<p>When I was in high school, I scored sub-700 on the CR. I could max at about 690, but my score always fluctuated between 600-700.</p>
<p>Post-college: I needed a job, so I applied for Kaplan. Retested the SAT, and I got a 800/800 on that section with a ridiculous amount of time left.</p>
<p>Obviously something changed, and I've been spending my time trying to distill what that is into a textbook.</p>
<p>A lot of people say "there isn't really a trick to it -- it's practice." I don't think that's true. I think it's a metacognition game; there are reading habits that a lot of students have unconsciously, and SAT books don't really help you break those habits. They don't even go into the mechanics of how to determine what is a "main idea", they just assume you can figure out. (There are mechanics. They're taught in logic and argumentation, which aren't taught to high schoolers usually.)</p>
<p>I looked at RocketReview, and everyone seems to love it. But even in RocketReview's case, it doesn't seem to have a "how to read" set of principles, just time-management strategies. I think, maybe arrogantly, that I could give you a better CR guide. </p>
<p>So I'm wondering: other than concrete ways to improve your reading, what have you felt missing from Critical Reading prep books? Do you wish that they had more vocab? Less? What is your biggest pet peeve?</p>
<p>Also, some more questions if you have time:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>what do you think is a reasonable price for an SAT CR book?</p></li>
<li><p>how many pages do you think a CR book should have? Would you be less convinced to buy it if it had 300 pages instead of, say, 150?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I think that a great practice book should have a great test-strategies section, lots of vocabulary, and accurate practice tests and questions.
I guess that the appropriate price would be somewhere around $15, but I would be more likely to buy a 300 page book instead of a 150 page book.</p>
<p>I’ve bought full SAT books but never ones solely for CR. That said, I would look for a few things in a CR book.</p>
<p>Practice tests, practice tests, practice tests. I would not recommend that you make them up so as to present the most realistic tests as possible. I would expect answers that explain why something is wrong that ties back to the next point.</p>
<p>I’d expect there to be a strategies section. I wouldn’t want there to be only hints in the answer explanations. Strategies could tell you how to determine the mood, how to find superfluous details, etc. Hopefully this section would thoroughly cover all the kinds of questions that you could see.</p>
<p>Finally, vocab is good and all that but aside from explaining how the specific vocab questions function, there’s not much you can do. It would be cool to have a vocab list in the back of the book, but I know there are other sources for that so it wouldn’t bug me.</p>
<p>I’d buy a 300 pg book over a 150 pg book if they were the same quality and price wise.</p>
<p>Most people will tell you a price that they think is fair, like $15, but this is the price that they want to pay. You should charge the price that people WILL pay. I’d shell out less than $50 without hesitation for a CR book that has 300 pages and that is of excellent quality.</p>
<p>If it’s not too much to ask, here is my quandary with practice tests: to include the SAT’s official practice tests, I would need to license them from the college board. This means that not only would I be including older tests, which are likely to include outdated question types (some exist – you can find them in Princeton Review’s book), but this would also raise the cost of the book. I also have no idea how expensive that is; presumably thousands of dollars, since usually people who write SAT prep books work for major companies.</p>
<p>The practice tests I am considering making would be harder than the SAT’s official practice tests, and designed specifically to test the concepts taught in the guide.</p>
<p>Inb4 the problem with Barron’s: “Oh no it’s too hard compared to the actual tests. It’s pointless and a waste of time.” But the main reason people shy away from Barron’s is its faulty answers, so as long as your answers are legitimate, it should be fine.</p>
<p>Personally, I don’t think you should utilize the SAT’s official practice tests. You can find those in the blue book & on the CC website & by using other sources.</p>
<p>It would be a different story if you are implying that you would purchase practice tests never seen before by the public eye. If your textbook contains legit CollegeBoard-made practice tests that cannot be acquired anywhere else, this should raise the value of the book considerably. Perhaps it won’t raise the monetary value too substantially, but it will definitely increase the number of buyers.</p>
<p>I’m not as frugal as I ought to be. For an exceptional book with positive reviews, I would gladly cough up $50 like huehue. Nonetheless, most people are not so generous with money - $20-30 would be optimal.</p>
<p>Since D found the online practice tests so preferable because they are graded for you, I would not concern myself so much with practice tests in the book. If you are going to try to say how to evaluate and answer questions about essays, I would have many that you pick apart almost word-for-word as examples. </p>
<p>For vocab, I would spend time on how to narrow the possibilities (seeing a root word, etc.) and have the reader practice a timed test where they have to respond to X questions in 15 minutes or some such thing. On the SAT if you can even narrow the choices to 4 of 5, it’s statistically worth guessing.</p>
<p>I agree, Leerin. My problem with tests like Barron’s isn’t that they’re made by Barron’s necessarily, but that the answer choices frequently are narrowed down to two answers that aren’t indisputable, unlike the SAT. This, essentially, makes the answers arguable, which makes the test pointless as a practice tool.</p>
<p>I don’t have the means to acquire practice tests that wouldn’t be published anywhere else, though, so that’s out of the question. In fact, I’m pretty sure if they existed, the college board would have published them on their own. :)</p>
<p>Not that I doubt your abilities, but you aren’t well known, so the book (paperback and not more than 2 in. thick, without practice tests) shouldn’t be more than 20 dollars.</p>