to perfect my "critical reading."</p>
<p>Note: I use the College Board online course to check my answers. It's pretty thorough and I would say it's worth the money. It also comes with a large amount of quizzes but the lessons just mimic the ones in the blue book. Ask your parents for it, you could be spending hundreds on a tutor or something.</p>
<p>And another thing, you'll probably hear stuff like you should read books, magazines, and papers. I find this approach to be stupid. Read those things only if you find them interesting and you enjoy literature and want to be knowledgeable of world affairs. They will make you a much more intelligent person over the long run. If you just want test prep read the 75+ passages in the blue book. Those passages are exactly the kind of prose that will be on the test. Before High School I was always reading a thriller novel or TIME magazine. And that probably helped but it only helped because I did it for several years and I did it because I was interested in it. Now High School has sapped all of my willingness to read past the assigned books and TIME replaced all of its writers with yuppy mac users. Just reading the material that mirrors what will be on the SAT is more efficient if prep is all you're interested in. But please read various publications to realize ignorant political viewpoints don't belong in the 21st century and illuminate what's going on in our world. America needs it. Alright, this has deteriorated into ramblings. Sorry!</p>