<p>Any tips on how i can go from a 620 to a 750 in this section, like any specific startegies or review books? Thanks.</p>
<p>oooh, that's a pretty big leap you wanna take there js.
but i guess a journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.
get Barron's and review the tactics and strategies there. use the bluebook or subscribe on the CB for the online course. as a book owner (if u r 1) you get a $10 discount.</p>
<p>read each passage one time though, but thoroughly.</p>
<p>don't rush too much; try to understand the main point of every passage. it'll pay off when you answer the questions.</p>
<p>outside of that, just buy some SAT flash cards and familiarize yourself
with the words. you don't need to know EXACTLY what EVERY word means. at least try to get a feel of all the words and memorize some. </p>
<p>personally, i don't know that many vocab words exactly, but in the context of the question, i can easily find the answer.</p>
<p>i've been doing practice tests and i NEVER finish the critical reading section..There's always 3 or 4 questions left when time runs out. So i definitely need to change my approach.</p>
<p>i went from a 630 to a 740</p>
<p>this is how i tackled the cr section</p>
<p>first, study loads and loads of vocab- personally, i used barron's humungous list, taking letter at a time, crossing off words that i already knew, and typing up new lists of vocab to study every day (i did 30 each day)</p>
<p>with the cr passages, you must realize that the answers are never obscure...they are almost always IN THE TEXT, and even better line numbers are provided...read through the passage once, ignoring details and just getting a feel for the passage in terms of the general context and mood/ theme/ main idea...then when you encounter questions that ask for something specific, and provide page numbers in (), ALWAYS GO BACK AND READ...that too, read the two lines above and below the lines provided...this helps so much</p>
<p>good luck!</p>
<p>Thats one thing i've been doing wrong. I read the passage way too slowly and meticulously in hopes that i wont have to refer back to the passage when i'm answering the questions. WRONG- i always forget what i read. So it definitely makes more sense to do a quick read and get a general idea of what the passage is about, and then refer back to specific sections when answering the questions.</p>
<p>I didn't have THAT high of a jump, but I jumped 80 from a 520 on a diagnostic test</p>
<p>If you want to learn vocab, go ahead, be my guest, but my general plan was improving passage reading strategy. Learning to answer the questions more suitably, and reading in a way that you're looking for the answers. But I always read the passage first to get general idea, particularly for tone questions and the end.</p>
<p>wow, thanks everyone for the advice. Keep it coming!</p>
<p>don't read the passage meticulously. do a brief skim to make sure you know where all the key components are (ie that you think the questions will refer to. if you've done enough sat verbal practice sections, you'll know they usually ALWAYS ask stuff about words with multiple meanings, contrasting authors of two passages, and the like) and continue on quickly to do questions. </p>
<p>something i've learned -- gut instincts are usually the way to go. because you have the reading fresh in your mind, the most LOGICAL answer usually comes to you first. DON'T overanalyze, that was my problem after coming out of a rigorous english course in school: i overanalyzed everything to a DETAIL (being an english/humanities person) so i complicated everything for myself when i could've just made life SO much easier, lol. </p>
<p>another tip that helped me a loooot - if you have extra time, go back to each of your questions (or at least star the ones that you aren't sure of) and GO BACK INTO THE PASSAGES and underline the PROOF for your answers. if it isn't there, then it's probably not right. </p>
<p>i'm not sure how much reading vocab will help you. the skill of deducing vague meanings from context, imo, is much more useful than memorizing some thousand-world vocab list. </p>
<p>i hope this helps :)!</p>
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<p>That's what I'm used to doing, and don't know how to simplify my thinking process:-</p>
<p>I personally like thoroughly reading it, but not overanalyzing it. I don't like skimming; it doesn't pay off when they ask you the author's point or purpose of the overall passage IMO.</p>
<p>I try and go with my first instinct, but not always</p>
<p>first insctinct doesn't mean what you wrote down first after not reading the question correctly/fully</p>
<p>if there is no evidence for your answer in the passage, or if you reread the question and realize that you were off in your logic, don't go with your first instinct</p>
<p>other than that, it works well for me</p>
<p>Does it help to skim the questions first, pay attention to the questions that have line numbers (and underline those lines in the passage), and then read the passage? I've done this approach, and I find it somewhat helpful, but it seems time consuming at the same time...</p>