<p>Okay..so coming to the point, I am perfect in math ( get 800 every time with 10 minutes to spare in each section). My writing skills are good.if I give myself an extra 3 minutes in in the 35 question section and an extra 2-3 minutes in the 10 minute section I might get a 730+ in my writing. The problem comes in reading. I never read storybooks or **** like that nor do I have the time to..(3 months left).so my question is with about a score of 480 in reading right now, in your opinion, by how much can I increase it and if I remember the vocabulary (frequently tested and some extra) will my score improve significantly if not by how much? By the way to give you guys my background I'm currently in my senior year and have taken two subject tests that of physics and Maths (800 in both). So will that compensate a little for my school grades as I got like 75%ers during all my high school years except 12th? Coming back to the reading score thing is it possible to increase it by 150 if not 100 points within the given time? Thanks for your suggestions in advance. And last thing I am an American citizen schooled in india,so I also want to know if that helps in the admission thingee. Please let me know....:)</p>
<p>Memorizing vocabulary is inefficient when you’re talking about your scores. You should instead focus on practicing for the Critical Reading passages. Reading comprehension is a skill, and you’ll never get it without practice.</p>
<p>I don’t really know If what your saying is correct…I mostly get like 50/100 correct on SC part of the cr sections…and more If I have a good vocal I my understand passages beTter and quicker…please elaborate thanks</p>
<p>Memorizing vocabulary is inefficient when you’re talking about your scores. You should instead focus on practicing for the Critical Reading passages. Reading comprehension is a skill, and you’ll never get it without practice.
^ I highly disagree.
I used to get CR scores in the 500s because of my mediocre vocabulary. In other words, in addition to getting several passage-related questions wrong, I also got at least a fourth of the sentence completion incorrect (and I believe sentence completion is worth at least 33% of the CR section). I’ve been skimming over vocabulary lists and learning new words every day, and it helps. Not just for the sentence completion, but the passage-related and writing sections as well. </p>
<p>Memorization doesn’t require hours upon hours of studying, and so improving both reading comprehension and vocabulary shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>(I underline words I don’t recognize while I’m reading passages, and before I started studying vocabulary lists I underlined so many words that I was almost unable to actually understand the passage… so yeah. Memorization does help. o3o)</p>
<p>If you want to improve your reading comprehension, the best way is to take a ton of practice tests, and then thoroughly review the correct answers when you’re done. That is what helped me raise my CR score to the 750-770 range. Still working toward an 800.</p>
<p>I don’t really know If what your saying is correct…I mostly get like 50/100 correct on SC part of the cr sections…and more If I have a good vocal I my understand passages beTter and quicker…please elaborate thanks
^ Yes, just study a lot of vocabulary lists. Don’t sit down for an hour forcing yourself to memorize though. Try to make it fun. For example, I don’t read very often, and during the time that my friends are reading books about the correlation between economics and cognitive science, I play 6+ hours of Pokemon and watch hours and hours and hours and hours of Korean dramas and anime. I ended up naming every Pokemon a highfalutin word that I had never seen before. It helped. I also characterized anime and drama characters with words from my vocabulary lists.</p>
<p>And you’d be surprised by how much information you can pick up by skimming. If you try forcing yourself to memorize 100 words at once, it won’t work. If you read over a whole list, and then just skim through it intermittently throughout the day, you might find yourself recognizing at least half of the words on your list.</p>
<p>Personally, I find the process of making flashcards time-consuming, so that’s what I do. There are several free SAT vocab lists online so you could always use those.</p>
<ul>
<li>Learn words from some SAT vocabulary list; while practicing collect all unknown words and learn them;</li>
<li>Before reading the passage underline all the lines that are mentioned in the questions (do not read the answer options);</li>
<li>After you read the text, read the question and think what might be the answer without looking to the options, once you have something in mind, look through the options and find something similar;</li>
<li>Remember that you do not need to have any special knowledge, all the answers are in the text!</li>
<li>If you are stuck between two answers and one of them sounds extreme, then the moderate one is correct.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thankyou both of you very much. Your views haven given my allot of confidence and now I feel that I can truly excell with hard work and determination. I still want to ask gomdorri how much time it took him to increase his score that drastically and/or how much is the maximum I can achieve within these 3 months (3 months and a week to be precise). The October sat exam will be the last one for me as majority of colleges will reach their deadline for submission…oh yes and one more thing how many words do you think is possible for memorization in this time period given that there would be heavy schoolwork course also, and will they be enough for a 600+ score? I will also practise on my reading skills and comprehension…
Ps. I am quite hardworking ( not bragging )
Thanks in advance</p>
<p>I still want to ask gomdorri how much time it took him to increase his score that drastically and/or how much is the maximum I can achieve within these 3 months (3 months and a week to be precise)
^ Umm… not sure.
