<p>So, i'm taking the SAT in June and I've already taken it two times. My highest was 2160, which 690 in reading and writing. I've taken SAT summer classes, so it's not like I don't know what's on it. Do you guys have any advice on how to improve in c.r. and writing? I only have like 2 weeks to study for it, because all of that AP testing.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/750399-how-attack-sat-critical-reading-section-effectively.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/750399-how-attack-sat-critical-reading-section-effectively.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-everyone-read-before-posting-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/763933-everyone-read-before-posting-best-sat-prep-forum-faqs.html</a></p>
<p>The first link helped me a lot. I went from 62 CR on my PSAT to ~750 on BB tests.</p>
<p>Katejune,</p>
<p>I will give you my two cents as an SAT tutor. </p>
<p>Two weeks is not a lot of time to make broad changes to reading comprehension skills, so I’ll address some things you could do in the short term to try and improve your results.</p>
<p>(1) Approach to answering the questions:</p>
<p>An important thing to keep in mind as you answer the reading passage questions is that each question has 5 choices:</p>
<p>(1) the right answer
(2) the “pick me!!” answer
(3) another plausible answer
(4) an answer you can easily say “that’s wrong”
(5) depending on difficulty of question - another plausible or another easily crossed off choice</p>
<p>The pick me answer is the answer that looks REALLY good, and is very tempting to pick, but if you inspect it closely enough you find the fatal flaw that makes it a wrong answer.</p>
<p>A lot of people approach reading questions using process of elimination (going answer choice by answer choice and crossing off answers they think are wrong). For the most part, this approach can work well for you. But, on the hardest questions you will often end up in a 50/50 situation and be down to the right answer and the pick me! answer. </p>
<p>If you are someone who often gets down to two but picks the wrong one, then you might want to try the following as you answer questions.</p>
<p>When a question asks you something along the lines of:Lines 26 - 29 server primarily to…</p>
<p>do NOT look at the 5 answer choices before you go back to those lines and answer the question for yourself. Come up with your own answer to that question and THEN look at the five answer choices. Then, instead of looking for the RIGHT answer choice, look for the answer choice that best matches YOUR answer.</p>
<p>This sounds like a very subtle difference, but it will go a long way towards eliminating the threat of the “Pick me!” answer because the pick me answer will not usually match what your answer to the question actually is. You may find that you have fewer 50-50 battles and that you win more of the 50-50 battles.</p>
<p>(2) vocabulary - try to jam as many words into your head over the next two weeks as you can. If you are an iPhone user, try The Daily Word - it has 1,000 words and you can make flashcards on it that you can then study each day between now and test day.</p>
<p>(3) writing - I can’t post links here, but I can send you links to my blog if you would like that will give you some tips on the various types of writing questions. Just send me a message if you’d like those links. </p>
<p>Again if you are an iPhone user, you can try SATLadder - an SAT test prep game that has almost 1,000 writing questions as well as math and critical reading questions.</p>
<p>Try the reading approach on a practice passage and see if it helps you answer the questions more efficiently. You may worry it will take you a lot more time to do it that way - it may the first time you try - but as you practice it will greatly improve your speed and accuracy.</p>
<p>Good luck!
~The Learning Edge</p>