<p>Basically I suck. I'm taking the test this Saturday, and ive finished up both official SAT books (i didnt do the repeats, i did the new ones) excep for like 1 or 2 test and all but 2 Official online course tests. Ive scoured the internet for every single released test I could find, and I still get like 630-660.</p>
<p>I took the test in Oct, and the CR destroyed me with 620, but that was cuz I got cocky after scoring a lucky 710 on one.</p>
<p>My scores are generally good:
Math 770-800
Writing 750-800
(It varies sometimes)</p>
<p>But CR is killing me.
I want a 700+.</p>
<p>I've been memorizing all the vocab in Grubers, Barrons, Princeton Review and Kaplan, and my sentence completion is usually good (but i sometimes get question 1 or 2 wrong lol) but the passages, especially the short ones kill me. I understand them completely, but the questions are so... evil. Is there anyway to really solve this.
Also, anybody know some good books that have tests similar to the College Boards ones, cuz I have like 3 or 4 left, and I'm planning on burning through them in the next few days, but in case I have to retake. BUT PLEASE HELP ME Ive been studying since 7th grade, so if I get less than 2300, Ill feel like a bum.</p>
<p>Woooow, your writing was really high… I got a 690 in Nov with an essay score of 8. TAT
A very useful tool to do CR is to mark the sentences witch involve main ideas of the passage. These sentences involve some words such as “but”,“however”,“finally” or something like that.</p>
<p>Wow . . I’m your opposite. I would kill someone for your math score.</p>
<p>For the passages, as long as you have the time, it helped me a lot to go through the questions first, and underline the sections referred to. So if it says “In lines 42-46 . . .” underline those lines, and when you get to it, while reading, see if you can answer the questions. If its a main idea question or something that requires more information, you will at least be aware of that when reading. </p>
<p>Also, don’t second guess yourself. As long as your first answer is logically correct and isn’t contradicted in the passage, leave it. Changing your answer is generally not right. A great technique I learned was to, whenever you choose your answer, be able to prove that its true by using something from the passage. EVERY. SINGLE. ANSWER. It’s hard, especially with the tone questions, but knowing that you have to have proof will prevent you from choosing answers that are based in what you think, not whats on the page. </p>
<p>The SAT is all tricks. A lot of these tricks could be done by a trained monkey. After the tricks though, it gets hard.</p>
<p>Please feel free to ask me any questions.
I got an 800 both times I took the SAT, but was just short of a 2300 both times. Don’t let it get to you. I’ve come to the conclusion that 2200+ is fine, even for ivies, especially if its balanced. Which grade are you in?</p>
<p>Other Books: Grubers is hard, unrealistic, but fine for practice, just don’t psych yourself out. Don’t do more vocab, you have enough.</p>
<p>waitingforivy has good advice.I also mark up the passage with which lines refer to which questions, and I take it one question at a time. After doing this for a while, it’ll only take you about 45 seconds to mark it up! For sentence completion, cover up the answer choices, think in your head what you would put in the blanks, and then read the answer choices. It helped me a lot. What are your main issues when you take CR? Is it lack of time, sentence completion, short passage, etc?</p>
<p>I advise against taking other company test prep books. No matter what they say, PR, Barrons, and other books just aren’t the same, especially for CR. The questions feel different than the college board ones. If you run out of tests, practice with the PSAT ones. Since the tests are released every year, there’s a lot of them available. </p>
<p>I took the SAT, got a 2390 (800 in CR). Feel free in PM me if you need more advice? Check out Silverturtle’s post. He has really good advice for Critical reading.</p>