<p>I personally did not use an answer guide, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea as long as you don’t rely on it too much. It’s much easier to look up an answer than struggle through the process of figuring it out yourself, so you have to avoid the temptation and only resort to the guide after spending time working on it by yourself. Also, keep in mind that Testmasters may not explain the answers the same way CB would.</p>
<p>But if you don’t want to bother with an answer guide, by all means go for it.</p>
<p>2 questions.
what books do you recommend using?
Also, you mentioned making flashcards for all unknown words in the passages. I somehow feel that the “jargon” for passages in art, science, ect don’t show up time after time. Or am I wrong about that???</p>
<p>noita/everyone: if im missing around 0-1 per section (1-3 per CR) on Sentence Completion. How much should I spend on vocab? And that makes me wonder how only 300-600 words will do the job</p>
<p>When you said not to read the whole passage through without answering any questions, do you mean that I should read all the questions and try to answer them as I go? Because sometimes I have to read through all of them cause not all of them are in chronological order… Oh, and how long should marking annotations take? I feel like i’m awfully slow at that.</p>
<p>^My first practice test was a blue book test and I distinctly remember that I only got a 1970 lol. I don’t remember which rubric I used but it was pretty much standard and my English teacher graded my SAT essay. I had no trouble at all with math, but my writing was 690 and my reading was exactly 500. Though I had never really seen an SAT before, I was still surprised by my scores and I realized then that I had to work harder (and smarter by developing a strategy) if I wanted the option of better colleges.</p>
<p>Sorry everyone but I have been very busy and it’s been hard to answer all your questions. I hope knowledgable CC members (such as 1123581321) will be able to jump in as well. I’m no expert on SAT books, but I thought my PR was quite good enough. Once I was really making progress I began to use a Barrons SAT 2400 book, but I found it quite quaint and outdated for some reason (they should lay off the annoying acronyms) - although it did have some interesting strategies.</p>
<p>After a lot of practice with my method, I found that most of the questions fit into the mold of other questions I had previously encountered. Thus a quick glance (not too quick) at my annotation and the question reminded me what was being asked, and since I had just read the referenced lines, it was easy to answer the question unless more was needed (which you would sense if that were the case).</p>
<p>Remember that context is important, but most of the time for line references only from the beginning up to the point (or body) of reference (and perhaps one sentence after that reference) is necessary for comprehension of the correct answer.</p>
<p>I can’t answer for Noitaraperp, but I would recommend that you take a practice test to evaluate your abilities and form a study plan based on that. If you do well, you can forget the magazines and books and just focus on practice sections. If your score is far below your target, then considering how much time you have I’d suggest spending some time reading before diving into prep work. Assuming you’re not planning on testing the first half of the year, you have plenty of time (I improved from 700 to 800 in six weeks).</p>
<p>Definitely start on vocab as soon as you can – the more you spread it out, the better you’ll remember it.</p>
<p>Do you know that there are only about 150 words that have appeared with continuing frequency over the last 9 years? Those and a few other words are all I have my students study. </p>
<p>And if any of coaches who work for me try to get them to learn more, I fire them.</p>
<p>I have to agree with this completely. Not understanding is Not knowing is Not learning. There are keys to solving these problems but you must understand them in order to recognize them on the next practice test, on the next and the next. Only then can you understand what and why to answer on the real test.</p>
<p>Not a fan of Test Masters Books, but I do like Rock the Test.</p>
<p>Noitaraperp when you refer to the “short” passages, are you talking about the small paragraph ones or the semi-long ones? Also what would you do for the questions that has passage 1 & passage 2 and you need to compare the two?</p>
<p>noita, before we go about actually practicing the Critical Reading sections in the SAT review books, should we read A LOT of books, magazines, newspaper, etc. (and memorize vocab) for several months first?</p>
<p>p.s. i’m going to be a junior in September </p>
<p>also…should we read all of the questions before we read the actual passages and try to figure out the answers while we’re reading? </p>
<p>oops…i didn’t realize that 112358 answered my question already…lols…can u still answer that question and the others though b/c i just want to hear what other people think too.
thanks.</p>
<p>Yeah I second 112358’s advice that you should first take a practice test to know what you’re up against before you start reading magazines and newspapers with the intention of improving your CR (you should only do this practice reading if your time until the test is abundant). Your mind will subconsciously develop itself toward the SAT if you take a practice test first and really go over it. Your second question is answered in my article. Btw, I’m loving likalika’s signature…</p>