<p>Haha, ok, so I haven't been to happy with my CR scores, so everytime I read a book, and I see italicized words or some kind of literary device in the middle of a sentence, I think to myself, "Now, the author probably inserted this here because: a) b) c)". Does reading actually help in CR, or am i much better off just getting help from Princeton Review and not wasting my time on books? thanks!</p>
<p>no, reading doesn’t help with the critical reading section…</p>
<p>It’s a mix of things. You’ll have to be doing prep along with extra reading but I find that reading has really helped me. I know a lot more words and I can think more logically when it comes to passages.</p>
<p>Reading helps if you’ve been reading a great deal since well before freshman year - you build up vocab and literary analysis skills without noticing. But at this point, if you’ve already taken the SAT at least once, reading isn’t going to make that much of an impact. Of course, you’re never “wasting your time” with a good book (sorry, you’re talking to a book worm here), but for your score I’d recommend more time with some prep books.</p>
<p>Generally, reading only helps when done over a course of several years. At this point, prep books are the way to go.</p>
<p>Do CR sections over and over again, reviewing your work at the end. After a while, you’ll notice results.</p>
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<p>This really does help dude…The first time I took the sat was in June and I only had a 630 on my Critical Reading, then over the summer I was assigned some classical books to read for AP English Lit, while reading whenever I saw a literary device I would question the author’s intention for using the literary device…I took the SAT’s again in October and my score was a 750…it really helped my score shoot up 120 points…</p>
<p>Do both, use test prep books, and read some classical books too(while questioning the author’s reasons for using a literary device)…</p>
<p>Colleges00701, that’s a success story I’m looking for! Thank you for your help. You all helped too, but i can relate to the guy above me the most.</p>
<p>Listen, I went from low to mid 600’s in critical reading to a 750. You dont need to be an amazing reader. The trick is to study 1800 or so vocab words so that you can breeeze through the vocab parts of the test and you’ll have more time for reading passages. This way you won’t get any vocab words wrong (so your score will be higher) plus, you will have MUCH more time for reading the passages, so you have more time to ruminate over them. I’m not much of a reader (sparknotes) but this drastically helped me. I promise you that if u listen to that advise you will see a drastic improvement in your score.</p>