Well, I was shooting in the 500s when I took the SAT sophomore year (I just finished sophomore year), but I never started actually /practicing/ until around 3 weeks ago. By the time I started practicing my SAT, I was still getting 590’s on a few practice tests, but I did also get a few 600s as well. </p>
<p>But yeah, I’ve been practicing for around 3 weeks so that’s how long it took me to raise my score by around 170 points, if that helps at all. :x</p>
<p>And memorization isn’t too bad really. This is coming from someone who isn’t too great at memorizing. I’ve learned the hard way that serious studying doesn’t work efficiently. I used to try sitting down for an hour a day just reading a dictionary or vocabulary list for the SAT, and I’d remember 5 at most. </p>
<p>Like I said, just skim periodically throughout the day (it’s not time-consuming at all if you do that. It helps you memorize while also saving time, which helps if you have a summer job and classes, and 7 APs to study for LOL) and try to make it fun. I’m learning at least 50 words a day and it has helped me a LOT.</p>
<p>Yay. I found someone with nearly the same reading score as me! We can improve together! Gom, I’ve been doing practice tests like you said. I’ve done about 5 since the June SAT. My scores seem the same when I time myself, but one time when I just did the CR untimed My score went up 60-70 points. After that I timed myself my next test, and didn’t make the time but decided to finish up an avg of about 6 mins late on each section. Still the same low score I used to get… It seems tough to improve. Also I’ve been told that for writing the boot camp thing on youtube is helpful? Plz reply!</p>
<p>It sounds like your biggest problem is the time constraints then… See if you can constantly score 70 points above average if you take practice sections without timing yourself. If you can, then just work on pacing yourself. First start off giving yourself double the time (actually time though, so that you are aware that there are time constraints), but work as quickly as you can so that you can finish all of the questions before time is up. Then keep cutting back your time bit by bit until you can answer all of the questions in 20-25 minutes. </p>
<p>Also, if you are a fast reader, then read the passage thoroughly, and then answer the questions. Try to get to the point where you can answer most of the questions without having to refer back to the passage. I skim the questions first to keep them fresh in my head, and then I think about them while I’m reading the passage. That way, I can save time by not having to go back to the passage every time I answer another question. </p>
<p>If you thoroughly read and understood the passage, then getting the questions right shouldn’t be too difficult because you’ll realize that most of the answers are blatantly obvious and you’ll have no trouble blazing through the CR section.</p>
<p>Yeah. I usually underline what some of the questions refer to before I start reading, then I read them and answer the question, then continue with the passage until my next marking. I usually miss the questions that don’t refer to lines, but the passage as a whole, including it’s purpose/message. Sometimes I miss questions such as … In line 3, “plastic” most nearly means…</p>
<p>Ahh. Well knowing the actual meanings of the words help for those. If it says in line 3 “plastic” most nearly means, then you can work off of context and relate it to its actual denotation. </p>
<p>For the ones about the passage as a whole, are you having difficulty choosing between two answers? (I do that a lot too lol). Just remember to eliminate all extreme and exaggerated answers. For example, if there is a passage objectively describing a person’s opinion on technology, and you are stuck between a) An analysis of the effects of technology on society and b) A description of an opinion etcetc, just now the difference.</p>
<p>I used to make the mistake of thinking “wait… it MIGHT be an analysis”. If it’s descriptive, it’s descriptive. When you take the SAT CR section, try not to complicate things, since that’s the best way to get everything incorrect. When you’re stuck between two answers, decide which one is more incorrect instead of trying to figure out which one is more correct.</p>
<p>Well my best score thus far is a 470 on it just like dumbass. (Lol that’s kinda funny xD) Hahahahaha. Sorry! I got a 430 first time, 470 second, and 450 in June. I’m also trying to get math to 650 at least. 570 last test…</p>
<p>Ah. For math, all you need to have is a solid math foundation. Once you know the basic concepts, everything will be a breeze. </p>
<p>And have you been studying vocabulary words? It really helps. Sometimes I get passage-based questions wrong because I don’t understand the answer choices or the question being asked. 33% of the CR section is comprised of sentence completion, and you will have to know a little bit about literary terms such as tone/rhetoric/etc so studying vocabulary definitely helps.</p>
<p>When you’re reviewing practice questions, make sure you understand why you got the questions wrong. The blue book doesn’t have a section that explains its answers so if you don’t understand why a certain answer is correct, you can always ask someone on CC. </p>
<p>With more practice you’ll eventually get better.</p>