<p>Right now I have a 570 in Critical Reading, not complaining, but I would like it to be higher. What really confuses me though is that I have a 720 in Writing.... Is there any easy way that I could get my Critical Reading score up to close to where my Writing score is, or maybe some hints or suggestions from experience?
Thanks</p>
<ol>
<li>learn vocab (alot- the more the better)</li>
<li>learn to summarize passages and understand it clearly</li>
</ol>
<p>The writing scores and critical reading scores are unrelated. Just because you perform well in one area doesn’t mean you will perform well in the other. Practice taking critical reading sections out of practice tests and your critical reading score is sure to improve.</p>
<p>^^^I have to agree with mvanthof–critical reading and writing scores have no correlation (i.e. I consistently get a 750+ on Writing, but my Critical Reading scores very from (640 to 740, but mostly in the mid 600s)</p>
<p>2) There is no ‘easy’ way to increase your Critical Reading score</p>
<p>3) The best advice anyone on this site can give you is to read Direct Hits vocabulary–both editions–and understand that all answers to reading passage questions are derived from the passage</p>
<p>For the passages, don’t get tempted by wrong answers that are mostly correct, but have one critical word that isn’t supported by the passage. Every word of your choice has to be correct! Also, for author’s tone type questions, focus on the first word of the answer choice which is often something like “argue” or “explain” or “discuss” - you’ll know from the passage whether or not the author is arguing anything and you can rule out answer choices just based on that.</p>
<p>As for vocab, there was a thread recently with everyone’s vocab suggestions - I can seem to find it in a quick search, but if you dig you can find it, I’m sure. There’s lots of advocates for Direct Hits, and I think it’s fine, but I refer my students to [Word-Nerd:</a> vocabulary test prep for the SAT and PSAT](<a href=“http://www.word-nerd.com%5DWord-Nerd:”>http://www.word-nerd.com) - it’s really efficient, and you can learn a lot quickly. Everyone’s got their favorites on CC, so you’ll find tons of good suggestions.</p>
<p>Lots of luck!</p>