<p>I took the SAT for the second time in October and did extremely awful o
in the CR section: 470.
I really get frustrated while practicing. Sometimes I read the passage and for instance I feel that I did read nothing. And sometimes I read the passage and miss understand it. My problem isn't with the question; my problem is with the passage itself. It's really awful! I get so bored and frustrated while reading because I seldom understand what it means. And that is, indeed, awful.
I've been through dozens of forums and I got nothing useful from any of them. Some of them say: READ! READ! READ! and others say some techniques to approach the screwed passage.</p>
<p>I really need some PRAGMATIC help!</p>
<p>First, getting frustrated doesn’t help at all, which I have learned from experience. There is hope just stay calm and keep practicing. My CR was not great but considering I jumped from the same score as you to a 660 I would say my improvement was pretty significant. I bought a practice book and just went through all of the 12 tests the book provided. Also, I find when reading a long passage it helps to read the entire thing thoroughly and when your reading block everything out of your head, including any anxiety that you might have. Last, try not to think about how boring or difficult the passage is to read and instead focus on reading the passage and finding connections in the passage to make it easier to understand.</p>
<p>I agree with Penn. I used to have psat scores in the 400s range. I think it helps when I read the passages and try making them sound interesting to myself. This is difficult to do since some of the reading topics are extremely crass, but i just try to connect what I’m reading to what I know. Also, I often lose track of what I’m reading, when i realize this I stop, pull myself together, and then reread the sentences I didn’t register. I don’t kno if this helps, but whenever there is a break on the SAT, I rush to the bathrooM, to wash my face with cold water. This helps me wake up, especially for the reading passages! XD</p>
<p>Thanks a lot! I’ll do by best.</p>
<p>Hey, I know a lot of my friends who struggle with Critical Reading. I know it sounds harsh, but Critical Reading is not like the other sections; it’s very hard to improve. You have to constantly read books. My advice is, don’t read books that you force yourself to read because it’s considered high level, read books that you enjoy but that aren’t too easy. I grew up enjoying and loving books, and that’s why I get in the 700s in CR. Also, about 15 questions on the CR are the vocab questions, so study your vocab and you’ll get the vocab section easily. On the reading passages, look at the questions FIRST, and the questions follow a chronological pattern with the passage so instead of reading the whole passage first, go along with the line references from the questions and answer them as you go along the passage. It wastes wayy too much time reading the whole passage and then reading back to the line references. ALSO, a key thing to look out for, is DONT INFER. What I mean is, don’t think out of the text. The answer is IN those line references, anything that you assume and infer is WRONG, unless the questions asks you to infer. I realized a lot of people do infer on the questions, and that’s why they get it wrong. THE MAIN THING IS STICK WITH THE TEXT. I hope I somehow helped!</p>