<p>I took a practice SAT today, and this is what I got:</p>
<p>700 M
700 W
570 CR</p>
<p>The highest I've ever gotten on a Critical Reading test was on the real SAT (620).</p>
<p>I'm in 9th grade, and when I took the SAT for the first time in 7th grade, I got a 560.</p>
<p>So my CR score hasn't changed at all. What do I do?</p>
<p>P.S. Taking the ACT is not an option. I don't want to take the scrubs way out</p>
<p>Your reading will improve over time. Just curious, though: Why in your opinion is the ACT “the scrubs [sic] way out”?</p>
<p>Because it’s way easier. Like no lie, on the practice ACT I missed 1 in reading. I want a challenge, but if taking the SAT doesn’t work out, of course I’ll take the ACT.</p>
<p>Honestly I feel like CR passage question skills is genuinely just gained with age and experience throughout your school’s lit classes. For me, I went from low 700s to getting consistent -0 quite randomly, it just seemed to happen halfway through AP Lang Comp. You’re just a freshman 
You have a lot of time, it will happen naturally with some light consistent practice. </p>
<p>ACT is clearly the “scrubs way out”. Making the SAT your b*tch is clearly more satisfying than doing the same to the ACT. ;)</p>
<p>When I go over the questions I miss, what should I look for? And what books should I read over the summer to improve?</p>
<p>I would suggest going over practice questions, and making sure you know your vocabulary. Having an extensive vocabulary can be helpful for a lot of the passages, in addition to helping you on the sentence completion section. You’re a freshman, so you still have a lot of time. I would suggest simply reading as much as possible, accompanied with taking a lot of practice tests. Maybe start reading The Economist or the New York Times, as they tend to be fraught with hard words. I agree that taking the ACT is the “scrub’s way out.” I almost feel that it’s a bit unfair that colleges deem the ACT and SAT equally. </p>
<p>I’m not as concerned with vocab as with passage based reading. On the SAT I usually miss no more than 3 vocab (which is actually a lot, I know), but I can’t get fewer than 10 passage questions wrong.</p>
<p>I got a 34 on a practice ACT (~750); does that show a better correlation to my reading comprehension skills than by comparing my SAT CR score (~600) to my reading comprehension skills?</p>
<p>And also, does my ACT subscore indicate that I can improve on the SAT CR?</p>