<p>how much time do you guys spend on eliminating answer choices average?</p>
<p>How do you approach questions that ask about the author’s attitude or feelings?</p>
<p>Krazy, I spend maybe 30 seconds eliminating answer choices to pick the correct choice. All that this really requires is to look at an answer choice, look in the passage to see if there is anything directly supporting the answer choice, and if there is no direct support then I will eliminate that answer choice.</p>
<p>epicgee, I look for word choice and the general feeling of the part of the passage I am asked to analyze for the author’s attitude/feelings. For example, if a lot of the author’s diction is negative (by the use of words such as dreary, downcast, etc.) then I can say that the attitude is mostly negative and I will look for the answer choice that best matches that tone. Usually the negative attitude will be more specific and by analyzing the negative diction I can discover exactly what type of attitude/feeling the author is conveying.</p>
<p>Apoc314:
I read the long passages but I dont really understand them. They just go over my head sometimes. I was looking at CC before and someone said they read the articles from this website: [RealClearPolitics</a> - Opinion, News, Analysis, Videos and Polls](<a href=“http://www.realclearpolitics.com/]RealClearPolitics”>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/)
and this helped them comprehend the CR passages. U think that will help or do you have any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I think that if you have a lot of time, you could try reading those articles to become better at reading comprehension, but I think that if you don’t have too much time (a few months) then you should just keep practicing the CR to try to better understand the passages.</p>
<p>Hope you all did well in the Jan 22 SAT, whether you took the SAT I or the Subject Tests.</p>
<p>I’m just bumping this up to help people preparing for the upcoming March and May SAT exams.</p>
<p>Thanks for the guide. My application is weak so the SAT’s are going to help a lot hopefully.:)</p>
<p>For those who are trying to master vocab: If it’s hard for you to memorize the words in groups, then read over them everyday for a few minutes (all of them, not just a group and don’t try to memorize them.)</p>
<p>This really works for me on vocab and any other things such as idiomatic expressions.
(P.S. I don’t use Direct Hits or any of that stuff, I read the vocab from the Princeton Review PSAT book and believe it or not, but there are a lot of words in that vocab list that appeared on the SAT. Also, if you are really determined to improve your CR score and you are on the computer a lot, then it might help if you download the Dictionary Extension for Google Chrome. It really helps me, as I can just look up words whenever I come across a word I don’t know. I’m lazy to actually go to dictionary.com or read through a dictionary so this helps for me.)</p>
<p>Just a few tips if you’re making an adaptive strategy. =]</p>
<p>(also, might or might not help, but my CR scores were pretty bad before and they started getting better once I started reading actively. That might be the trick if you practiced a lot but still can’t manage above a 650. I still mess up on other parts, though. xD)
Adios. =]</p>
<p>Apoc314 and all other members with a valuable experience in the SATs. I am a student in the 11th grade AND took the SAT TEST ONLY ONCE ON THE 22ND of January 2011.I scored a 1950 with a 670 on the math section,a 660 on the writing section with a score of 8 for the essay and a 620 on the critical reading section…downright, at the mean time I am in a state of anxiety and bewilderment… I need urgent tips and advices to increase my score to a 2250+ …am planning on registering for the 7th of May test and I am at a loss in regard to how to use the time I have left…PLEASE provide me with any advices…it will be very helpful…</p>
<p>all gratitude and thanks in advance</p>
<p>For the math:
What do you find yourself getting wrong? Are you rushing through problems and making silly mistakes? Or do you need some problem-solving help? If you need to work on your problem-solving and conceptual understanding, I would say to work on a section of math, untimed for now, and try to answer every question to the best of your ability. After you’ve tried, check your answers, and go back to the incorrect questions and try to resolve it for the correct answer. If you cannot figure out why the right answer is correct, then you may consult the official answer explanation on the CollegeBoard website or post your question on CollegeConfidential to have some people help explain it for you. In general, this section just needs practice and practice to help you speed up your problem-solving ability and your accuracy. When you feel that you understand the problems well, you may start practicing under timed constraints.</p>
<p>For the CR:
