<p>Hey I wil be taking the PSAT this year and I need atleast a 64 CR. Thus far I have a 56. My plan is to read books (classical) for atleast 4 hours a day for 2 months along with New Yorker (fiction section) every week. Is that a good idea? Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Yep.. you should also get a vocab book like "Word Smart" by princeton review. You wouldn't have to study the whole book though, the back has a hit parade of the most common words seen on the SAT and also has a greek/latin roots section.</p>
<p>Def. up your vocabulary. I cannot stress how effective it is knowing what you are reading instead of wondering what that one word means.</p>
<p>definetly read but just reading won't do you any good. You have to read and analyze things because that is what the SAT will test you on. For vocabulary, princeton review has the best books for learning it because they concentrate on words your actually likely to encounter on the actual exam. But, to be completely honest, going back through past vocabulary excersices that you do in your own school english class would be the most beneficial, because your teacher really knows the words that you'll have to know. The SAT is not there to test if you know every word in the english dictionary, but rather if you have a grasp of basic vocabulary that the standard educated adult would know. I received an 800 on critical reading both times I took the SAT, and I only studied from vocab books/excersices we used in my english class.</p>
<p>..........reading doesn't help you that much</p>
<p>I beg to differ...reading can only help. But it depends on what you read.</p>
<p>People are often so focussed on Vocab, they forget there are reading comprehension questions in the Critical Reading section that also demand similar preparation. You want to practice reading complex texts, but avoid the classics. Try to read the newspaper every day, and ALWAYS do the reading for whatever textbooks you have at school, as often the passages on the exam are both nonfiction and confusing (just like my Physics textbook!!).</p>
<p>Also, try to find a few books that are FUN to read, but still challenging, just so you can practice reading. This would NOT be the "great classics" of English literature, because none of the texts on the reading comprehension part of the test are going to be from 1800's or even 1900's language. It's all going to be from the modern English language, but still rather complex.</p>
<p>So, go get a modern novel about something that interests you. It may sound stupid, because everyone knows how to read, but when you have a big bulk of text and a short amount of time, it can be a challenge! Plus, reading books IS fun!</p>
<p>Confused_student definitely made a point. I think we benefit much more from reading when we really love it. Classic novels are great, no doubt but you must know that if you read them just for the sake of SAT, it will be utterly tiresome and torturous.
But still I have a small question: As for the kind of modern novel, are S,Seldon's works sophisticated enough ? Just one thing for sure: they are extremely mesmerizing. All replies are appreciated :)</p>
<p>4 hours a day is going to be a lot of reading</p>