<p>I really need to up my critical reading score, but it seems that I really can't figure out any really effective study tips. I have trouble on Critical Reading since English is my second language. Can anyone help me out and tell me some creative techniques I can use to increase my score?</p>
<p>(please don't suggest reading books- not enough time. And I have tried flashcards for vocab- they dont seem to help in the long term)</p>
<p>haha buddy, join the boat. I'm the the same stink-hole. I've been trying so many methods lately.. but not one really stands above the others. oh ya, and i'm ESL too</p>
<p>i'm gonna bump this one. i am such a slow reader...</p>
<p>"oh ya, and i'm ESL too"
You'll probably qualify for TOEFL then. Its a lot easier on the engish. Give it a try</p>
<p>Yeah, if anyone has any tips for the following, I would greatly appreciate it!</p>
<ul>
<li>Short passages: Mainly the "infer" questions and author's "tone"</li>
<li>Story passages (long): I'm having difficulty grasping the idea by just skimming through it. For the informational passages, it's easier, since it's more organized, but the stories kind of just elude me!</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks, and I hope this helps everyone</p>
<p>KRabble: Make sure you read the short passages especially carefully, paying attention to the adjectives, etc. to try to gleen the tone. For the inference questions, don't pick anything too absolute or extreme. Even though it is an inference question, most of the time you can find evidence in the passage to support your claim.<br>
For long passages, DON'T SKIM! Read quickly but carefully and actively. Read the whole passage.</p>
<p>Flipsta_G, thanks for the quick reply.
The problem with me is that I just take a long time for the entire section. The part that probably kills me the most is the short passages, because I read the entire thing carefully to try and get the feeling of it, but there's normally only two questions per short passages. The longer, informational passages aren't as big a problem, because they are much more straightforward and with them, there are many more questions to answer. So basically, the problem with me is time-- the short passages take me a long time, leaving little time for long "story" passages.</p>
<p>I remember someone posting some tips about process of elimination for the CR questions such as eliminate all answers that add any information not directly stated. Also, that you should not infer anything, and for questions referring to specific line numbers, only look at those. Does anyone else have any more of these sort of "tips"?</p>
<p>remember that theres only 1 right answer. lol i know this sounds stupid but people find this hard to comprehend</p>
<p>Read the questions first to see where the important areas are. Go through and mark where you need to pay attention. Read the whole thing thoroughly, but be particularly alert where you've indicated. It worked for me; I got an 800.</p>
<p>This was my hardest area--- Strangely, I did extremely well and usually got 100% on the shorter passages. For the longer ones, just practice, practice, practice..... Read extensively, and memorize vocab words... Even though many of you don't recommend memorzing them, it worked well for me... But then again, I'm from SD and we don't have required reading and we never read stuff in English class-- It's all grammar.</p>
<p>ExRunner:</p>
<p>While that generally seems to hold true, I have run across a few questions that are not in the passage. I ABHOR these!!! They are usually written as "A situation that the author would enjoy is ..." All of the choices seem to be valid and then I always choose the incorrect one. </p>
<p>I hate CR, but I am trying to improve significantly.</p>
<p>setzwxman,
Even with those questions, I believe the answers can be found in the passage. I can't think of an example on the top of my head.. but I know they happen to be from the passage.</p>
<p>wow. There are so many posts about these... search back.</p>
<p>Reading is always tough. There is no "one" thing that makes it right, no way to check your work, no way to prove its right</p>
<p>pretend you are a judge. The evidence is in front of you. Now use the evidence to find out what the author is trying to say</p>
<p>I have this problem: on some of the REALLY hard long reading psgs, I just can't seem to get any of the passage at all after 1st time thru... is there a strategy to tackle this?</p>
<p>also, i find that i have this strong impulse to check back at the psg for almost every questions. is this good or just a waste of time?</p>
<p>^ For reading passages in general, I usually read through it once, take a look at the questions, read through it again, then start answering questions (referring to text as needed). Sometimes I end up reading it 3 or 4 times (particularly with poetry or stories) to get the meaning. This might not be practical for a very long passage though.</p>
<p>This is what some one told me to do: Do the questions with line numbers first..like vocab and stuff ..u have to read some sentences before and after it it answer the question that way by the end of those specific questions u'll have almost read through the whole thing and then u can answer the more general/overall questions</p>
<p>i think i might've found the trick to this, at least for me: don't OVERanalyse. i need more test marks to corrobrate this tho.</p>
<p>"For reading passages in general, I usually read through it once, take a look at the questions, read through it again, then start answering questions (referring to text as needed). "
I completely disagree with this strategy. Though some students may have really good reading abilities or memorization abilities, this strategy will take up a lot of time for those average SATtakers.</p>
<p>I've always been good at English in school, but the long reading passages always messed me up because I would think too much, read too slowly and have trouble finding everything in the passages.</p>
<p>This helped me A LOT:
As soon as you get to a long reading passage go straight to the questions. If #1 says something about "lines 8-12" just go straight back to the passage and underline those, maybe even put "Q1" next to it. Don't read the question, just read the line numbers. If the next question says something about "paragraph 5" then go straight back to the passage and bracket or in another way mark that paragraph. Usually the questions go in order of reading the passage. So then start reading the passage, and DONT RUSH! When you get to a part you underlined or marked, go to the question. You might have to read a little farther ahead, but that rarely happens; the answer is usually what you have just finished reading. This cuts a lot of time and helps from having to jump around everywhere. Also, since while you are reading you are answering questions, you get an idea about what the test is trying to get from you and what the test thinks the importance or meaning of the passage is, so when you get to tougher analytical questions, you have an idea of "the best" answer. (I would usually find at least 2 answers that made sense to me, but only 1 that made sense to the tone of the questions).</p>
<p>This method worked well for me, I got a 780 on this section. I suggest that anyone having trouble at least TRY this.</p>