<p>So i took the sat in march, I felt like i could have done better and today when i checked my scores i was extremely disappointed. In my psat i got 98% but my march sat scores was 560?
Can any one give me some help on how to improve my critical reading? I know that there is a lot of people here that are extremely good at critical reading so PLEASE help?</p>
<p>I also heard that if you wanted to improve your sat scores there was one book that was really good towards CR and another one im Math. Can any one tell me the name for the CR one.</p>
<p>Rocket Review and Barron’s Critical Reading Workbook are mentioned the most. I think Maximum SAT has had good reviews, but mentioned a little less. There’s one other book that you order online that I don’t remember…</p>
<p>Gruber’s is for math.</p>
<p>Well with a 560 I’m assuming there is a mix of vocab errors and passage errors. Vocab errors are the easiest to tackle of course, grab Direct Hits and start studying.</p>
<p>Passage errors are a little trickier. The one real important thing about the SAT is that you have to lose an opinion. You can’t inference anything from the passages, nothing what so ever. The answer to the question must be explicitly seen in the actual passage. It’s hard to explain but if you have AIM or something I can show you actual examples.</p>
<p>BTW, I would set my homepage to NYtimes and just read the top story every day. It may help. I got 800 CR.</p>
<p>Dagol12 my email is <a href="mailto:rattlesnake2008@live.com">rattlesnake2008@live.com</a>, can you please tell me what book you used, how long you used it for etc. I dont think i need help in math, the only reason that i got a 700 its because i was not able to finish.</p>
<p>dagol - i would like you to show me where the answer is specifically repeated in the text. i know abut this “fact”, but i haven’t found it to be that easy to find in action.</p>
<p>i’ll pmail you.</p>
<p>Sure, ill find a practice passage and show you and joker.</p>
<p>So i have done a little research and im thinking of buying the barrons critical reading workbook, is there any other book that you guys suggest over this one.</p>
<p>My critical reading score went up 70 points, from 680 to 750. I used Barron’s SAT (generic). I also read a lot. I read a lot of newspapers and a couple of books (if, for some reason, you don’t like to read, try the Inheritance Cycle - it’s a cool read and it’s actually on a decent reading level).</p>
<p>OMG, im gonna start reading the NYTimes, lol. No but really</p>
<p>ok, my psat reading was 65 and my reading for march sat was 800.
why? because i understood the passages this time around. it had NOTHING to do with the questions. on the psat, i just could not understand these two passages (there were other factors but this was the main one) and so had huge problems answering even the easiest questions on those passages. im sorry but the reading score is largely based on luck. and everyone understands certain passages (ie ppl said the indian passage was hard… i thought it was fine. like the hardest passage out of the march sat but wayyyy easier than ANY of the psat ones) so theres really no definitive answer on how to improve your reading score.</p>
<p>HOWEVER, there are tips that i used to improve my score.
- sentence completions are CRUCIAL, especially to people like me (and i’m guessing you) who just are not good at reading passages and answering questions on them. study the vocab from the Direct Hits book. really study those words. i can guarantee that at least 3 of the words from direct hits (2 volumes) will end up on the real sat. (almost 5 for me… and one of them i seriously crammed in right before and there it was on the test). and also, really know those words, like the exact definitions. you don’t want to just have an idea about the meaning (i know i got one sentence completion wrong because of that).
- cliched advice but its useful (i didnt use this one because i was short on time), READ. it really doesnt need to be something super boring. just try reading the new yorker or something.
