Critical Reading People!!!!share Your Tips!!

<p>DO NOT TRUST KAPLAN. 3 days before the SAT, I got 680 on CR; was like ***? Day of SAT got 800. Honestly, the CR in the Kaplan course has the wrong answers/not the right answer; it makes you think that the writer of the test had no idea what the passage was talking about.</p>

<p>You took the Kaplan course, right?</p>

<p>I answer all the questions I can using strictly line references, and read a little bit as I read for the line references. Then I go for the main idea questions, and finish reading anywhere I left off. I guess negative and positive connotations for the vocab. I got a 770.</p>

<p>800
dude, i read the passage first
either way, i think you ought to consider underlining important stuff, it'll help you read better when you apply pencil to paper
and on questions, always refer to the passage
nearly every answer choice is directly supported by text from the passage and on the tone and stuff, well do your best i guess
vocab, ehh who cares
i think there might've been one question tops that studying vocab helped me get right
it's all about them passages</p>

<p>ok well i personally think that if you're like me..reading will sort of help but IT IS NOT ENOUGH..you're not going to see dramatic improvement by reading all the time but its a good warm up. barrons cr book and the blue book + couple of newspaper articles or new yorker. barrons high frequency list, study roots and crap. you should be set :D have fun</p>

<p>how many times has this been discussed?</p>

<p>Unless you are dumb as Paris Hilton, You should have figured out by now that a good score, be it in CR, math, writing, or any section of the SAT, will take
work, practice, and a lot of studying. </p>

<p>That's relally all there is to it. Readingn for fun is practice. Taking boring practice tests is practice. Working with a tutor is practice. </p>

<p>Get a good prep book (PR or barron's 2400 worked well for me), know your vocab, and practice like hell. It's common sense and there's no magic pill.</p>

<p>I have noticed many people on this site want quick fixes to their sat scores/college troubles</p>

<p>What's the best prep book. There is none, it's all subjective
What's the best method to raise my score from XXXX to YYYY? Practice and grueling hard work.</p>

<p>It's like people wanting quick fixes for losing weight (o I'll just get some lipo, take this pill, rub this lotion on my a$$, and zap, with no effort or physical exertion I have a beautiful body). </p>

<p>I mean how do you people think other people get outstanding CR grades??</p>

<p>Effing study, read, and diligence of course. Did you expect the answer to be some miraculous method like: Read the 1st sentence 3 times and then answer every 5th question and underline every other word.... ect. </p>

<p>Sorry for the rant. It's just ridiculous that people can't at least figure out the basics to getting good scores/success. Of course you would have to spend the time to read intellectual periodicals, patiently set time aside to practice, and do among other things what you would do to get good grades in school. </p>

<p>There's no BEST METHOD OR MAGICAL FORMULA!!!!!!!</p>

<p>tofulover is right.</p>

<p>CR 730
yea reading a lot definitely helps. ill admit that i didnt study 1 bit for the SAT, and did perfectly fine. i guess all the reading ive done has helped me out quite a bit. and perhaps most importantly, on test day just RELAX. o yea and in terms of answering questions and reading passages, i went for the specific questions first, like wat lolok1214 recommended, then went onto the rest. i read the passages quickly yet thoroughly. go through the questions quickly and dont spend too much time on just 1. if ur lucky, ull have time at the end to go over everything. i remember having like 10min at the end of some sections to take care of checking my answers. anyways, once again, relax come test day and best of luck!</p>

<p>I disagree tofulover I don't think it's that easy and sometimes people are genuinely looking for some tips that could help.</p>

<p>In my case, took the SAT for the second time, studied my ASSSSS off on Math and didn't touch reading - scores:</p>

<p>1st time - Reading 680 Math 670
2nd time - Reaidng 770 Math 670</p>

<p>I studied for DAYS and I'm not really sure what I did wrong...I'm sure there are people in the same boat as me, but at least something went up :D</p>

<p>I got a 750 but I really don't have any secrets or strategies. I just read each passage and then answered the questions in order, referring back as I needed to. You have enough time with the SAT so that rereading will not be a problem.</p>

<p>yes, the key is to practice practice pratice..afterall, it makes perfect =]
For vocab, I used PR Word Smart. Oh, there are also novels that include SAT vocab so you can check those out if you want. </p>

<p>For CR, i always seem to narrow answers down to 2 choices but most of the time I choose the wrong answer. What is up with this?? Does anyone else have the same problem...</p>

<p>Eeriedescent, I couldn't have said it better myself. There are always two answers and I always choose the wrong one!!! Someone please advise me.....</p>

<p>bump.........&lt;/p>

<p>780
I did the same thing that Cavalier did. I did study some vocab from my English class, but that's about it. I think that you have plenty of time to read through and refer back.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Eeriedescent, I couldn't have said it better myself. There are always two answers and I always choose the wrong one!!! Someone please advise me.....

[/quote]
</p>

<p>im not sure if this works for everyone, but it helps to take a step back when faced with two possibilities and just pick one arbitrarily regardless of your feelings. however, not everybody can just neutrally choose an answer so it depends on the person. it works for me, and i usually have a 50/50 ratio.</p>

<p>I found this kind of interesting. I just took the Oct SAT and I found a lot of hard
words from lists I had gathered while reading random stuff (harpers, time, novels, online articles, anything). I had read somewhere to keep a notebook of all the words u don't know and then transfer to notecards so u can cram em. I gurantee some will be on the test. My theory is that they will use commonly used words from essentially articles, novels etc. So if you pay close attention then some words will come up. It makes sense to me. It may seem like that CB test random words, but really they are commonly used HARD words. For instance, on the october one I saw words from reading such as iconoclast, perfidy, profligacy and a lot more. Also supplement with PR list such as wordsmart IF you have time</p>

<p>CR: 750</p>

<p>Read the questions first. If you see that they require you to look at a certain line, underline it in the passage. Go through all of the quetsions that refer to lines and mark it somehow. Then read it and pay attention 3 lines above and 3 lines below the specified marked area. This will help you, as it has me, amazingly.</p>

<p>PSAT CR: 680 -> SAT CR: 750</p>

<p>The passages are NOT your friends. You want to go in and get out with as much information as possible to answer questions. Most questions are straightforward, but some might ask you to identify implications or tone. In that case, pay attention to diction and description.</p>

<p>Incidentally, I'm not a fan of underlining. </p>

<p>For vocab, I just took lots of practice tests and learned all the words I didn't know. Forget all that Latin prefix-suffix stuff. It didn't help me one bit.</p>

<p>OLD: 700, 750
NEW: 800, 800 (yeah, had to take the early ones for a scholarship)
i just read the entire passage and get the gist of what the author is trying to say - then go for the Qs
regarding the problem w/ narrowing them down to 2 choices - then I just try to apply them to the passage and see if the answer choices work or not...</p>

<p>best course is to practice using CB's Question of the Day or its online course</p>

<p>good luck to all taking it</p>

<p>Thanks, guys. Hopefully this will help for the PSAT on Wednesday...</p>

<p>If you don't mind me asking, what scholarship are you referring to, neutralnuke?</p>