<p>@Apoc314 I messaged you! Thank you for your help.</p>
<p>@Apoc314 I got a 740 thanks to you! On my first practice test, I scored a 630 so I improved 110 points in just one month. This guide is amazing.</p>
<p>@alainf, I am glad to hear you were able to score so well on the Critical Reading! Thanks for your feedback on my guide, and I am happy I was able to help you out. </p>
<p>hi @apoc314, I am doing better now and your tips have definitely helped; One thing I still can’t seem to improve though is my speed. Sometimes, especially in the long complicated passages, I end up with 3-5 questions left to do in the final minute. I’m using all the strategies, but now I think i just need to get used it perhaps? (I’ve only been using these for the past 3-4 weeks) Do you think this is something that should get better with more practice? How long do you think it takes to fully get the timing under control? I’m shooting for at least the mid 700’s, but my CR score has been stuck at 680 range because I always rush the last few questions because of timing.
Again, My accuracy is much better now, its just the time i can’t seem to get under control. Interestingly, I find that if i give myself 2-3 extra minutes, i do manage to get those questions right that I didn’t have time to answer.</p>
<p>@fcm951, as long as you continue practicing and keeping a positive attitude, you should get quicker at answering the questions and retain your accuracy. It took me 1-2 months of critical reading practice to boost my score from the 600’s to the 800 that I eventually received on the SAT. The timing varies depending on the person, but I’d say that you should continue practicing and you should eventually be able to answer all the questions in the time frame provided accurately. Good luck, and happy practicing!</p>
<p>@Apoc314 </p>
<p>First of all, thanks for sharing the tips for the CR section. For international students like me, the CR section is relatively tough as compared to the M, W sections. </p>
<p>I have been scoring around the 2200+ range on the practice tests that I have been taking at my classes, the blue book and Barron’s. I get nearly perfect or perfect scores in the writing and the math section each and every time but I lose a lot in the reading section. I mainly face problems with the long passages. I do not know how to go on about tackling those and I end up leaving too much in the end. How would you suggest me to go over the long passages? I am taking the SAT next month.</p>
<p>Ok, well, January is my absolute last chance, and I currently have a 670 in Critical Reading from November. I am absolutely fine with Math, have an 800, but Critical Reading has been so stagnant for me. I think a problem I have had is that I tend to practice Critical Reading as a section on its own. My best score doing that was a 750 which I achieved the night before the SAT, I think, which left me feeling confident, but I guess it just didn’t replicate test conditions well enough to achieve the same on the actual test. I am looking to score 750+ in January, but of course an 800 is preferable.</p>
<p>Is the best way to practice for this just taking practice tests and using your methods, @apoc314, and checking answers to see how I should improve my methods?</p>
<p>Writing is funny… I got a 720 on the November test, but I changed three answers I wasn’t sure about. I got a 10 on the essay with 4 wrong, however, I don’t know if those 3 answer changes helped or hurt. I could have had a 680 or so in Writing or a 790 to an 800, lol. Do you have any advice for Writing?</p>
<p>Thank you for any advice you can give me, CC has been a great source of SAT tips for my reference over the last year.</p>
<p>I gave my SAT for the first time Dec 6. I have scored 570 in critical reading and writing both. I am thinking to give the exam again on Jan 24. Can my scores improve in such short span of time?Should I give it again? Please reply soon as tomorrow is the last day to register. </p>
Hi @mumbai98 , sorry about not responding earlier - I have been on vacation with limited internet access and have not been able to check this website until now.
When you say you face problems with the longer passages, I am assuming they take too long for you to read, analyze, and answer the following questions? My advice for tackling the long passages is to not get bogged down by them and feel like you’re losing time, but to try to have hope and drive as you power-read through them. I would skim the long passages at first and glance at the questions to try to pinpoint which sections are more important to read in detail before trying to just read the whole passage in detail. You will need to practice reading the passage quickly and reading its questions to determine which parts of the passage to re-read and focus on more strongly. Thank you for reading my guide - let me know if you have more questions, and good luck!