- strategy that i used. actually READ the passages. seriously, all those test prep books out there that tell you to just skim the passages, DONT. (i mean, sometimes when theres just a listing of facts in a passage, you can skim that but just remember that when a questions asks about those facts, GO BACK. but really, dont skim often or at all). really read them carefully. make sure you understand what the passage is talking about. dont move onto the questions until you have a firm grasp on that. now for the questions, unless the answer just jumps out at you (like really jumps out at you… and you’re 100% sure it’s right), use process of elimination. check EVERY answer with the passage. either the passage will not mention something in that answer, or the passage will say something contradictory to something in that answer. every answer you pick must be COMPLETELY BACKED UP by what’s DIRECTLY (i know questions sometimes asks implied, but really, its extremely close to directly being said) said. sometimes i take a reading practice test and then i go try to explain my entire thought process to someone who hasnt read the passage. ie point out exactly where in the passage your answer is proven and exactly where in the passage the answers you didnt pick are not proven. the thing to really stress is that DO NOT PICK AN ANSWER THAT IS NOT COMPLETE BACKED UP BY THE PASSAGE. i know this sounds easy but its really not… it takes practice.
- the strategy i found really helpful to be able to pick the right answer (#3) was to really read the explanations in the blue book (well the ones that have explanations). you will see that the writers (even for imply, tone, etc questions) will pinpoint areas (or direct phrases) in the passage that prove the answer is right. that’s what you’re trying to do. pinpoint that area by yourself.
- try to read the passages as if you don’t know anything about the subject matter. more than once, i have let my personal knowledge from school, interfere with my reading of the passage. and just dont let that happen.
- practice practice practice. slowly you will get the feel as to how to go about doing the reading comp.</p>
<p>i wish you luck and hope this helps… i know its really long… lol</p>
<p>and i forgot to add, i really strongly disagree with anyone who has said to use books other than the blue book. for both practice tests and strategies. those other books are just inaccurate, they will really throw you off. maybe you can try to read those passages and just not do the questions, b/c the passages are fine and you can test whether or not you can understand a range of passages that way. but just dont do the questions.
and for the strategies. these books are targeted to the majority. the majority of people will get a score like you, 560, or even lower. these books are targeted to those people who are currently not at that 560 level who want to attain that level. obviously you are not one of them. i dont want to sound elitist or something but you’re better than the majority and those strategies either just won’t work for you or are too stupid for you to bother with.</p>
<p>Wait should i buy both volumes or just one, i dont get what 2 volumes means. Thanks for the help Xiaohylee.</p>
<p>Well I used Barron’s 2400 and their CR books to study, and those helped me.
Like xiaohyolee said (and in the barrons), I read, not skimmed, the passages. One of the books I used said to look for line numbers in the questions and mark those in the passages so you know where to specifically focus.
Yea, so buying barron’s is def. a good idea.</p>
<p>Barron’s 2400 CR method of dividing up the passages helped me a lot. Got 790 CR after getting a 70 on the PSAT. I’ve always been a good reader, but I needed a better approach.</p>
<p>I used the Barrons Critical Reading workbook and it didn’t help at all. In fact, I thought I did really well on the cr on the march SAT but I ended up getting a 550, which was a lot lower than I had previously gotten on practice tests. I would advise people to stick with the bluebook.</p>
<p>I got an 800 as well on CR… </p>
<p>I didn’t study at all for the March SAT, and I honestly think studying for the reading passages isn’t worth it, because your scores won’t increase by that much. </p>
<p>The most important thing (agreeing with a poster above) is understanding the passage. Each question, even the “character, on line 9… means” questions require knowing what the passage is about. The reading isn’t hard, for me at least, it was just keeping focus and understanding the point of each argument in the passage.</p>
<p>@joker23, buy both volumes. the first volume is “easier” but more words from first volume actually shows up on the sat. the second volume is more difficult, but i found it extremely useful since i learned a lot of new words (2 of which showed up on the real sat).</p>
<p>thanks for the advise every one, @xiaohyolee, i bought both books at soon as i read this passage, i also took a practise before i bought the books and found out that i had a serious problem with vocab, hope this helps. Also how long did it take to study both books? i want to take the June sat but dont know if ill have enough time.</p>
<p>I disagree with MNova. It is very possible to increase your score through the passage questions, but you have to practice and you need some time.</p>
<p>Practice a lot.</p>