<p>I score constantly around 580 on the reading section with scores in the late 700's on the math and writing section....its really unfortunate...but what do you guys recommend i do in order to fix this problem...im a junior by the way...
my dream schools are UVA/William and Mary/Vanderbilt/Emory....</p>
<p>I've always struggled in English and I don't know why...it's quite upsetting...</p>
<p>right now my scores are: 760M 740W 580CR=2080 total....which is alright for my schools if just concerning the total score...</p>
<p>There is no substitute. There is no circumvention (SAT word). Take 500 CR practice tests and you wont get one iota (SAT word) better if you don't read. Read for hours a day. Read on weekends. Read while on the bus to school. Read when you wake up and read before you go to sleep. Read instead of going to college confidential (sorry cc :P). And not just those lame pansy books either.</p>
<p>Challenge yourself. If you can fly through a book in 5 seconds you haven't learned anything. If you pick up a book and stumble through the first page and have to read it twice or three times to understand what the author is saying, <em>then</em> you've got something. Buy it and bring it home and sit on the couch and ponder the sentences and the meaning.</p>
<p>And after a few months of this you will destroy the CR.</p>
<p>(This is copypasta from an older post, but I'll never be able to say it better)</p>
<p>So true. My son never reads. He got a 60 on the CR, a 73, and 74 on the math and writing of the PSAT. Probably blew NM because of it. No video games this Christmas. Got him Stephen Colbert and John Stewart. Not great literary works, but at least it's something he'll read.</p>
<p>The best thing to do is to read. Read anything. The news is always a good place to start, especially with everything going on in the world, the news nowadays is really interesting. if you can't get your hands on a good book, or like shorter material, magazines are always good. I suggest Time, or if you're a little advanced, The Economist - both are excellent mags. I became a really avid reader sometime in junior year and I saw my previously embarassing SAT CR scores flip ie. 570 to 750. </p>
<p>One note though, make sure you think about what you're reading. Don't skim. I know some SAT prep books (I think PR) tell you to skim the CR passage to get the gist, but when you are reading the news, magazines, books, etc. make sure you think about what you are reading, and go so far as to think what your own opinions are on the topic. This is what I call critically analyzing a piece of literature. It can be much more fun then sitting in English class with your teacher and reading Hamlet. (Unless you love Shakespeare, of course.)</p>
<p>Reading for months would probably boost your score by a lot, but I doubt most people would ever commit to something like that.</p>
<p>For me, I just did a lot of practice CR sections. After a week or so the answers all seemed much clearer to me. </p>
<p>Off-topic:
everyone seems to do good on the writing except for me..
I think on my last SAT i only got 2 or 3 wrong on the MC and ended up with a 650 because of a 6 on the essay. *^&^&%^&()</p>
<p>yeah i agree with the everyone else. Especially since you're a junior, you're probably planning on taking it more than oncee, read more books! Books that are not exactly "easy" to read, but you can still understand.
Also VOCAB! Collegeboard not only reuses many vocab words, but they pick them out of a range of 1500-2500. Since you're still a junior, you need to be in it for the long haul. Start with 10 a day, and then increase gradually. Within 3-4 months you can easily finish and review 2-3 thousand words.
Other than that, just start looking for the traps that CB puts into the Passage based mult choice. Because these traps are often repeated. I know that sounds crazy, but just go through each multiple choice question and decipher right from wrong, as well as why, and what was the answer that seems correct but isn't. The text supports almost every answer, the rest are off your ability to make smart inferences. Which are made by becoming a more avid READER!</p>
<p>This is all BS. I scored an 80 CR PSAT and 760 SAT CR, and I don't read very much. Taking CR practice tests is the PERFECT way to get your score up because it forces you to read and it makes you read exactly what sort of things the SAT tests.</p>
<p>I jumped from a 590 to a 690 just by taking practice tests. I also read and memorized the Hit Parade from Princeton review.</p>
<p>Looking back, I wish I would've put even more time in vocab, I bet that would easily have gotten me the 700+. </p>
<p>I'm not an avid reader either, and I can vouch that taking lots and lots of timed practice tests WILL help you. You'll just "feel" it after awhile. Make sure you carefully review what you miss!</p>
<p>You know whats funny? The passages for CR is basically a hide-and-go-seek game.
The answers are always explicitly or implicitly stated in the passage.</p>
<p>The way to ace the CR section is to familiarize yourself with the format of the passage.
Because the SAT is a standardized test, the ETS can't change much.</p>
<p>You know where to look, you will get a high score.
I never did read (too lazy), but I ended up fine. (700CR) :]</p>
<p>I'll also say that I am a pretty avid reader and with no studying only got a 630 on my CR (I think a 71 or something on PSAT). Maybe I'm just dumb, but I think it's more about being able to read SAT passages quickly and thoroughly. Reading will definitely help for the vocab (usually don't get any of those wrong), but the other stuff you just need to practice for.</p>
<p>I'm not telling you not to read (double negative?), but it definitely helps to familiarize yourself with test questions. The CR section was my worst section too, but by taking practice tests, I was able to improve my score quite a bit (on the Oct. administration I got a 730, which was my highest section). Make sure you understand the concept that the answer MUST restate a portion of the passage. After some time you will be able to "feel" what the right answer is. </p>
<p>Also, keep in mind that the curve for CR is relatively lenient. I know a lot of people say study vocab, but you can still get an 800 while missing the hardest vocab question from every section. This is my personal opinion, but I'd say not to worry to much about the sentence completions and to focus more on the passage based questions.</p>
<p>I got a 603 in CR... what I'm doing to improve that is reading and reading and reading and reading. There's an SAT reading list on the college board's website, with 101 books on there. I've been reading books off of that list, might even get through all 101 before I actually have to take it for real.</p>
<p>i don't read much these days (used to read extensively two years ago though) but i had 760 CR on the december SAT. strategies and test familiarity and useful vocab are the three things you need most. most of the techniques i used, i got from this site. so look around and see what works for you.</p>
<p>you don't have to read books. you can read good newspapers like ny times, wall street journal, washington post, and the economist. as with exercise the best reading practice is the kind you'll do, so find fun things that are a bit high-brow. academic books about sex, david sedaris, that guy who committed suicide this year (david foster wallace, i think), the laugh out loud guide to the sat. the last got me out of a studying rut with funny passages written by a professional comedy writer and princeton phd.</p>
<p>Ask ur english teacher and make sure they are good at it. Im a soph and my strongest subject is CR while Math is my worst. Knowing most of the grammar rules and sentence editing is most important.</p>