<p>All that can be said is that I cant seem to get above a 550 on the verbal and Ive ended up with a 630M, 720WR, 550 CR(1900). Taken 3 times.</p>
<p>I'm interested in applying as a transfer after recently being rejected. I don't have any other problems besides this. I am a top student in my school. Do you guys recommend practicing for the verbal section over the summer? Are we allowed to submit scores from the tests that were taken during college?</p>
<p>you can definitely improve your verbal score over the summer...and here's how you do it -</p>
<p>READ READ READ READ! The more you read the better you will be at critical reading.</p>
<p>First start off with journals and stuff -the Economist is a particularly good one.Nature,Readers Digest, National Geographic also work. This will get you interested in reading.</p>
<p>Second, start reading short stories. Nabokov, John Updike, Raymond Carver, James Joyce are some good examples. </p>
<p>Move on to novels. Tolkien, Henry James, Austen will help increase your concentration (a skill you need for Critical reading). Also try contemporary authors like Lahiri,Maggie O Farrel, John Irving, Marquez etc</p>
<p>Practice Crtiical Reading sections all over again near the end of summer. Try to perfect your timing, work on the process of elimination etc. </p>
<p>Hopefully you can increase you score by 100-200 points by fall. The key is -hard work. You have to read extensively every single day, which is very much possible- jus reserve 3-4 hours everyday for reading. Best of luck</p>
<p>ugh critical reading is tough and I got no monees to buy books here... I am interested in Sidney Sheldon and Dan Brown type of books (who isn't). Can you recommend me any other thriller authors who use a good amount of nice vocabulary. I hate historical fiction and science fictions so really can't read them/ Any online site where I can get reading practice?</p>
<p>You don't have to read fiction. The magazines listed above are good. Can you check them out of the library? If not, try going to the library on a weekend or in the evening and reading from magazines (this gives you wide exposure to many topics and authors). Reading old magazines is fine, too. When you find a subject or author interesting, look for related books that you can check out. Also be aware that there are lots of sidewalk and yard sale summer sales of used books (our libraries have these going all the time, getting rid of donated books) and you can probably pick up used books and magazines very cheaply.</p>
<p>When you read, stop and ask yourself whether you <em>really</em> understand words. Look them up. Write down a paraphrased definition. Go back and reread the whole paragraph, reinforcing your understanding of the correct meaning. The test tests vocabulary directly but it also tests it indirectly. Having a very strong vocabulary will help you read more quickly and more accurately.</p>
<p>Do as many practice tests as you can. Use the official ones. Look for used test booklets ("10 Real SATs" etc.) on sale at yard sales. Sign up for the free online SAT question of the day service from the College Board. Read the answer explanation for every question that you do.</p>
<p>I would also recommend signing up for the CollegeBoard Official SAT question of the day.</p>
<p>I was recently accepted as a transfer student and I also could not get my verbal over 600 (actual was 580). I ended up taking the ACT in college and getting a 32. My subject tests were also average (720, 680). </p>
<p>My suggestion is to either study hard for the SAT or study and give the ACT a shot, my score was definitely better with the ACT. Then when you apply to transfer next year, write strong essays about why you want to go to williams and why you want to transfer out of your college.</p>
<p>Sidney Sheldon, Dan Brown and other airport thriller authors wont really help you much..but they are better than nothing.Try Ruth Rendell.</p>
<p>Try The New Yorker as well (most libraries subscribe to this magazine). Try to read The New York Times, which is available for free online. If your testing results show that you have more trouble with scientific or soft science passages than with fiction, you can target your newspaper reading to the types of material that you have difficulty reading, which is why I'm recommending a newspaper.</p>
<p>If you were four years out from the test retake, you could do all this in a leisurely way. With so little time left, you must work very hard and in a targeted, organized, disciplined way, but you can make progress over the summer.</p>
<p>With me it isn't scientific as that's my speciality, it was history/government and literature stuff.</p>
<p>Then the Times, the New Yorker, and maybe Atlantic might be good for you. I like magazines and a really good newspaper (in terms of complexity of vocabulary, thoughts, and sentence structure) for practice because the pieces are relatively short.</p>
<p>Anyone else have any ideas?</p>