<p>I really wanna reach 750+ for CR by the end of the summer and I am currently stuck at high 500s and low 600s.
Are there are helpful tips that may give my score a push?
Please help! really desperate D:</p>
<p>brute force those vocab words so you kill it on the sentence completion portions.</p>
<p>What about in the reading passage?</p>
<p>just give as much as mocks you can… I mean the CR portion of the mocks…
And yeah mastering the words are, what can I say, COMPULSORY thing!</p>
<p>Are there any specific tactics and strategies that can be applied in the reading passage?</p>
<p>I don’t feel like tailoring my tips to this post, so some are for the writing section, ahah. Here’s a copy and paste of my tips I generally give for SAT CT and W. </p>
<p>Hmm… My approach (as far as CR, I suck at M and am totally clueless… Sorry!) is pretty much the exact opposite of most. I’ll tell you what I tell everyone struggling with SAT CR & W…</p>
<p>Don’t read the passage until you HAVE TO! This sounds nutty as can be, but trust me, I got a 750 on CR (I missed 2 vocab questions and made two bubbling errors, circled the right answer and bubbled the wrong one, curse my thoughtlessness!) without ANY prep… Anyway, in a lot of cases, you don’t need to read the passage until the last 2 questions about it (they usually ask about mood, tone, author purpose, style… Things that require you to read the whole passage); if a question gives you a designated line number that you need to read, read it, answer the question, and move on! When you havvvvvve to read the passage to answer a question, go ahead and read it. This saves time, which can be especially beneficial if you’re a slow reader. I’m not a slow reader, but I like to have time to check my answers, and it also just keeps things simpler… It makes a lot of trick questions untricky. </p>
<p>This is a very general and overly-simplistic piece of advice (it goes with the tricky bit earlier) but answer the question… Make sure to answer strictly what it’s asking for, don’t try to “interpret” it or anything… It’s not subjective. The SAT is tricky, they want you to mess up, so keep your cool and keep it simple. Look at the concrete… Find something concrete in the question, the answer, and the passage. If all pieces are in agreement, and relevant to each other, you have the answer. You’ll never have to analyze anything on the CR section… Just find things! </p>
<p>Also, (more of a writing tip I guess, but still) learn how to recognize passive voice if you aren’t already able to. If you didn’t know, Passive voice is a more advanced kind of grammatical “error” in the English language… </p>
<p>Active voice: David plants a tree.
Passive voice: A tree is planted by David. </p>
<p>A few incorrect answer choices on a bunch of questions are likely to be passive voice, so if you can recognize passive voice and eliminate those answer choices quickly, you can save lots of time stressing over answer choices. While these answer choices are gramatically correct by conventional grammar rules, if they’re in passive voice, that means they aren’t the <em>best</em> answer.</p>
<p>For essays, avoid writing in passive voice, avoid convoluted personal anecdotes, and avoid stretching things to get examples… You can make up facts and figures though, if you’re certain the area’s obscure enough for the fabrication not to be discovered. These essays are all about your opinions, and how you can back them up with facts… With that being said, you can’t not have an opinion… If you don’t care about the topic (my AP Lang persuasive topic was “certainty v. doubt” and my SAT essay topic was about whether or not society remembers and emphasizes the good or the bad, so you can see that the College Board’s topics are generally thought provoking, but abstract), you’d better learn to care pretty fast, as you only have about ~2 minutes to pick which side you’re on (if they have sides – when I took the SAT in 7th grade, it merely asked something like “Why is it better to create new things than imitate the works of others?”). After that, come up with 3+ things that support your opinion… These can be anything – books, movies, personal experiences, historical events, etc… I like to use historical events, as I have a good memory and a love of history… Supreme Court decisions can also provide an interesting sourse of support for your opinion, at times. Books are great sources of support – I find that The Fountainhead (a personal favorite of mine) and Lord Of The Flies are fairly easy to tie into anything. I tend to steer away from personal examples because in most cases, they don’t fit the topic well… But if it fits, go with it! Now, grammatically your essay should be as perfect as it can be… No passive voice, no comma splices, no run ons, no errors in subject-verb agreement, no substituting adjectives for adverbs… You should try to use a variety of sentence structures, and throw in a couple impressive words (my personal favorites are alacrity, opprobrium, desideratum, and lexicon – if you’re being funny, you may find use for “inebriated”). Make sure you have a good opening paragraph and good material throughout the body of the essay… The conclusion is less important. </p>
<p>Anyway, you should also read a lot, and look up words you don’t know… As a testament, I read a lot, and for about two years straight (before I became broke from it, and sort of got a life) I used to read a new book (of ~400 pages) every day. I was reading Jane Austen in 3rd grade, so yes, reading definitely helps [with vocabulary and with getting a feel for different sentence structures]. If you really, REALLY hate reading, at least try to memorize some vocabulary… I’ve heard “Direct Hits” is pretty good for that, but I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never really prepped for CR. I still side with reading though, because unlike memorizing words, it helps you become a better writer too!</p>
<p>Take practice tests too, of course… At the end of the day, taking the SAT is a skill, practice tests help you test your skill level. Try these strategies, if they work for you, you’ll be astounded how much simpler the test seems, and hopefully with how high your score rises! If they don’t, there are still some helpful bits throughout this post. Anyway, best of luck to all, and remember… You can do it!</p>
<p>For critical reading I read a lot of Wall Street Journal. Right before bed. CR used to be my worst, and you can imagine my happiness when I found out I got an 800. [Free</a> Wall Street Journal Magazine Subscription - Hey, It’s Free!](<a href=“http://www.heyitsfree.net/2012/06/06/free-wall-street-journal-magazine-subscription/]Free”>Free Wall Street Journal Newspaper Subscription • Hey, It's Free!) You can get a free WSJ subscription here. I read interesting articles (mostly the travel articles, not the boring finance ones) and it really helped me understand authors who use round-about ways of saying stuff. Also for CR, I made flashcards for the Direct hits words on Quizlet.com. Direct Hits is definitely the best for sentence completion. I didn’t get any sentence completion wrong on the March administration!</p>
<p>Learn words, practice, and read.</p>