<p>What is the best way to prepare for the critical reading section on the SAT I?</p>
<p>for me, the best way that I improved was taking practice tests and then going over them very carefully:
For reading passages:
what did i do wrong?
why did i think this way?
how did i get tricked?
why was my justification incorrect?
how should i have thought on this problem?
etc....</p>
<p>For sentence completions:
1) memorize vocab...
2) memorize more vocab...
3) MEMORIZE EVEN MORE VOCAB!!!</p>
<p>j/k...you don't need to memorize that much vocab...</p>
<p>I would recommend like a 500 Most Common SAT Words list over wasting your time on a 3500 Word List (unless you're a freshman in hs or younger and have tons of time to memorize vocab)</p>
<p>focus on the passage reading though</p>
<p>if you really concentrate on what you did wrong and try to learn from your mistakes, i can guarantee that your score will increase...</p>
<p>fyi, i recommend the blue book for good practice with CR (just like everyone else...). I think the CR sections in that book were actually a little harder than the CR sections on the Jan. SAT</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Read. A lot.</p>
<p>The only way to truly develop a vocabulary and utilize it is to read, not memorize a bunch of words. Doing this will not help with long-term retention, but being able to contextually associate a word is far more valuable. If you use the word in writing or something, your chances of retaining the word are a lot higher. Additionally, even if you do not know the word, you can get a general idea of its connotation from context and the author's tone.</p>