@Cosmological , sorry about this late response - I have been on vacation and have had limited internet for the past week.
Do you feel that taking the test as a whole with all sections left you feeling more drained than when you practiced just the critical reading section? I recommend practicing by taking a full SAT and seeing if in practice you score similarly to how you did on the November SAT, and then also continuing to practice the individual critical reading sections but truly treating them as a real test (I’m sure you already do, so keep on practicing) to simulate the real test experience. Continue to check your answers and review ALL questions (correctly and incorrectly answered) to ensure you are answering the questions with correct reasoning and not getting some answers right through luck.
For writing, I recommend practicing the writing section individually and applying a similar strategy as I mentioned above to ensure you are correctly answering the questions and learning from your successes and mistakes. If you find that there are particular grammar sentence questions that are tricky, you could look up more examples of the grammar structure online to help you learn and remember how to tackle future questions that are similar.
Thanks again for reading my guide, and good luck on the SAT! Let me know if you have further questions!
Hi @sandey , sorry about not responding to your comment earlier - I have been on vacation with very limited internet access and have just seen this comment today. I have sent you a private message, and I wish you lots of luck on your SAT practice and the real SAT!
Hey @Apoc314,
I have been struggling with critical reading for quite some time now. I started off with a 560 in 7th grade, improved it to a 590 and then to a 620 in 8th grade, but now it seems that I have hit an insurmountable plateau. On my 9th grade PSAT I scored a 59, and this year I scored a 61. 1st semester of my sophomore year has already passed, but I’ve barely improved. In Math I can score in the high 700s and Writing in the mid 700s, but CR refuses to go up. I’ve tried reading the whole passage before answering the questions, reading the questions first, playing “devil’s advocate”, process of elimination, etc, but none seem to be working for me. Basically in a span of 3 years I have only seen a 50 pt gain. I’m super worried since, as these years have gone by, I always told myself that my Critical Reading score would naturally increase with more challenging high school courses and extensive reading. However, I don’t have that much time yet until the SAT rolls around and I feel as if CR is the section I put in the most effort in, yet it yields the most disappointing results out of the three. Any tips for me? Thanks!
Hi @Yakisoba !
Don’t worry so much about the critical reading section - I understand it is frustrating to see your score barely improve after practicing for so long, and I want to encourage you because I see how hardworking and dedicated you are to improving your critical reading score! I did not start preparing for the PSAT/SAT until my sophomore year, so I cannot fully empathize with starting in 7th grade and continuing to sophomore year now, but I can say that I naturally improved (even before I started preparing in the summer before junior year) when I looked at my sophomore year PSAT critical reading score compared to my first practice test in summer before junior year.
Does it seem to be a time issue or more of a figuring out how to correctly answer the questions issue? I think that you may be having trouble with correctly answering the questions regardless of time based on what you say with the different techniques you’ve tried, but please let me know more of the details in your struggles. I would go back to focusing on briefly skimming the passage before reading the pertaining questions to direct your focus for the second reading, and continuing to practice answering questions this way. Remember to review ALL the questions you’ve answered after your time is up and make sure you know that you answered questions correctly for the right, logical reasons and not faulty reasoning, and similarly, do the same with incorrectly answered questions.
My last recommendation for now is to relax a bit and take a break from SAT preparation, as sometimes you can overwork yourself and stress yourself out so you end up seemingly not improving. Give your mind some rest, and when you resume practice, I think you’ll find that you will have gained knowledge and reasoning ability from your prior practice and rest.
Thanks for reading this guide, and good luck on your sophomore year! Happy New Year!
Hi Apoc! Thanks so much for keeping this thread alive.
I’m a sophomore about to take my first test on January 24. I’ve been consistently getting 680-720 on my past few practice tests in CR. I really haven’t done any prep other than taking a whole bunch of tests. I’m hoping to bring my score up to a 2320+ (while my 2250 may seem good, the colleges I’d like to apply to are very competitive).
