<p>I've managed to get my Math and Writing scores up to a stable 770-800 w/ 10 on essay but what about Critical Reading? I've been scoring no more than 710's, once having scored a dismal 630. I've been reading 7 passages a day - 3 in the day, 4 in the night - and also practicing through BB Barron's, and booklets at my SAT Boot Camp. No strategy seems to work for me, whether reading the whole passage or just doing what Grammatix tells me to do which is just skim and compare side by side to the questions. I'm so frustrated, what the hell can I do?</p>
<p>Perfect practice makes perfect.</p>
<p>Make sure you review any questions that made you even hesitate for a second, and understand fully why the correct answer is correct and why you’re answer was wrong.</p>
<p>Fully understand the passages before you answer the questions, no matter how long it takes. Do this until you don’t get any of the questions wrong. Then keep doing it until, gradually, you become able to do a section within the actual time limit.</p>
<p>Just a question, what worked better for you: reading the whole passage or using the Grammatix idea?</p>
<p>reading the whole passage</p>
<p>If you’ve been preparing that much (SAT boot camp, seven passages a day, etc), you need to question your method of study. </p>
<p>Are you focusing enough? Long CR passages are a great way to test your attention span. Try reading lots of boring books to build your “immunity.” :D</p>
<p>And lastly, I hate to be the one to suggest this, but maybe you just don’t have the academic capacity to score above 710. Have you talked to your advisor at your SAT “boot camp”? He should have specific tips that will help you tackle and conquer the CR sections. Otherwise, this could simply be a matter of personal ability.</p>
<p>^ Lol yeah he said I should read books…but I haven’t haha. Maybe it’s time to do that.</p>
<p>I have a good attention span and I have the academic capacity seeing as I’m scoring 800s in Math and Writing and I’m a rising sophomore…it’s just the passages are WAY too boring. One time, there was one about people who were happy about pointing out mistakes in dictionaries and sending letters to the editors of M&W and Oxford and all the time I was reading it, I was going “wth” in my mind. Some of them are just flat out ridiculous. I think after reading Direct Hits I should get Sentence Completion down and get it to 730. I just need 20 more points on passages to reach my goal of 750 after that… :/</p>
<p>well in my opinion, and this is just my little opinion, for those passage-based readings, if you have a good time management so that you can finish, a good vocab base so that you can understand the words, and somewhat focused enough so you can interpret all the implied meanings hidden behind the text of the passage, there’s no reason why you would miss a single question. my biggest problem is time management, then vocab</p>
<p>has anyone been successful with just not read the reading passage until needed? Like read the questions and look for the answers type of thing-- like grammatix says.</p>
<p>^^ I think it’s because I’m not really neutral when it comes to dealing with them. I need to really stop trying to make my own interpretations ><</p>
<p>^ That hasn’t worked for me but I’m going to practice more w/ that strategy and let you know what happens. It’s useful for those “line” questions, but it doesn’t seem to be much of assistance for finding main ideas and comparing passages.</p>