<p>I got my Math SAT score to 760ish. Pretty nice so I'm satisfied with it. Writing is 640ish.. kind of cruddy, but.. it's not the real problem. My critical reading score is a 510-540. It's terrible! I can't do critical reading. I've tried so many strategies (From reading the passage and annotating, to not reading the passage at all, to read the question then skim the passage for answers). I've just tried the annotating strategy, and my score went down to a 480 >.< </p>
<p>And it's not the vocab part I'm doing bad at. I miss only one of those every time I go through it. The Passages are killing me. Any strategies before my SAT in October? I really need some help here. And please don't say I haven't been studying enough, I've been trying with Critical Reading FOREVER.</p>
<p>I want to go to Baylor (which doesn't care about Writing) so I NEED the Critical Reading score to go up.</p>
<p>Wow I was in your exact same position at the end of Sophmore year:</p>
<p>Math: 800
Writing:630
CR: 530</p>
<p>My solution?</p>
<p>Practice CR with infinite time. Do like 3-4 sections this way. </p>
<p>IT really helped me.</p>
<p>Also, the answers are always found somewhere in the passage, so sometimes just reading the question and searching the passage can work. Might want to try it.</p>
<p>Reading’s my weakest too
math: 770
writing: 660
reading: 620</p>
<p>I havent figured out a way myself yet but I had a classmate who’s an international student but she read american classic novels and she scored 2300+ on her SAT ! I hear readings really effective, I just dont have much time to read myself…but im trying…</p>
<p>I don’t know if readingh helps. My son goes to a prep school and he always has so much reading. In addition he reads Newsweek and the NY times. Still…he is 750 writing, 680 math and only 620 reading. Has taken SAT twice without prep or studying. He is in a prep class now; hope it helps! I like the “infinite time” study method and will tell him about it.</p>
<p>no, reading doesn’t really help unless it was one of those books with a lot of vocab that you don’t know and you actually looked it up the dictionary. and if it isn’t a nonfiction or a english-class-type of book, it may not really help you either. if you read a variety of genres, it may, actually, become familiar with the style and structure of the written pieces. my advice, get a tutor or go to a acdemic camp if you are really have issues.</p>
<p>I used to get really low CR too. Started with 510 on my first Sat, then got a 520 on My second. Felt hopeless.
But then I tried the bookreading thing. Read three books the month beford the test and notes all the words I didn’t know. Ended up with a 680, which maybe isn’t awesome, but atleast I increased by 160 pts. The key to my improvement however SAS presumably chiefly bevakar of my ned strategi/way of thinking when reading. It’s easy to draw personal conclusions of the passage, assumptions that you “feel” or think the author said</p>
<p>If the answer choice can’t be directly supported by the passage, then it isn’t correct! And also always look for the answer that is MOST correct, there are often incorrect choices that "seem about right</p>
<p>Hey pal,your progress is really impressive,I am now stuck in 600 around,most time below it,maybe 550-570.But I doubt reading only three books is whether enough.I mean SAT CR includes myriad types of reading,and most of them are kind of comments about issues.So, what do you read?novel?</p>
<p>To Wiggin: youre prob a smart kid , judging from ur math score, and ur writing score isnt terrible. So u should be able to handle CR. I would suggest doing the following, in the short term situation that ur in (although long term, the best thing to do is read lots of articles from newspapers like the wal street journal-the NYtimes has a middle-school level standard of writing, while the WSJ has a high-school level.). This is what i feel is universally agreed on as being the best method of long passage questions:
right in the begging look at every question, (dont waste time reading, since u wont remember them all anyway, just look) and see if they point to a particular line or lines. (which nearly all of them do except the last few quesitons). Put a dash next to every line there is a question on. Then (after about 40 sec. at this point) read the passag with focus, interest (althgouh its boring as anythign, u must trane urself to be interested), and deepness. Read the passage in-depth, and dont just skim (although u should still read relativly fast, too slow will never help). then as u get to , say, line 7 with a dash look over at Q #1 read the Q and answer based on the line ur about to read extra-depeply since there’s a question on it. Answer Q , continue reading and stop for the next line with a dash, read the Q, read the line extra carefully, answer Q and move on. Continue doing this thourhgout. By the time u get to the end “jist” of the passage Q’s u would have read the whole passage in depth and should be able to answer them fine. This method worked great for me, and for the first time ever left me with 2 min. of extra time after i had finished. It seems to work for almost everyone, so good luck. A</p>