<p>I just took my SAT (first try), and scored extremely badly on it:
540 for Critical reading, 770 for math, and 610 for writing.
I cannot deny the fact that my non-English native language does block me from scoring higher on the SAT. However, I took adequate (if not plenty) SAT practices tests from the blue book and the PR. (3 on blue book, and 7 on PR) I checked and analyzed my answer, listed the vocab that I didn't know and wrote down tips about the experience I gained from doing those tests.
Unfortunately, those methods are not helpful at all: I could not improve my score about doing 7 PR tests (even on the PR), and I still scored somewhere around 540.
In fact, it's not that simple to conclude I totally have no improvement, but I can see a discontinuous on the sections I took - sometimes I scored very on one section on reading (let's say section 2) and screwed almost 1/2 of the reading question on section 6 on CR (btw, I sometimes - not always- did the test overtime. And it ranged from 1min to 5min).
I am extremely despaired since I could not find any improvement from my exhausted practice (ironically, my writing score starts to come up even though I haven't done so much on it.)
So do you think I use the wrong book (PR)? Do I need to switch to the blue book and other college board books? Or do I need to buy some new books to learn a bit more strategies about the SAT?
Thank you for reply!
A desperate kid</p>
<p>handshake....i got 540 and i'm a non-native too.</p>
<p>I think you just need to become a better reader and learn some more vocabulary.</p>
<p>im a non native speaker also and yeah cr section is gay
im working on it also
all i can say is understand the passage thoroughly
not like every single details and stuff but like the authors stand on the issue and stuff</p>
<p>im a non-native also and i get around the same scores as you (lower in math and higher in writing...just a bit tho)...im hella struggling with CR myself and I've tried tons of strategies and none of them seems good for me</p>
<p>Can anyone explain to me why some international students do awfully well in CR while others cannot break 600 ---- just like me :(
maybe I don't have enough brains to master CR</p>
<p>I call bollocks on the non-native speaker excuse; instead, I would suggest you replace it with the "I don't read enough" excuse! (Doubly so if you're native tongue is a romance language!)</p>
<p>well
being a non-native speaker is not an excuse
it is harder
and international scoring 800 in CR is just a rare case
they are natural genius</p>
<p>:(, I think I'm facing the tremendous wall that I can hardly jump over it.
you know I spend 6 hours/day + prep course. Ifhe I don't get at least 650, that's definitely the despair.</p>
<p>aw its ok. remember to keep positive, you'll improve a lot more :)</p>
<p>i totally agree with you.
it's hard to improve CR score as an Asian American.
LOL. But we gotta keep trying :)</p>
<p>Read like there is no tomorrow, but read good and pertinent stuff! You can check out [url=<a href="http://www.economist.com%5DEconomist.com%5B/url">http://www.economist.com]Economist.com[/url</a>]. It has abundance of quality articles. You should also read a good amount of critical essays and interpretations along with good novels. And while you read don't forget to address the type of questions that you face in CR. Think of the texts as being full of codes that you need to decipher. How you chose to do it is upto you, yet you have to apply a number of ways to find your suitable one. I am Asian, and I was stuck in the CR range of 650-680. But now I am able break free of the 700 mark. I consistenly score above 720 in practice tests, and am more at ease while answering the questions. My strategy might work for you as well.</p>
<p>Best Wishes.</p>