<p>Ok. Ive been scoring around 800 in math.. 730 in Writing and like 400- 450 in critical reading..</p>
<p>Ive used the Barrons Critical Reading Workbook but its way too hard and the questions are so irrelevant of what i can expect from the REAL SAT I need help on passages. I am pretty good at sentence completions..</p>
<p>What should i use to prepare for passages. I understand PRACTICE is the way to go but I still cannot figure out some stuff and THINK like the author. I try to be very focused but I still stumble on them.</p>
<p>What Book other than Practicing from books should I use to prepare myself to understand the questions they ask and how to attack them...</p>
<p>PLEASE HELP ME AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.. I NEED TO IMPROVE FROM 450 to at least 650- 700.. Im willing to put the time into it.. Forget school.. thats fine.</p>
<p>Hmm, what's your strategy? Do you read the passages or the questions first? If you haven't done so already, maybe you could try browsing through the questions and marking the lines "of interest" before you actually start reading. Then simply answer as you read - it worked for me!!</p>
<p>I was not doing too well on the CR either. My strategy was to read a paragraph or two and then answer the questions pertaining to those paragraphs. I then continued to read the other paragraphs and answer the questions in the same fashion.
This is effective because you make yourself understand the passage as you're reading it as opposed to after you have finished reading it.</p>
<p>Also, on the section where you compare passages there is often a question comparing the author's message in passage 1 vs. passage 2 (or something along those lines). In this case, you should read passage 1 and immediately cross out the answers in that multiple choice question that do not have the correct message assigned to passage 1. Oftentimes, you are just left with two answers.</p>
<p>I used these aforementioned techniques and performed significantly better.</p>
<p>I will use these techniques in the next few days and hopefully I can see better results. I gotta finish reading more Vocabulary. There are way too many vocab in this Barron's Book.</p>
<p>I hate these passages. They're killing me. Hopefully I can pull it off.</p>
<p>Don't cram vocab... It's useless trying to cram the Barrons words now... I've been trying and they just don't stick.</p>
<p>Also, most people who get their CR score to ~700, read the WHOLE passage first. This was a problem for me because I would lose focus, but forcing myself to do that helped me raise my PSAT score from 56 to 65, so ~90 point gain on the SAT. And practice with CB questions: BB, 10 RS, and online course. In MY opinion, it would be fairly difficult to get you score upto 700 by doing the questions first or reading the paragraphs.</p>
<p>Practice, practice, practice...after a while picking the correct answers will be somewhat intuitive, and you'll be able to narrow most questions down to two "good" answers. Study vocabularly, but don't waste too much time on it.</p>
<p>Yeah. I think im not gonna break it. Practicing from Blue book for me isnt enough. ive tried the 11 sats by princeton review but they're so hard.</p>
<p>Best way to improve it by practice. Considering I have 3 days for this.. How can I improve it and learning how to attack them. I looked at Barrons 2400. Ive looked at the Blue Book. </p>
<p>is PRACTICE my only choice? anyone just do the blue book and improved dramatically cuz then thats my position and I need to improve like crazy.</p>
<p>Time is very limited for you however there is a slight chance you might actually pull it off. Remember when you do your collegeboard blue book you are practicing but you are also trying to look for patterns in their problems so that you can figure out what they ask you. Do more practice tests and if possible study some kaplan vocab. words. Good luck.</p>
<p>I used to read the entire passage and then do the questions. I usually missed 5 or 6 total in CR. Then, I tried doing the Barron's 2400 method, which was to underline all the lines that are in the questions first, and then divide the reading into chunks. Then, I started losing 5 or 6 in EACH CR section. CONSISTENTLY. So, at least for me, reading the whole thing is best. But, you have to make sure you are really taking in all the information, not just reading without actually paying attention. It's all about focus.</p>
<p>my method for vocab: (stolen from a CC member)</p>
<p>put a ton of post it notes all over your room with vocab you dont know. go around studying the words and dont take any down until you feel like you've mastered the word.</p>
<p>also today i carried around about 50 post it notes in a stack with words and definitions on the back. just quizzing myself throughout the day enabled me to know all the words by the end of the day.</p>
<p>good luck. I am hoping to go from 650 CR to 710</p>
<p>I dont think Vocab is a problem for me. But I'll surely focus on Kaplan's Vocab over the others. I'll probably make like 200-250 flashcards today so that I can learn vocab words that I dont know from there. I mean. I have at least 3-4 hours in my school to actually study for this. So I can finish those 250 or 300 flashcards. </p>
<p>Ill just practice with reading passages as I go along. Im trying to finish at least the 1st 3 or 4 practice tests in Collegeboard SAT Book by tonight(correctiing and looking over) and basically work my butt off tomorrow night and skip school on friday for finishing touches </p>
<p>Hopefully that can get me a 700+ Thats all Im hoping for not even a 800. Just a 710 or above because I know for sure Im not gonna get an 800. Thats crazy and would be a miracle.
Thanks</p>
<p>I had a problem similar to your's, except not so extreme. Really, my advice for a huge improvement in Critical Reading is to CONCENTRATE as much as possible, and also to use anticipation. What I mean by anticipation, is asking yourself questions in your head to give yourself a better meaning of the text, and to help complete questions. DON'T skip to answers immediately, take your time, and you should do fine.</p>