<p>I got an 800 math, 620 cr, and 640 writing. I really want to bring up my critical reading score. What is the best way to do this??? Right now I'm just reading more than I used to and I'm going to take a look at the more commonly used words found on the SAT.</p>
<p>Do a lot of practice problems that are not in practice tests. Buy the Kaplan's CR book, there are lots of practice quizzes in which you can set your own time. Set goals for yourself once you start taking the test, tell yourself to do x amount of problems in N minutes. </p>
<p>When you're finally ready to take practice tests, give yourself a minute of two less, you are pushing yourself a lot harder this way and the real test will seem so much easier. </p>
<p>I don't advise you to memorize 2000+ words for the Sat, but do memorize 500-1000 words. The new test focuses more on reading than it does on writing which means that you can get by on sentence completions easier than you can on the passages. </p>
<p>Read from your text books; if you have any A.P classes read a bit from the text books everyday. The material is dry, essentially emulating real CR reading questions. </p>
<p>I did some work and raised my CR score from a 560-710, so it can be done quite easily.</p>
<p>know why each answer is right or wrong, it can always be concretely supported. dont think that finding the answer is based on interpretation. in cr, it's almost always explicitly stated in the passage. but then again you need to be able to recognize what the passage says literally, and without vocab it is difficult i agree, but take each question one at a time instead of looking at the passage as a whole...especially on questions where it says, "refer to lines..."</p>
<p>secondly, i disagree with the previous post. use only real passages from real sats or the official sat guide. other test prep could mislead you by giving you a lower or higher score than you would get on real problems. </p>
<p>DONT rush through the real sats wasting all the problems. dissect every single one until you have no doubts at all. skipping over a problem because you cant understand the answer is reverse productive.</p>
<p>finally, if anything, if i were you i'd look to improve my writing score which is much easier than improving reading scores. you just need to memorize the FEW grammar rules used over and over again on every SAT. in one week you can see dramatic improvement in writing.</p>