<p>Im very weak with the passage-based reading in the critical reading section. On the last practice test, i got a 580 on the critical reading section. Besides reading books and everything else, what else can I do to seriously improve with the passages?</p>
<p>bump…</p>
<p>What part of the reading-based questions do you have trouble with, specifically?</p>
<p>Personally, I dislike the author’s tone questions. I’ve found what helps there is to go through the answer choices and imagine how you would write about the topic if you felt that way about it. For instance, if the tone choices are A) admiring, B) disdainful, etc. and you can’t really tell, it helps to mentally figure out some adjectives, nouns, and so on that would go with the admiring tone or the disdainful tone. Then, just match the actual reading material to the most similar imagined reading material.</p>
<p>For other things, like main idea of a passage, I like to re-read the first and last sentences of every paragraph again. Normally, a good writer will place the most important ideas in those positions.</p>
<p>Wow, you had some nice tips. Thanks. I usually have trouble with the types of questions that give u a line reference and ask you what the author is trying to imply or emphasize.</p>
<p>P.S. Can you lend a few more tips about passage-based reading please? You’re tips seem really useful. Where did you learn them?</p>
<p>Hmmm…for the imply/emphasize, it’s good to look at the context. More specifically, re-read the sentence before and the sentence after, which is normally enough.</p>
<p>Actually, now that I think of it, the “imagine what you would write” works pretty well for this type of question, too. For instance, random question I just pulled out of a prep book (eh…was studying here last night, so I still have all my books out):</p>
<p>“In discussing Among the Boys’ mentoring component (lines 89-98), the author implies that:
A) mentoring prevents youth distraction
B) Among the Boys employs a traditional mentoring model
C) Among the Boys dedicates too much of its valuable after-school time to mentoring
…”</p>
<p>A) So, for the first answer choice to be true, you know that the lines have to at least refer–disapprovingly–to some type of youth distraction (e.g. “many young children enjoy unproductive activities, such as video games or IM chatting, which is detrimental to their over all performance in school” or something along those lines). </p>
<p>B) …well, the key word is traditional. So, the lines will have to make some kind of reference to what is “traditional”–either directly (e.g. “Like many traditional schools, the Among the Boys mentoring program includes specially formulated review materials…”) or indirectly (e.g. “Over the past several decades, most US schools have adopted one-on-one tutoring; this is now the most widespread tutoring method due to its proven effectiveness. Accordingly, Among the Boys also pairs each student with his own mentor…”)</p>
<p>Also, if words/phrases like “innovative,” “novel,” “a program specially developed by the program founder” are used, it’s a safe guess that this isn’t a traditional mentoring program.</p>
<p>C) In order for this choice to be true, the passage would probably mention some other uses of after-school time that are more productive than mentoring. Or, it might mention the stress that so much after-school tutoring causes the teachers/tutors. It could also talk about how students pay less attention in class b/c they know there’s tutoring after school…and so the mentoring actually back-fires, which is why the author might believe that too much time is spent on mentoring.</p>
<p>…and wow, that was a lot of writing. Sorry, but I hoped it helped. =)</p>
<p>As for where I learned these tips…I’ve been taking SAT practice tests for a long time (eh…my parents are test fanatics; I think I took my first practice SAT in fourth grade…it was horrible =P), so I’ve sort of just figured stuff out over the years. Also, many of the reading passage questions talk about the author’s writing style, the author’s tone, the author’s intent, etc. Since I spend a lot of my time writing, I’d say it’s easier for me to put myself in the passage writer’s shoes.</p>
<p>For other tips…Idk. If you ask me specifically about a type of question, I might be able to think of something. =)</p>
<p>Fourth grade? Wow…</p>
<p>For me, I just tell myself how interesting the passage is, and practice, and practice, and practice. Studying vocab also helps a lot.
My score improved by over 200 points last summer because I did this. 740 =]
Good luck to you!</p>
<p>There are certain techniques, here are some of mine.
Since I honestly love science passages, I just read them straight up and probably will understand the passage and then answer the questions.
For other long passages, I read them by paragraphs, and answer their corresponding questions (they are in chronological order, most of the time). Any question that asks for the “overall” tone or meaning, i wait til the end to answer. Inferrence questions are often the most difficult, but never over think the question. That was my main mistake. I always assumed stuff. If the passage does not support your assumption, it’s not right.
For the short paragraph, I just read and answer the questions. FOr each question that doesn’t have a line reference, I would read the first and last sentence again to get the main idea (there are only 4 questions after all)
For the short comparison paragraphs, I just read them and answer the questions, like the ones above.
Now the fun part… the super long double passage =]
For this, I first take a look at the questions. I then divide them into three portions: just passage 1, just passage 2, and both passages. I read the questions for the both passages in detail and keep them in mind for later comparisons. Then I begin passage 1, answering only questions for passage 1. I then read passage 2, answering questions for passage two. The good thing about doing this is that sometimes answering the questions helps you clarify the passage. Last, I answer the comparison questions. </p>
<p>Don’t forget, no matter how bad you think you are at the passages and how much you want to improve, don’t just focus on that. Memorizing vocab never hurts, but not memorizing does. (I was too lazy to ever open a vocab book, ended up missing 2 vocab questions on the test, which dropped my score from an 800 to a 740. I also missed two on passages, but you can never be assured of those answers, whereas you know the answer for vocab portion if you know the vocab.)</p>