<p>While studying for the critical reading section, I made an interesting discovery. I was using Kaplan critical reading workbook, and I noticed how vauge and unclear the questions were. However, after reading the explinations, they almost always convinced me that they were right. Soon after working with this, I began to see my score rise until it leveled out in the mid 700's (darn vocab!) After that, I realized why more score went up about 100+ points. In general, I could (before studying) get most of the easy and medium questions of a CR section, but might miss a few hard ones. However, after going through the vaugeness and ambiguity of Kaplan, the sat was so much more straight forward! Most importantly, I began to see the distortions and subtleties between right and wrong answers and now I seldom miss a reading comp question. Has anyone else found this true? Comments?</p>
<p>I've noticed kaplans practice tests aren't very accurate...</p>
<p>I would say too that Kaplan isn't accurate, interesting comment though! I'd definitely look for it, when I'm taking the SAT next time :D</p>
<p>There aren't accurate, which is my point somewhat. The strange subleties and ambiguities made the real sat much more literal and, honestly, easier. Just a thought.</p>
<p>how is the Kaplan CR book compared to the Barron's CR book?
If that helped you maybe I should try it to see if it helps me.</p>
<p>I think Barron's is way more realistic, but that's not the point at all. As long as you have the Blue Book to go along with Kaplan, I think it would be fine. Now I do admit that this could be a fluke, but I would deffinetly say its worth a try (why not?). The book is pretty much a lot of practice questions. The real use comes from the explinations which help you understand distortions in questions and give explinations for why each choice is wrong (along with the right one). I really want someone else to try this and prove that I'm not insane. But if you can afford both of the books (which really isn't that much) than get both!</p>
<p>I've seen a lot of people here say that Kaplan tests are too easy, and a lot say that they are very hard. I am in the very hard came. I never did well on Kap CR and got a 720 on the real thing. That was good and bad. I was thrilled to get such a high score after Kap and BB had my thinking I was in trouble! At the same time, Kap had me a little worry because of my low CR scores.</p>
<p>Well, I honestly think that Kaplan can be harder for those with higher scores becuase of the strangness and ambiguity of the questions. But overall, working with these helps in the long run.</p>
<p>Just as a general tip to the OP who is having trouble with voab, if you memorize the PR Cracking SAT, Barron's 2400, and the 250 words on Sparknotes then you can deduce the meaning of the words 95% of the time.</p>
<p>I used to be "bad" at the vocab (4-5 wrong) and now I only get 1 wrong MAX and the wrong answer is usually due to a stupid mistake or a question where I narrowed the answer to two choices. This is equivalent to about an 80-100 point increase in score. I've been going through all of the Blue Book questions and I'm getting almost all of the vocab questions right. Works for me, should work for you.</p>