How can I bring up my critical reading score on the SAT

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>So, my scores on the SAT and PSAT weren't all that bad, but they weren't all that good either. </p>

<p>I didn't study at all for the PSAT and ended up getting an 1830 (yeah I know it sucks) </p>

<p>Thankfully, I still have one more year until I apply for the PSAT for the Merit Scholarship.</p>

<p>After basically bombing the PSAT I started practicing for the SATs and I got myself a book and started doing one section a day. </p>

<p>The biggest improvement I've seen is my English go up from a 540 to a 760.</p>

<p>My math averages at about 700 or more on a good day.</p>

<p>My critical reading is the only thing that is really holding me back. I'm trying hard to get all three sections over the 700 point mark, but for critical reading I'm stuck in a hole.</p>

<p>If I could bring my critical reading score above 700, I would finally have a score over 2100!</p>

<p>But I'm stuck and it seems everyday that my score just never improves!</p>

<p>On each Critical Reading test I take I end up scoring at max 680 (on a good day).</p>

<p>I get about 10 questions wrong, and when I look back at these question I notice they are the ones in which I've narrowed my answers down to 2 choices, but ended up picking the wrong one. </p>

<p>How can I bring my Critical Reading Score up? I've taken 7 tests so far and the max I've gotten was a 690. </p>

<p>How many tests will it take for me to pass 700 or more?</p>

<p>Any advice, or suggestions, or tips with Crit Reading?</p>

2

<p>i don’t think it’s a matter of however many tests you need. Don’t get me wrong, tests will help, but I’m skeptical of improving thru practice tests alone.</p>

<p>I’d recommend going to sparknotes for free info on grammar/writing section. Vocabulary through notecards. Reading, look around at the guides here.</p>

3

<p>Everybody has their own way of learning. What works for someone else may work for you, or it may not. If you are very innately intelligent (have good background knowledge, high IQ, etc), I suggest practicing SAT over and over again. If you honestly don’t know why you miss questions on the test, you can’t just practice; you must find new ways to answer your questions correctly.</p>

4

<p>deweystrong, how long did it take you to see such great improvements on your english section?</p>

5

<p>Review Grammar, Read vocab lists and memorize them. Also, when reading books try to find the key topic and the message on every page</p>

6

<p>I think you’re completely correct. I’m pretty smart, and by practicing, I brought up writing 180 points to an 800, reading up 90 to a 680 (still mad about that! shoulda done better), and I got one wrong in math (both times I took SAT! so aggravating!!!).</p>

<p>So my advice: just practice, practice, practice!</p>

7

<p>You won’t improve your critical reading significantly. It has to do with your natural intelligence/IQ. You either “get it” or you don’t on the critical reading.</p>

<p>You can however make small improvements to your score by going through direct hits vocabulary lists. Or having your brain genetically modified to be smarter ;D</p>

8

<p>Lol, Bubinski is chronically complacent. Ignore him. Listen to Stephen Hawking instead:
“People who boast about their I.Q. are losers.”</p>

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[The</a> 500 Most Common SAT Words flashcards | Quizlet](<a href=“http://quizlet.com/374483/the-500-most-common-sat-words-flash-cards/]The”>http://quizlet.com/374483/the-500-most-common-sat-words-flash-cards/)
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<p>Dig in.</p>

9

<p>Or the College board can come to their sense ( if they even have this sense) of fairness and STOP STOP STOP penalizing 1/4 pt for a wrong answer on reading ( in the name of penalizing guessing). They did this for the AP exams a few years back and they are to revamp the SAT soon.
Reading is a unique section where the board uses banal passages along with trickery to have you choose the best answer usually between two very close answers ( both of which could be correct) . The examinee is no longer guessing but trying to answer to the best of one’s ability . This practice of penalizing a 1/4 point, particularly on the CR section must be stopped for it does not separate two individuals based on ability, rather on luck and the gap between scores is further widened for this unfair practice. I sort of understand this practice on the multiple choice Math section, since guessing is much more common, but the reading section is generally not one where, guessing randomly, really will unfairly raise a students score! This is why the ACT reading is much fairer and why the college board is going to revamp the exam.
Your 700 would be easily surpassed without this unfair practice.
Sorry for the rant.</p>

10

<p>@Oura</p>

<p>The reason CollegeBoard is going to revamp the exam is not because it is unfair. It is simply because the ACT is starting to get better turnout.</p>

<p>Also, deducting 1/4 of a point for wrong answers IS fair. It makes it so that on average, if you guessed completely randomly, you would gain 0 points.
But even if they didn’t deduct points for wrong answers, it probably wouldn’t matter. Since the scores that go on applications are scaled scores rather than raw scores, stopping this deducting would only serve to raise the raw scores, which is irrelevant because presumably, that would have no significant effect at all on the scaled scores.
This delusion that students have that the test is flagrantly unfair and that deducting points makes the test harder is part of what is fueling the shift to the ACT.</p>

<p>As far as I can see, the interests that shaped the structure of the ACT are completely vested in succumbing to popular belief in exchange for increased revenue. Because it apparently is so egregious to have a test measuring aptitude on college applications, the ACT measures achievement. Because students are deluded into thinking that point deductions are unfair and will lower their scores, the ACT doesn’t deduct points. Because students don’t want to send the bad scores that they’ve earned themselves to colleges, the ACT brought score-choice.</p>

<p>Not surprisingly, CollegeBoard has been following in the ACT’s footsteps in order to regain some of their customers (despite its stalwart belief in the SAT’s fairness.)</p>

<p>I digress.</p>

11

<p>OP: is there a particular CR area that you struggle with? (Sentence completion, short passages, vocabulary, theme, double passages, etc.) Focusing specifically on that area and drilling practice questions will help you learn to pick out the right answer from the almost-but-not-quite-right answers.</p>

<p>Another helpful method is playing the “devil’s advocate.” Instead of justifying why the answer could be right, justify why the answer could be wrong. This will also help you sift through the almost-but-not-quite-right answers. Some people find that this works well.</p>

<p>Additional resources that other posters have pointed out may also help.</p>