Hi @ZanZan , I would suggest practicing the critical reading sections and using some of my techniques as recommended in the guide (looking at questions first before honing in on the lines in the passages, reading a passage and writing what the main idea is before looking at answer choices, etc.). What seems to be the most difficult part of critical reading? If you’re having trouble with time, give yourself a few extra minutes (not an arbitrary number, but suppose you give yourself 5 extra minutes) and practice the section. As you improve in understanding, cut down your extra time. If you’re having trouble understanding the questions, please review the questions and answers intensely to learn them better. Good luck!
Math: neutral luck, 800
Writing: unlucky; I had the right answer choices for both of the ones I missed, but I changed them later on, and kept changing them, and ended up getting both of them wrong. I usually score 800 writing on practice tests. It makes me sad that I scored 760 in 8th grade but only 750 in 10th grade.
Critical reading: unlucky; I usually miss 3-5. I blame the 4 hours of sleep I got. I hear from many people with a cr mindblock that it’s supposed to “click.” But for 4 years, that hasn’t happened to me. If I clicked in critical reading, my score would be close to 2400.
Thanks for your advice! @Apoc314 I just wanted to ask like what routine can I do for the 10-12 days I have left to ensure my reading score of 600+. And what are your thoughts on reading the whole passage and then answering questions. Like why do you think your strategy is better than that. Or like is reading a paragraph and then answering questions and then reading the following paragraphs and answering questions better? Basically what can I do using the CB book to get the score I want in these few days. And when should I take full length tests?
Hi @thetex , I’m sorry to hear you weren’t able to get enough sleep for the test that day. It did click for me in CR when I was scoring in the low 700s that I finally jumped up to missing only 1-2 questions. It may be frustrating now, but keep on practicing and don’t lose hope!
Hi again @ZanZan , I would recommend different strategies depending on the passages you are reading. If you have long passages then I would recommend looking at the questions and identify which parts of the passages are relevant to read first to help answer the question. This will save time for you as you answer questions. If the questions asked are more big picture ones, then I would first formulate the main idea of the passage before looking at the answer choices (this helps me narrow in on the right answer quicker). If you have short paragraphs, feel free to gain a general understanding of it first before answering questions. I would take a a full length test 6 days before the test and then a couple days before. Give yourself some time to rest before taking the real SAT. Hope this helps!
Whoa! This thread is active since 2010 
My question is that If a passage says that “I liked this flower out of all flower people” The rest is about complementing this flower. The question is that why the author uses the word “flower people”. Answer choices are
- show a depth of appreiation for some flowers
- Give flowers human motivations.
How would you eliminate one of them?
Thanks! I’m in the early 700 though
Hi @SATgeek , for this question you’ve posed, it looks like since the passage is about complimenting the flower and stating that the author liked this flower, he/she is focusing on their interest in flowers. Thus, the use of flower people shows a depth of appreciation for some flowers, and answer choice 1 is correct.
Answer choice 2 is eliminated because the passage does not personify the flower itself to give it human motivations.
@Apoc314: Do you happen to know how effective Erica Meltzer’s “Critical Reader” book is for critical reading? I got a 700 on the October SAT, and I really want to boost it to an 800 or at least close to that score because CR was my weakest section. I don’t have much time, and if I read the whole “Critical Reader” book, I definitely won’t have time for any other type of prep. Do you think this is an efficient way to study? I’ve already completed all the blue book practice tests (was ironically scoring 780-800 on CR the week before my exam), so I guess I just had a bad day :/.
hi @Apoc314 I had one more question. My test is in two days and Im scared for vocab. Should I memorize like direct hits 1&2 these two days?
2 I would say though it is useless to ask a question based in two lines.
It must be in a context… 
Hi @ZanZan , please breathe! Don’t worry about trying to cram in so much vocabulary in two days. I would not sacrifice sleep and rest to attempt to memorize every single word you can. Focus hard on studying vocabulary, but work on learning how to use the sentence completion question structures to your advantage with unfamiliar words instead of blindly memorizing words. Good luck!
i thought that the choice 2 was wrong because of the word “motives” as the flower is not shown to have done anything to have a motive. ( @SATgeek)
is this explanation correct? Or should my thinking process be different ?
@JuicyMango do yourself a favor and don’t buy the Critical Reader
@thetex: Why? Do you have any personal insight about the effectiveness of that book? If it is truly bad, I already bought the book so there’s not much I can do anyway.
@Apoc314 Hey, thanks man for the tips. I gave my SAT and did the first two sections quite smoothly, got the first one done in 13 mins in fact 
the problem came in the last section in which I left one and got one wrong. Not sure about the rest. My friend who gave it in october owned 2 sections and screwed a bit in the last as well. He got a 630 which has me worried up.He was getting 700-720 in practice. Do you know any other who did the same ie got screwed in only one section(and im not so sure as well that I screwed) and got ood score. Thanks and sorry if this is a lousy question. I am worried because I invested a lot of effort in this. 
@Apoc314 Forgot to mention that I am talking about Reading sections
Hi, this is very insightful, but could you please provide more specific examples. And I have the Sat Blue book, but my reading and writing are stuck in the low 600s, did you use any other pre-books?
Hi @AyeshaRashid011 , I would believe that the passage SATgeek was quoting was talking about a human who really liked flowers instead of personifying flowers, so flowers wouldn’t have motivations. Reading the exact passage might help us more though.
Hi @JuicyMango , I’m not sure how effective The Critical Reader is - I have never read it, so I cannot offer a well-informed opinion on it unfortunately.
Hi @SATgeek , I’m not sure if I have heard of similar stories as much. I would recommend not worrying so much on messing up a section but just moving forward as you take the practice tests and the real ones. No matter if you are unable to answer a question or two incorrectly or not, keep on pushing forward and using the strategies you have trained with on the CR sections and keep your morale up! You can do it!