<p>No, your Critical Reading score won’t magically improve… You also won’t always be the best at everything, so don’t get to peeved by the fact that your friend is – according to the PSAT – smarter than you.</p>
<p>What form of sentence does the passage based reading use?? Is it Run-on?? or complex or something else??</p>
<p>Thanks. Critical Reading is probably my weakest subject and I hate analyzing things in detail.</p>
<p>Here’s the secret: SAT CR is NOT about analysis or interpretation like you’ve been trained to do in English class. It sucks, but you have to UNTRAIN yourself now for the SAT. If you do what you’ve been trained to do in school, which is to analyze and interpret, you’re going to get stuff wrong on the SAT.</p>
<p>This ain’t English class. This ain’t Ms. Holden’s British Lit class. This is the SAT, which is about finding the answer directly in the passage (not analyzing). It’s a giant open book test.</p>
<p>Here’s another secret: don’t justify your answer, identify the wrong answers.</p>
<p>Looking for the right answer is the WRONG METHOD for the Critical Reading section. Instead, you need to identify which four are wrong and WHY they are wrong. The reason you are debating between two or three choices is because something about each of them feels right; that’s why they’re still in the running. You can easily convince yourself that any one is right (this is called justification). But if you identify what’s WRONG with a choice, it’s game over for that choice. Identify four wrong choices and you’re left with the right answer.</p>
<p>There are 7 main reasons why something is wrong:</p>
<p>1) Not stated in the passage. Duh. The trap here is that some answer choices actually feel really logical and make sense to any smart-thinking student like yourself. But if it doesnt say it directly in the passage, its wrong no matter how much that choice makes sense.</p>
<p>2) Opposite of whats stated in the passage. Duh again. But they will try to trick you by mentioning something you remember reading about, and then contradicting what the passage said. Even small discrepancies can mess up the whole game and meaning of an answer choice.</p>
<p>3) Too extreme. Good writing is about grey areas, nuances, and subtleties. So the SAT probably isnt going to make the right answer so black and white. Things like extremely or absolutely or undoubtedly or stuff along those lines are probably wrong. “Always” or “never” are usually bad too. The SAT is also part of the PC (politically correct) police, so controversial stuff probably isnt right either.</p>
<p>4) Too broad. Good writing is about being specific. So if one of the choices feels too general or vague, its probably wrong (unless the question is asking for the main idea). This answer choice might feel true in a general sense, but it’s just too broad.</p>
<p>5) Too narrow. This choice might actually be true and stated in the passage. But its not the full reason, so it doesnt completely answer the question.</p>
<p>6) True, but unrelated. This choice might actually be true again and stated in the passage. Unfortunately, its unrelated to the question, so again, its wrong. This one is a killer because if you read the entire passage at once, youll have all these thoughts about various parts of the passage in your head jumbled up. The SAT loves to ask something about paragraph 3 but have an answer choice reminding you of something you read about in paragraph 5. This is why you reading the passage all at once can be detrimental. </p>
<p>7) Only half true (or partially true). Remember, even if the rest of the choice is perfect, if theres even ONE word thats wrong, then the entire choice is wrong.</p>
<p>Note:
The answer choices themselves are not the only things to pay special attention to though. The question itself is quite deserving of your attention. Be wary of key words such as “primarily.” A choice might say “because Bobby was a smart guy.” There might actually be a specific incident in the passage where Bobby did something incredibly stupid like microwaving a metal fork. Many test takers would then say the choice is wrong because Bobby did that one stupid thing. But if the rest of the passage shows how smart Bobby was, then Bobby was “primarily” or “mostly” smart. You can’t cross this choice off as wrong anymore. </p>
<p>Again, dont justify why somethings right identify whats wrong. What I suggest (and this will take a lot longer in the beginning by like tenfold) is to create a Word document with the following:</p>
<p>A) _____________
B) _____________
C) _____________
D) _____________
E) _____________</p>
<p>Have A, B, C, D, and E for each and every reading passage question. Youre going to need a lot of paper. When you answer a question, write down the reason why the four answers are wrong. Print out the list of wrong answer reasons and refer to it every question. Just leave the right answers slot blank.</p>
<p>Itll end up looking something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>A) too extreme
B) _____________
C) opposite
D) not stated
E) half true</li>
</ol>
<p>Getting the right answer is good, but it’s not enough. To become a master, you have to know why ALL the other choices are wrong. It’s not hard to get the right answer by looking for it in the easy questions, but my method is going to train you for those tough questions.</p>
<p>Parting thoughts on the right answer: the correct answer should feel right easily and effortlessly. You shouldnt have to force it to feel right. You shouldnt have to say, Well, if I think about it from this angle, I can see how itd work. No. If you have to look at it crookedly for it to make sense, its probably wrong. </p>
