<p>Hey guys so I've being struggling with the SAT for quite some time now. Even though I have been practicing really hard and did about 20+ practice tests (blue book + princeton review) my score, especially critical reading and writing hasn't gone up. My score fringes around 1900-2000. Is there any books or strategies high-scorers have come across? I would really appreciate it if you guys can share some of your knowledge. Please and thank you.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.vocabulary.com/”>http://www.vocabulary.com/</a> Is a great way to review vocabulary. It’s fun and they have lots of SAT word lists.</p>
<p>For passage reading, my suggestions are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do not infer anything. The answer MUST be textually supported.</li>
<li>Do not read the passage first! Read the questions first. (Some will contend this, but it’s what works for me)</li>
<li>Do the questions that refer to specific words or lines first. Save general tone questions for last.</li>
<li>When doing dual passages, answer questions that only refer to one passage first.</li>
<li>Make sure you know the names of the authors/characters that the passage questions refer to. </li>
<li>If you want, underline extreme statements or transitions. It might help you get a feeling for the tone and mood of the passage.</li>
<li>Some people bubble page by page. I bubble in my answers as soon as I get them. Do whatever works for you - I rarely change my mind about answers so my way works for me.
-Eliminate answers if you’re torn between two choices.</li>
</ul>
<p>I’ll be honest, though… I haven’t seen many people drastically improve their CR score. People who have been voracious readers since childhood have a big advantage.</p>
<p>I think the two best tips for CR are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Read the passage like you love it - that really makes a big difference</p></li>
<li><p>Play Devil’s Advocate - don’t figure out why an answer is right, look for the reasons that each one is wrong and hopefully you’ll be left with only one that is not wrong</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Refer Princeton review’ hitlist. I just referred it before giving my test and I got 7 questions right which I could not have attempted normally. (7 questions make a lot of difference in the real test) </p>
<p>Hey man despite what people might say, it IS possible to improve your scores by a decent amount (personally I went from 640 to high 700s in a couple months). Learn vocab from direct hits books. If you can’t buy the books (like me), download an app called anki and look for direct hits word sets to study. I’m as lazy as they come and I SWEAR BY THIS APP. It lets you study like 20 new words per day and revise them every day. </p>
<p>As for the passages, do as many practice tests as you can get your hands on. I highly advise against tests that aren’t from college board though. Try different methods and see which works for you, whether that’s reading the questions or passages first. One thing that you’ll find is that it’s much easier to find the wrong answers than it is the right ones. Find 4 wrong answers AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE CONCRETE PROOF THAT THE ANSWER LEFT IS CORRECT. </p>
<p>I completely agree with @Mystic7 except for the last point about people not usually improving their SAT score. I know several people, myself included that have managed to boost their CR score by over 150 points. Reading avidly, definitely plays a big part in the section, but it can’t be looked at as a solution, especially a quick fix one. I suggest that you go through Larry Krieger’s books for assistance in vocabulary. He authored direct hits, volume 1 and 2 which contain some of the most popular SAT words. I highly recommend this book if you’re missing about 4-5 sentence completion questions per test and you’re about 1-2 months away from taking it. If you have a lot of time, however, you should go through a more comprehensive word list; some examples are the ones from barron’s and gruber’s. </p>
<p>For the passage based reading, all the other comments basically sum up what you have to do. The most important piece of advice is to love the passage. When you’re completely into the passage, you have a far better insight into the mind of the author. Only play devil’s advocate when you’re struggling between 2-3 answer choices which sound similar. Try asking yourself what the subtle differences between the options are and which ones are most directly mirrored in the passage.</p>
<p>Following this helped me raise me reading score from the low-mid 600s to mid-high 700s.</p>
<p>Also, judge yourself only based on College board tests. Other companies create tests which do not accurately reflect the standard of the actual SAT.</p>