<p>Hi, I am consistently getting a 640/650 (Raw score=52/53) on Critical Reading. I am taking the SAT this Saturday and I have one last week to study. Do any of you guys have any tips that can help me increase my score please? Thanks!</p>
<p>i have the same problem! I’m also taking it saturday and I’ve been trying to take as many practice tests as i can. also, this has some good strategies: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/750399-how-attack-sat-critical-reading-section-effectively.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/750399-how-attack-sat-critical-reading-section-effectively.html</a></p>
<p>^Rusty, stop being such a jerk… </p>
<p>OP, which types of questions are you consistently getting wrong?</p>
<p>ya im in the same boat. im getting 600-650 a lot and i just cant get it higher! any other advice people?</p>
<p>Hey guys. I don’t want to be redundant and make a new thread… But my scores are stuck at 650s as well, but I have 4 months to study… How can I bump it to 750+</p>
<p>And don’t tell me that’s my limit. I already broke my last supposedly “limit”</p>
<p>Don’t believe the people that say if you can’t break a certain score, you’re doomed. I can vouch from personal experience that major improvement is possible. I scored 620 on the actual SAT and for a while, I was hovering around 650 on practice tests. Recently, I started scoring around 750. It’s hard to explain but I just felt something suddenly click and I began to weed out the wrong answers with ease. I know not everyone is the same so maybe you may be a gradual learner. </p>
<p>Most people approach critical reading by trying to find the right answer. This rarely works because the Collegeboard will try to make every answer seem right in it’s own way. Instead of looking for the right answer, look for the wrong answers. Go down from A to E and try to determine if you can prove that answer wrong based on the passage. You must only use information from the passage so try to rid your mind of your own opinions on the subject. Does it explicitly say answer A in the passage or line selection? If not, cross off the letter A. Go down the choices and repeat until you come across a choice appears in the passage. But don’t move on yet! Make sure you check all the choices. </p>
<p>With this method very rarely will you end up with two choices that seem right or no choices at all. If you end up with the former, go back and carefully double-check which one is not directly supported by the passage. If you end up with the latter, you may have to do some inferring. If this is the case, choose the answer that infers the least. Basically, if you jump leaps and bounds to get from what’s stated in the passage to the answer, eliminate it. Very rarely will you have to infer from a passage and when you do, the inference will be very small.</p>
<p>Above all, nothing helps your CR score more than actually practicing. I know it’s cliche to say and I know you hear it all the time but there’s a reason you hear it all the time: it works. Practice, practice, practice. OP, one week may not be enough for you but it doesn’t hurt to try. For the next week, give most of your attention to CR and try to employ some of the strategies that I said.</p>
<p>xThrillakillax, that is exactly what happened to me too. all of a sudden, the critical reading skill inside of me just clicked, to the point where i raised from 650 to a 730. it was as if i suddenly learned how to do that portion of the test. my advice to you is to gather as many critical reading passages as you can and go through them without any time constraint. go through each question until you know exactly why that answer choice is right and exactly why the other answer choices are wrong. you should be able to pinpoint which phrase(s) in the passage make the answer correct or not. i know, it’s a tedious process, but after some practice, you will probably have that skill “click” inside of you too. this is the method i used and it worked for me. for those of you who take chemistry, you can liken learning critical reading to a titration curve; it’s kind of slow and boring at first, but all of a sudden, it will click and you will see rapid improvement.</p>
<p>Aww thank you guys so much! I have the motivation to give it my all this one last week. And to Rusty84, I believe that I have some inherent ability since I received a 71 on my PSAT and a 680 on practice SATs. But you are right, no tip will significantly raise my score. Thank you to all who contributed to this discussion! You were all most helpful.</p>
<p>It can be done! I went from a 660 (Oct) to an 800 (May) in the reading section. As ^ have said, look for the wrong answers and eliminate as many as possible. When you have an answer you think is correct, make sure it can be directly supported by the passage. Don’t assume anything. If you can’t find a line that directly supports your answer, that is not the answer you are looking for.</p>
<p>Also, actually read and focus on the passage including the italics and especially the italics. If the words in italics tells you the passage is from the 1960s, you can bet that it will be about equality/racism issues and it helps to get into that mindset before starting to read so you can better comprehend and remember the details of the passage.</p>
<p>Wow this is a good motivational thread for me too :)</p>
<p>P.S. you can definitely study for CR in a week if you have certain weaknesses</p>
<p>I personally do not do well on dual passages, so for the past couple of days (and until next week) I have been and will be doing these practice sections only. I’ve already started to see improvement. I’m also memorizing 300 words in the next week… So ya, it is possible to get a lot done in one week for CR</p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using CC</p>