Improving SAT reading score... Best strategies?

Test Preparation
1

Hi,

I’m currently a junior looking for some tips on how to improve my SAT reading score come application time next fall. I’ve taken the SAT three times now since freshman year, and on all of them my reading score has been the worst by far. By the second time I was able to get my math and writing scores up quite a bit, but as of now my reading score has barely improved at all-- only a 680.

I wouldn’t be pushing for such a high reading score, but the average standardized test score of those accepted to my dream college is quite high and I don’t want to look like I’m settling. I’ll probably take the SAT one last time, just before school starts.

Any suggestions for study material or tips would be greatly appreciated. I’m fine with the vocab section, but I usually miss 7 or so on the passage based q’s. How much time should I devote to studying if I wanted to improve my current score by at least 70-80 points (ideally by 100) within the next few months?

Thank you in advance, and good luck to everyone else facing pre-SAT/ACT angst this time of year.

2

College Board Blue Book. Do every single CR section of the 10 practice tests. By the end, you will have the entire format of each critical reading section memorized,and will be able to pick out what they are looking for. Good luck!

3

Putting a lot of work into learning advanced vocabulary and grammar is usually the best way to go. There are a decent amount of sites out there that can help you in this area, but just to name a few, you can use the following to start -

http://www.majortests.com/sat/critical-reading.php
http://www.varsitytutors.com/sat_critical_reading-practice-tests
http://www.learnerator.com/course-library

4

I don’t think that doing the CR tests in the blue book (or anywhere else) repeatedly without refining your technique is going to help very much. You’d be best served by working through Erica Meltzer’s book. http://www.amazon.com/Critical-Reader-Erica-L-Meltzer/dp/1479224715/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429422919&sr=8-1&keywords=meltzer+critical+reading
It will require some work – as she states in the preface she didn’t dumb the book down. But it helped both my sons raise their CR scores (to 750 and 780).
We also bought this book which concentrates solely on the reading comprehension part of the CR test. http://www.amazon.com/SAT-Reading-Comprehension-Workbook-Advanced/dp/0991388305/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_z
My son never got to it. I looked through it. I think that it also has some useful tips, but it’s not as comprehensive as Meltzer’s book.

Good luck.

5

I read the SAT prep black book. I think that CR’s explanations are really helpful to think how the CR section is based. They give the best approach of the CR section of the SAT.

6

Thanks to all for the helpful input. Will definitely look into all of these review books after pre-AP week stress is over.