<p>The right answer MUST BE SUPPORTED by the passage itself. That means you must be able to point to a specific word, phrase, or sentence(s) that led you to your answer. Dont let yourself off the hook with Oh, I got the overall sense that she was feeling scornful. Instead, be able to point to a sentence that says, Those theories are all hogwash. The pioneers of those schools of thoughts knew nothing.</p>
<p>No matter how attractive or logical an answer choice sounds, if you cant support it with the contents of the passage, then you cant pick it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Hi! I was just wondering what your advice/strategies are when it comes to reading and answering questions about double passages?</p>
<p>I like the advice given by pwcpeng very much.</p>
<p>My scores are all over the place, and I don’t know why. The Princeton Review practices I took had me around 700, yet the CR’s from the College Board had me consistently scoring 780+. Which should I believe? Will I be able to perform well (780+) on Test Day?</p>
<p>Some practice tests are harder than others depending on who you take from. So the important thing to do is look at reviews and ask around about who is the harder tester or not, but also it is just as important to just look at the ones you are missing and fix them.</p>
<p>Someone may have asked about methods for the essay. I reccommend googling “2400 expert” and getting the free essay manuel online. You just have to go into facebook or twitter and mention them and they’ll send you a link, make sure to go like their page first sp you can post pn their wall. Instructions are on their site.</p>
<p>I am impressed!Though I haven’t tried this method,I am sure it’s gonna work.Again,thank you for your great idea!</p>
<p>This method was effective for me but it takes a while to get used to and it is time consuming. I was worried a few weeks before the test due to time issues but I tried to solve this problem by doing as many tests as I could and then carefully reviewing. </p>
<p>When you’re taking the real thing, time seems to fly by so try to get your practice tests to 19 ish min per section - it seems like you would have extra time on the test but you rarely have time to double check.</p>
<p>Thank you pwcpeng for posting that. I personally would advise against phrasing your approach so rigidly, but like I said, eliminate the obviously wrong quickly and play Devil’s advocate for the remaining choices (your “wrong method” sounds more like a time drain, even though in practice it’s essentially the same approach). How you think about your strategy, interestingly enough, can affect how efficient you are, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Also, to whoever asked above, I closed that eHow account. If you want to bookmark a version of my thread which has some nice pictures in it, I have a blogspot account you can check out (“noitaraperp” before the usual blogspot address). There’s not much difference between that version and the one I have posted here though.</p>
<p>Im quite surprised your still on CC xD What university or grad school are you at right now??? Thanks for the responses though :3 Im a freshman btw this helped me think about starting early :D</p>
<p>Thank you:))))</p>
<p>Thanks, I am going to practice with your method now. Only CR is left for me to conquer.</p>
<p>What would you suggest for someone who can’t understand the critical reading?
I score in the 600’s constantly, and after reviewing the answers I miss (and the explanations sometimes), I still can’t understand why the correct answer is correct, for lack of better words.</p>
<p>Nice thread!!! But I’m still little confused when I use your approach. After marking the lines, should I read the whole passage and then answer the questions, or read a few lines first and answer 1 question? Because I think if I read the whole passage first, when I complete the questions I may forget a little, what if I read a few lines then answer one question, there is no meaning to mark the lines… 
</p>
<p>I found that when stuck between two answers on a seemingly subjective question, the best question to ask yourself is, “Why am I being asked this question? What does the test want to find out about me?” So when there are two answers that could technically work when you’re asked about the tone of the passage (for example), it’s good to keep in mind that there are probably key words/phrases associated with one of the answers in the passage that the test wants you to find. The CR test is not subjective analysis, it’s finding reasons why 4 answers are wrong and justification in the form of concrete words/phrases for why the last answer is right. I didn’t do much prep for the CR section, so I don’t have much to offer in the way of specific texts that helped me, but I came out of CR with an 800 so I must have done something right. This mindset is what helped me most.</p>
<p>This has instantly helped me. My CR score immediately went up. I’ve done what you said, putting brackets around specific lines, reading the questions first, and it has REALLY helped. Its way better to read the long passages in short chunks and answering the questions part by part rather than reading the passage as a whole and then answering all the questions in one blow. It helps you maintain your focus throughout the passage. I remember when I used to read the whole passage first without stopping and then forgetting what the first paragraph was about, lol. Yup, THANK GOD THOSE DAYS ARE OVER! Haha.</p>
<p>this is amazing.<33333333</p>