<p>Critical reading has been my weakest subject on the SAT, and am trying to improve the score this week.</p>
<p>How do you guys study for this section? The only thing I have come up with is taking practice tests, and just knowing what strategy I will use for the longer sections ( for example, whether or not to read to score or to read and know fully everything about the question).</p>
<p>If anyone can give me some advice on how to practice for the critical reading section, it would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Try reading the question “stems” (meaning the questions, but not the answer choices) before reading the paragraph. Then make a note of the line numbers referenced in the stems and pay special attention to those lines while reading the paragraph. If a specific word is mentioned, circle it. If it helps, every time you encounter one of these words or lines while you are reading, reference the question and see if you can answer it yet. </p>
<p>For the questions about main idea, etc., make a note of what it is asking at the bottom of the page. Then compare, after reading the paragraph/two paragraphs. </p>
<p>Finally, look at the answer choices. You don’t want the choices to influence your thinking before you’ve even tried searching for an answer. Of course, if you absolutely have no clue, try the process of elimination. </p>
<p>I found that this method (along with a lot of common sense) works for me, and I got a perfect score on this section (it jumped 130 points!). Granted, I did have almost two years between tests. </p>
<p>Thanks man! I’ll try these strategies. Basically, its tough to study for this section other than having a plan as to how you will go about each question? I’ll take a practice test tomorrow and review some answers then!</p>
<p>Yeah. The long passages are tough because trying to read both of them in a condensed period of time is a pain, and then they ask questions along the lines of compare/contrast… The other 2 sections are easy to practice with, just CR has always been troubling to me.</p>
<p>The Critical Reading really is annoying me, last practice I got 6 wrong, 4 vocab and only 2 comprehension (one I accidentally left blank because I forgot to go back to it), then this time I get 1 vocab wrong and 10 comprehension wrong, and the annoying thing is the most interesting passage (to me) was the one I did the worst on</p>
<p>I usually mark up the lines with questions in the passage and then answer the questions, with looking at the stem before the choices, but apparently that didn’t work for me today</p>
<p>Maybe if the passage interests you too much, you focus on the content and the information rather than on what the test is testing. Try focusing on what you need to, eliminating all extraneous information.</p>
<p>What I don’t understand is that I always understand what I did wrong AFTER I check the answers with the key, but then I continue to make an obscene amount of errors test after test</p>
<p>At this rate I’m going to get a 650 on CR on Saturday</p>
<p>It depends what part you screw up on. I get near perfect on the actual readings, but sometimes I falter on the vocabulary part. I get most of them, but there is always an oddball in there that throws me off.</p>
<p>I don’t know, it used to be the vocab, but I learned a fair amount of words this week, and on the last two tests I’ve got 1 and 2 SC wrong respectively, so it’s the passages that are killing me, which is odd because I usually feel pretty good about them.</p>
<p>Some one them are just me not reading carefully enough, but others I don’t know why I’m getting them wrong</p>
<p>It does all come down to your own little tricks and learning style. For example, I used to think outside of the box when it came to questions like inference, but I realized that all the answers are right in front. Another one would be I would be given line references and I would over think about them, while the answer was in those lines.</p>
<p>The odd thing is that what I used to do too, and now I make sure to try to make sure any answer I choose is stated in the passage, but I guess I might not be focused enough? I don’t know. Hopefully I’m just focused on Saturday. I still have October and November worst case scenario since I’m done with SAT II’s</p>
<p>If anything, I just say each word in my head and figure out if the word has a positive/negative tone then eliminate from there. Then with the remaining words, I’ll try to find prefixes/suffixes or similar words I actually know and try to fit the word into the sentence.</p>
<p>For the passages, if you can’t find the sentences that support your answer, then it’s wrong! I’ve realized that every correct answer has at least one line in the passage that supports the answer. When I practiced for my first SAT (Jan.), I used to write little notes on the margins for why the answer is correct then draw arrows pointing to the evidence I found in the passage. So basically, I just convince myself Collegeboard is right, and what I thought should be the answer was wrong. :o</p>
<p>If you are missing vocab questions, there is nothing you can do but study vocab. Get Direct Hits 1+2, Vocabulary cartoons, Barrons list, ipod apps, etc.</p>
<p>If you are missing passage reading questions, you just need to practice those types of questions over and over and over. Theres no secret. You just need to practice until you can read effectively and efficiently. </p>
<p>Also, answer by crossing out wrong choices. This helps a lot for CR. When you just circle the first thing that sounds right, you often choose a wrong or ‘not-as-right’ answer. When you answer by crossing out, you can always get down to 2 choices and make a strong choice then.</p>
<p>I was taking practice test 8, and literally got 8 ?s wrong in one section… My high on reading was like 660 on p tests…</p>
<p>The practice test I took today was horribleeeee… There was an inference question asking “Which of the following hypothetical situations is best explained by lines blah blah blah”… the correct answer was so stupidlyyyy unpredictable… </p>
<p>How can I improve my reading to a 650+ from a 550 average by tomorrow???</p>
