<p>OK....here's the story...i took the psat sophomore year and got a 55 in CR...then improved to 63 this year with no idea how, but the relatively low score is gonna keep me from semi-finalist, even tho im commended....so thats not too bad...so ive tried some of the advice on this forum to take a bunch of practice tests to improve CR scores, but ive already taken 5 (3 from sparknotes and 2 from McGraw Hill) and even tho they're are not the blue book, they still seem to be hovering around the 630-650 range even after close reviews of the answers...i normally only get like 1-2 sentence completions wrong but get like 10+ wrong on the passages...ive taken intense english classes and get 750+ in writing with a few 800s in math...i guess i just have not figured out the key (ive continually tried looking for the answer directly supported by the passage but for some reason my logic isnt matching up with the logic of the test makers)so i guess my question is: has anyone significantly improved their CR scores (besides those who believe its just practice tests) and exactly how (a book, etc.) did you do it?</p>
<p>I haven't and I didn't do anything to do it.</p>
<p>CR scores are hard to improve, but a course I took over the summer helped me go from a 740 to a 770. The course focused on ways to analyze both the tone and information in a passage, and strategies for answering the questions.</p>
<p>I improved my CR score by about 120 points....All I can say is that when you practice make sure you remember why you marked an answer. Afterwards when you score your test see where all you made mistakes this way you'll remember what kind of thinking is wrong for the SAT.</p>
<p>do workbooks specifically for critical reading like the one from barron's help a lot?</p>
<p>My advice is this: always have an easily justifiable answer. If you wouldn't be able to explain 100% why your answer is correct beyond any reasonable doubt to another person, take another look at the question.</p>
<p>My advice is this: screw the CR, and find some better things to do with your time than spending hours with practice books trying to increase your score by 20 points. ive been there and it just isnt worth it. will you be a better person for it, or a happier person? no, not really. i think the SAT is a ridiculous scam. OOPS now i'll probably be hunted down by gov't working SAT agents for saying that. but really it's truly getting out of hand. the best thing to do is just stay as calm as possible on the test, and maybe just read a little more often. it's ridiculously hard to stay focused during the CR part, thats why it's my worst section. but dont worry about it so much, hopefully there will be some more fulfilling achievements in you guys' lives than getting a 770 instead of a 740 on the CR part of the SAT's. and dont think that this is a bitter rant against you all, because after all, i am one of you. it is more a statement against this screwed up society that is producing this stress over such petty, ridiculous things. and just think of the SAT company over there making billions off of all of this. man, it's just so frusterating. but anyways, i increased 80 pts from the psats to the sats w/o really doing a dang thing. so the experience helps, along with some luck and positive thinking. you'll be fine just dont stress over it so much! honestly, life is more than the stupid stupid SAT's.</p>
<p>Actually, I find that Critical Reading is one that I tend to get good scores on purely by luck. I mean, sometimes the reading material is really good and you know all the words and are really interested. This probably translates into a good (or better) score than you would have gotten if, purely by chance, there were boring passages, hard words, and you could really care less about "the history of geo-volcanic studies."</p>
<p>However, that being said, I still think that increasing your vocabulary does not only help with the sentence completions; there are words in the questions about the passages that knowing vocabulary words would be beneficial.</p>
<p>The first time I took the SAT's I received a 540 in verbal in June. I knew this was an awful score and I wanted to do something about it, so I started reading alot. I read for the New Yorker every day for one hour. After doing this for a good 4 months I noticed I could comprehend things much quicker and I received a 740 on the October test. Trust me, just read newspapers/periodicals everyday for an hour and your score will improve.</p>