I’m good at math, and I know that to prevent mistakes, I just need to be focused.
For writing, I just focus on the rules from previous writing tests. I usually get it wrong because I can’t decide whether an answer is “no error” or not. I’m usually paranoid about these, and end up getting them wrong sometimes. I usually have good essays (10+) and will be adding to a set of possible topics for my essays.
Thus, critical reading is my main worry. How can I bring up my 700 score to hopefully an 800?
I haven’t studied any vocab, yet I usually only get 1-3 Sentence Completion questions incorrect. However, I do consistently get 4-6 wrong on the reading areas. Overall, I’ve been scoring consistently 2250. At this point, 2-3 weeks before my test, should I study vocab to get those few points? If so, where should I study from? Also, what should I do to help with my passage questions?
What’s your advice on omitting? If I am totally unsure of an answer but have narrowed it down, do I omit or guess?
I do understand your devil’s advocate rule but still don’t understand how to apply that, so can you elaborate on that please?
Thank you so much,
Scared Sophomore
Hi @ecollegeist !
You’re very welcome. It sounds like you’re in a good place right now to continue improving your score on the SAT! I will recommend you continue practicing the critical reading sections and reviewing the vocabulary and reading comprehension questions answers after you practice to continue expanding your vocabulary and preparing your analytical skills, but I do not recommend on focusing more on vocabulary right now as it seems the reading areas cause you to lose more points. I would go back through the Official SAT Study Guide (blue book) and re-take critical reading sections if you’ve already taken all of them before. I do not recommend omitting if you are able to accurately narrow down your answers since you’ll have a much better chance of earning those points if you can make an educated choice.
The most helpful strategy I used to earn an 800 versus a 700 was implementing the devil’s advocate rule. I’ll illustrate using an example question (question 4) from the blue book below (page 57-58). Try to employ the devil’s advocate rule before looking down at my analysis of the question, and see if my analysis helps you understand the rule better. Good luck with the SAT!
Questions 3-4 are based on the following passage.
A cousin of the tenacious Asian longhorned beetle-
which since its initial discovery in 1996 in New York City
has caused tens of millions of dollars in damage annually
-the citrus longhorned beetle was discovered on a juniper
bush in August 2001 in Tukwila, Washington. Exotic pests
such as the longhorned beetle are a growing problem-an
unintended side effect of human travel and commerce
that can cause large-scale mayhem to local ecosystems.
To stop the citrus beetle, healthy trees were destroyed
even though there was no visible evidence of infestation,
and normal environmental regulations were suspended
so that a rapid response could be mounted.
- The passage suggests that the actions undertaken in lines 9-12 are best characterized as (A) tested and reliable (B) deliberate and effective (C) costly and unpopular (D) preemptive and aggressive (E) unprecedented and unfounded
Now lines 9-12 start with “To stop the citrus beetle…” and end with “…so that a rapid response could be mounted.” for reference. Let’s analyze each answer choice and use the devil’s advocate rule here to see why it is WRONG if there is no direct PASSAGE evidence (this is very important to keep in mind since we tend to inject our own interpretation into the passage sometimes).
Choice (A): Though we may assume these actions could be tested and reliable, the passage does not actually state if destroying healthy trees and suspending these normal environmental regulations have been done before or are a reliable method of preventing the beetle’s large-scale mayhem to ecosystems. Thus, A is wrong.
Choice (B): Though the actions in lines 9-12 were deliberate to try to “stop the citrus beetle”, the passage never directly states how “effective” the actions are, but only says that a rapid response could be mounted (does not mean it was necessarily effective). Thus, B is also wrong because it is not fully supported by the text.
Choice ©: The cost of the actions in lines 9-12 are never stated and the public opinion of these actions is never stated either. Though we may assume it may have been costly and unpopular in our own heads, this passage does not directly talk about the cost or popularity of these actions and we cannot support this answer choice with the text. Thus, C is wrong.