A lot of what I’ve said in my guide is pretty applicable for the critical reading section. In general though, to boost your score from the 600’s to the 700’s will require practice. You should practice one section, check the answers to figure out which ones you answered incorrectly, and then try to resolve the question to fully understand why your initial answer is incorrect. I would also check any questions that you got right but guessed on. So practice, review your questions, try to rationalize why you got a question wrong, then consult the official answer explanations online or post your question here on CC. Also, my tip 9 seems to be helpful for everyone. </p>
<p>9) Lastly, I played devil’s advocate a lot on these questions. When I narrowed the question answers down to 2, I would ask myself, “Why is this answer choice clearly WRONG?” I looked directly into the passage and if there was no support at all for the answer choice, I would eliminate it. Doing this helped me improve from the low 700s to the high 700s. Earlier on, I had been stuck between two answer choices and had chosen the one that I had “felt” was better. This is wrong. If the answer choice is not directly supported in the passage, it is incorrect. </p>
<p>For the Writing - Essay:
I have some general tips for the essay. I always wrote my essay by starting with a brief introduction - my thesis statement and my brief introduction of my 3 examples. I would then start my first body paragraph by relating it to the thesis and making it a strong topic sentence, support my topic sentence and relate it back to the thesis at the end, then transition into the next paragraph. I repeated this to make 3 body paragraphs, then I entered my conclusion. I summarized my main points (my examples) I had used in my essay then ended with an interesting clincher thought (this is not necessary, but it is helpful if you want to do it). </p>
<p>For the Writing - Multiple Choice:
I just literally practiced one section at a time, reviewed what I missed and why the correct choice was correct. Silverturtle’s writing part of his SAT guide is very useful to help you practice your grammar. The biggest part here is to keep on practicing and reviewing your answers to make sure you know the grammar rules associated with the questions.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone taking the March 12th SAT tomorrow! Hope you guys beast the test!</p>
<p>Apoc314 THANKS ALOT for your helpful and instructing advices …i will try to work on those you gave me rightaway…sorry for what i am going to say… but i need a little bet reassurance…will i be able to increase from a 1950 to 2300 or is it an immposible leap for an SAT score taking in account that i only have 1 month and a half as a preperation duration …</p>
<p>…yet another thanks for your reply</p>
<p>if you’re well read, 800CR should be cake</p>
<p>Well, I improved my 203 PSAT to a 2360 SAT in 2-3 months of preparation. It will depend on the individual how long it will take but a few months should be enough to at least improve your score significantly.</p>
<p>Just wanted to say thanks!
I followed your steps (especially #9), and I ended up raising my reading score by 80 points (100 points since the previous test, 80 from my best). I miraculously got a 2300 on the March SAT, and I couldn’t have done it without this guide! Thanks so much Apoc314!!!</p>
<p>I’m not able to complete all the questions in the given time limit (7 or 8 questions usually goes unanswered), though I get correct answers for all those which I’ve attempted. What’s the point in getting everything correct while i’m unable to finish the section properly. This happens with me for CR and Writing sections; no problem with Math, getting 780 or more. Any suggestions for improving my speed, mate?</p>
<p>Which questions slow you down the most? For sentence completions, I usually was able to finish each question within 30 seconds (I mostly finished each question in 5-10 seconds; I only used up to 30 seconds if it was a harder sentence completion question). I started out pretty slow when I had to read the passage and answer questions, but then I moved on to my method of reading in pieces and answering the questions along the way and I suppose it was just this reading practice that boosted my reading comprehension speed so I was very quick at answering the questions. I’d just suggest to keep practicing with this method using the blue book and other materials if you run out since practice will help.</p>
<p>great suggestions. i already use a lot of the strategies that you mentioned in your post, i got a 740 on the CR section in november and i am hoping to get 800 this may.</p>
<p>the most important point that you made for people trying to score very high is asking yourself “is this answer supported in the passage,” it really is very important to not pick the choice that sounds right. you really need to have very good reasoning abilities. the good thing about the CR section is that you can usually miss 2 or 3 questions and still make an 800. some of the vocabulary at the last one or two sentence completion questions can be very difficult, but most of them time you can narrow it down to two answers and make a 50/50 guess</p>
<p>@apoc314, you seem to have the best advice. What advice would you give to me to improve Passage scores…don’t know what I am doing wrong…“over thinking” probably,
seem to score 100 points lower on actual test than I do on practice tests…any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!</p>