Critical Reading Advice

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>Hi all,
Since I am officially done with the SATs, I want to pass on some advice/tips that helped me go from a 60 (psat) to a 770 (only 3 wrong) on the real SAT! I hope this advice will be helpful to all.</p>

<p>I know many people fear the dreaded CR section of the SAT, I did too, for the simple reason that its pretty difficult to study for. Unlike the Math (which calls for some Grubers review-I highly recommend it btw) and Writing (just studying the main rules/repetition), Critical Reading requires a lot of practice and knowing the tricks, and recognizing patterns. So here is my take on it: to do well on the CR section of the SAT, one should practice in addition to learning to read well.</p>

<p>First, on the point of practicing. Like many people say, the answers to the questions are ALWAYS in the passage. There is always some small hint, if not blatant clue, to show you which is the right answer. So when I had started studying for the SAT, I had the Blue Book and I took a practice test. After I was done, I looked at the correct answers and my answers. For EVERY single question, even the ones I got right, I looked back in the passage to find clues/evidence to support the right answer. It is important to note that on the CR, you can't make inferences or assumptions, because the answer to every kind of question is always in the passage. Remembering this is key to doing well on the CR section. </p>

<p>Another tricky thing about the CR section is that sometimes the passages can be rather dry, which ultimately makes it hard to read/pay attention. So it's important to read alot to counter this. Even if the passage is boring, if you focus then you can ace the questions. First thing I suggest is to just to a lot of reading, any kind of book/magazine/etc. and be able to really absorb what you just read (very important!). Also, for extra help, if I find a passage really boring, I underline and circle the important ideas and look at the questions first. But really, some may say its a waste of time but there is definitely enough time to read the whole passage and check your answers, so don't stress out! Just practice a lot and read a lot.</p>

<p>Finally, I really think that its a good idea to learn some vocab. Learn, and not memorize! It will help you in the SAT and in your writing in general. And its the summer, and if you have free time, why not? Again, I recommend Grubers for vocab. They have a huge list of words, and you don't have to memorize them all, but if you just look at their condensed list, its definitely enough. </p>

<p>So that's my advice, feel free to ask any other questions, and I hope it helps :)</p>

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<p>Hey Melody224, GREAT ADVICE! Thank you. I just have some questions. I have heard many times that there is always clues/evidence in the passage, but sometimes even if I look really hard and spend time, I just cannot find the clues or evidence for the particular question, does this ever happen to you? What should I do? Any methods to quickly find the evidence/clues? Are there ALWAYS evidence/clues for every answer?</p>

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<p>Thank you for the advice. I’ve been hearing a lot about Rocket Review for CR too. Did you try that, and if so, would you recommend it?
Also, what do you mean by learning vocab, not memorizing?</p>

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<p>@asd
most of the time, the evidence is pretty clearly stated in the passage (usually the answer is/uses synonyms to reiterate what the passage just said). i think the fastest way to find the clues is to look at the context of the question. If they ask a question about something in line 34, for example, then look at the sentences before and after the specific part of the passage. For me, it’s helpful to look at the questions first and then read the passage and underline if I find something that relates to the question. The fastest way for me is (it varies for different people) to just read the passage and answer the questions as I go. If I see a question I can’t answer, then I’ll keep reading till I find the answer in the passage, that way you don’t have to go back and re-read it. sometimes the evidence is less straightforward. For instance, the questions that ask ‘what is the tone of this passage?’ usually don’t have one specific clue. But for those questions I try to look at the author’s choice of words and descriptions. Depending on how ‘strong/heated’ the choice of words are, you can deduce what stance and tone the author has.
@proviso
I personally didn’t try RR, but I’ve heard nothing but great reviews, so by all means try that. With CR, the more practice the better.
And when I say learn the vocab not memorize I mean actually take the time to know the words and their meaning/roots/examples of how the words are used in sentences, as opposed to simply trying to memorize massive stacks of flash cards. If you take the time to ‘learn’ the words, you’ll start to recognize and get better with roots which will help you in CR if you ever come across some esoteric (SAT word!) words.</p>

5

<p>Good advice. This was pretty much how I studied before my June 6th SAT. I’m hoping to bring up my 690. Now I’m stoked that my method actually worked!</p>

<p>The only thing I didn’t quite follow was the vocab part. I memorized about 300 vocab words, but I had a pretty good method to my madness. I didn’t look at roots (unless you mean stuff like cron, cred, etc) but I actually learned the words for what they were. My key to doing that was to learn the definition, but than use my own definitions as much as possible when studying. Plus, I found all of the words that I learned that were on the SAT were exactly like I learned them (or extremely slightly different, but still pellucid (SAT word!, another thing is to do that, use the words you learn ha)). I haven’t gotten my results back yet, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss any vocab questions; I didn’t miss any on the last 4 BB tests I took at least.</p>

<p>If anyone cares to know my memorization method just ask and I’ll look for way I posted it the other day. Great advice though, I don’t think a lot of people realize how much analyzing your wrong answers on practice tests helps!</p>

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<p>critical reading’s the only one i din’t get in the 700s first time grrrrr. I’m retaking in the fall though. I know you suggested a vocab book. How much does it cost and are there any better tools for vocab study? thanks!</p>

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<p>Thanks I really need to improve on writing and reading…590 each! kinda low, cuz i got 800 on math</p>

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<p>rk333, that’s exactly what I mean by ‘learn’ rather than memorize!
When I say look at the roots, that’s what I mean. For instance, one word that I didn’t know the definition of was anachronistic, and by knowing that chron had to do with time, I was able to deduce the right answer. And also, like I said before, if you learn the different ways the words are used in sentences/learn the different meanings/and like you said-come up with your own definitions-you will do a whole lot better on the SC questions.
xAAAx, the vocab list in Grubers complete guide was definitely comprehensive! (I got grubers for math, but its vocab sections were good as well). I don’t remember how much it costs, but their are a lot of free vocab lists online (i know Sparknotes has a good one, for example). good luck to all trying to raise their scores in CR! pm me if you have any more question :)</p>

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<p>This should be helpful for learning the roots, it’s a nice little chart.
[SAT:</a> Improve SAT Score with SparkNotes: Dealing with Words You Don?t Know](<a href=“http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/newsat/chapter15section2.rhtml]SAT:”>http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/newsat/chapter15section2.rhtml)</p>

<p>The sparknotes website is actually pretty helpful for learning vocab and stuff</p>

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<p>one thing i do that really helped kind of goes along with what you said. I read (more like skim) all the passages, except before i do that i look at the line citations and underline them on the passage, so that when i get to an underlined part while reading i go to that question and answer it :] it worked for me.</p>