Choice (D): This answer is correct with both descriptors. The actions are preemptive because “healthy trees were destroyed even though there was no visible evidence of infestation” which is a preventative measure due to trying to stop the infestation before it truly begins (no visible evidence yet). Suspending the normal environmental regulations is also preemptive because they are doing so before infestation is visible. Destroying healthy trees and suspending normal environmental regulations are also aggressive actions meant to stop the beetle (due to no visible evidence of infestation yet). Thus, D is correct.
Choice (E): Nothing in the passage directly says that these actions were unprecedented or unfounded. Though we may assume that we learned from our mistakes in dealing with the Asian longhorned beetle in NYC and applied new actions, this passage never states that destroying healthy trees was an unprecedented action. Destroying these trees and suspending regulations is also not unfounded because they want to rapidly stop the citrus beetle which could potentially cause millions of dollars in damage since it is a cousin of the Asian longhorned beetle. Thus, E is wrong.
I hope this has helped you, and feel free to message me if you have more questions!
Hello everyone,
Reading of any sort has never been my strong suit. In October, I got a 720 on writing, a 700 on math, and a 590 on reading. I’m taking the SAT again in March to try to get a 600 on reading. I’ve only practiced a little, but now I’m scoring lower with the Princeton Review SAT Practice Tests book. I’m scoring in the 540-580 range now. Time is not an issue even as a slow reader - I finish with about five minutes left every time. I use this time to go back and review every answer, and I either feel very confident or I come down to two answers and ALWAYS pick the incorrect answer. I even change my answer to the incorrect answer sometimes too when I am double checking. When I don’t change my answer because I get that “you’re just going to change it to the wrong answer” feeling, it ends up being the correct answer. When I come down to two answers, I try to play devil’s advocate, but I still always end up picking the wrong one. I can’t guess to save my life. This kills my score. I don’t know how to fix this. I just need a 600…but I haven’t scored a 600 yet. What do I do? Should I just leave a fourth of the answers blank to avoid guessing incorrectly between two answers?
Thanks so much Apoc! I’ll take your advice into account!
I (and many others) appreciate that you keep helping us out after HS.
Hi @PhilipL ,
I’m sorry to hear that - it can be very frustrating to come down to two answers and pick the incorrect answer. It seems that once you are able to fully use the devil’s advocate strategy, you should be able to score in the 700+ range. It’s good that you don’t have a time issue, so you can more fully focus on enhancing your devil’s advocate strategy. Hopefully the example question I analyzed in reply to ecollegeist helps you understand how to better use the devil’s advocate technique. My advice for using it is to do your best to BLOCK out your personal opinions and assumptions when you are completing the reading comprehension portion of critical reading so you will COMPLETELY RELY on the passages themselves for direct support and evidence (or lack of) the answers to the questions. Please keep up your hope and practice - I was stuck at the high 600s/low 700s for a few weeks of practice before I was able to fully understand and apply the devil’s advocate technique. I would recommend continuing to practice and not omitting answers - hopefully you’ll see some improvement soon! Good luck!
You’re welcome, @ecollegeist ! I hope my advice helps you (and many others)!
Hey @Apoc314
I really apprecite ur advice. But I still have a problem with questions in which 2 answers seem correct, actually they seem even the same, just restated in different words.
Example :
" The audience became indignant over the living images that the prosperous merchant Bruno Crespi projected in the theater with the lion-head ticket windows, for a character who had died and was buried in one film and for whose misfortune tears of affliction had been shed would reappear alive and transformed into an Arab in the next one. The audience, who paid two cents apiece to share the difficulties of the actors, would not tolerate that outlandish fraud and they broke up the seats. "
Q : The “fraud” that upset the citizens was related to the :
A) excessive charge for admission - of course not
B) outlandish adventures of the characters on the screens - it’s not about being outlandish or unconventional
C) fact that the events depicted on the screen did not actually occur
D) types of difficulties the actors faced - of course not
E) implausible plots of the stories that were told
The Correct Answer is C, but why not E ? Am really desperate cuz i repeatedly miss such questions.