<p>Some of the advice in Princeton review is very test savvy and will help. The pr tests are awful, however. Kaplan, Barrons and the others are really bad, and have no redeeming virtues. There is a McGraw Hill one that looked pretty good as far as how to attack reading passages. For some reason, tone questions are the hardest. The advice about looking at the vocabulary tone is probably the most helpful here. Also, read op-ed pieces and columns in the paper. They usually have a strong point of view.</p>
<p>The SATIIs are easier to prepare for..shorter and more focused.<br>
There are many wonderful colleges that would love to have a guy with a 690 Verbal. That is plenty high for college-readiness. Make sure you apply to Match schools and develop attachments to them. Sometimes they can actually get you more inline for grad schools than more selectives (where the curves can be truly ridiculous on exams BTW.)
Great personal essays and short answer essays do make a difference.</p>
<p>i did fairly well on my sat2s.</p>
<p>800 math2c, 780 on physics, and im getting my 3rd sat2 score on monday.</p>
<p>i took korean so im pretty sure im gonna get 800.</p>
<p>arggg! freaking CR is making me mad!</p>
<p>Considering that you are gifted in math and physics, your 690 Verbal is a great accomplishment. Don't sweat this out anymore. Instead, write a soulful essay that shows you are an interesting person whose presence will be an asset to his community and peers. Don't apply to only schools with 20% or lower admission rates, and make sure your Match college knows you would actually seriously consider attending. The top selectives are not predictable whatsoever regardless of your test scores and routinely choose lower scores if they like the whole package in a student. But they are building a community of peers that is intended to benefit everyone and fill departments and ECs. Get your personality across and your Inquisitive nature. Quit hyperfocusing on that Verbal score if you are bilingual. It is excellent already. Good luck..trying times, I remember.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=116309%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=116309</a>
Don't get too irrational re uber selective colleges...there are many other schools that will also get you into great position for friendships and for your career life.</p>
<p>hmmm, i guess being on CC has changed my views on the sat scores.</p>
<p>i've seen too many peopel with such high sat scores =[</p>
<p>makes me feel like i cant compete unless i get such scores</p>
<p>I have the same problem!</p>
<p>yea being on CC has a very negative effect.</p>
<p>but still, i need to buy some kind of a study guide. i'd be happy if anyone can suggest a good one</p>
<p>Get the official guide and use it to get inside the creaters of the test's heads. Practice tests are the fastest and most effective way to increase anyone's scores as long as he or she is above the 650 range in that area. If the score's any lower than that, he or she probably needs to review some material and then apply it with the practice tests. Seriously, I'm scoring 2350+, and I credit it to CB's practice tests and online course (contains more practice questions and solutions to everything in their official book and all their crap online).</p>
<p>wow. 2350s?</p>
<p>i already have the official guide book thingie. </p>
<p>i was wondering if there were other good oens</p>
<p>watch reading rainbow with the black dude from Star Trek who wears a crazy visor</p>
<p>Another thing--don't overthink the CR sections. I find that I trick myself a lot on those sections, but after a few practice tests I raised my score from a 66 on the PSAT to a 770 on the real thing! Try to figure out not just what kinds of problems you're getting wrong, but why you're getting them wrong so much. That will help a lot. And as for concentrating, I had a lot of trouble concentrating on practice tests, too, but the pressure of the real thing made me buckle down and really pay attention to the passages, no matter how dry they were. If you don't freak and stress out a lot, perhaps you should think about that when you're taking the test. I found myself dozing off in the middle of a CR passage during the real test, but that thought brought me back down to earth again rather quickly ;)</p>
<p>ooo ic ic.</p>
<p>i must try hard to concentrate on the passages then!</p>
<p>dang, i wish i got a 770 =[</p>
<p>try grammatix.</p>
<p>is grammatix helpful? i<code>ve been hearing rumors on how it</code>s like any other prep book...</p>
<p>To read the CR passages effectively, I:</p>
<p>Casually read the passage through once, like I would a page from a novel or an article in a magazine, taking note of the general thesis and where things are in the passage</p>
<p>Go to the questions, keeping in mind my short thesis. I answer the questions and refer back to the text if I need to.</p>
<p>For vocab, memorize Barrons' list. It's very good (though the Oct test had a few not on it) You can find the list in the test prep book by Barrons.</p>
<p>I honestly think reading Shakespeare (and other semi-difficult authors, like James Joyce) helped me...</p>
<p>shakespeare?</p>
<p>hows that related to CR?</p>
<p>dang it! i bought rocket review thingie and it sucks!</p>
<br>
<p>=[</p>
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<p>i'm also a math guy who's having trouble upping his reading grade it's usually a time issue for me sometimes i get ~740 and but usually a 690-700. </p>
<p>the best way to improve ure reading scores is by practicing! just practice, practice, practice, and use all the prep books for cr practice (barrons, kaps, pr, etc) after a while u'll start to get the hang of it (i hope this helps) also, the kaplans cr workbook is gr8 practice too</p>
<p>why is rocket review bad?</p>