<p>I am a junior and taking the Dec 2012 SAT I. I have been working with a tutor and consistently scoring 760+ in Math, 710+ in Writing, but haven't been able to break the 650 barrier in Critical Reading. I have one month and my goal is 700. I have been studying my butt off with vocab, and usually omit 2-3 total of those out of the 3 sections. I end up omitting ~9-10 total critical reading questions for 3 sections. I think it might be a little bit too much. But my main issue is the long passages, where I simply run out of time. What should I do? I have one month and am willing to go all-out every night when I come home. Any advice?</p>
<p>Check out this thread about analyzing the answer choices: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1390501-critical-reading-analysis-right-wrong-answer-choices.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1390501-critical-reading-analysis-right-wrong-answer-choices.html</a></p>
<p>Aim to read the long passages quickly. 2 minutes at most. You are reading for the main idea, not for details. The questions will send you back to the details you need to re-read. </p>
<p>As for vocab, study only those words that are repeat offenders. Try to keep your list short (Barron’s has an awesome list, but it’s 3500 words long). There are some excellent FREE lists out there that are every bit as good as–and in some cases better than–DH. Google repeat offenders or common words. Use sources that are legit, though—test prep companies have more of a handle of the SAT than a school district, mainly because it’s their specialty.</p>
<p>I would say the thread PSVicki posted above is a great general guide, but as for reading the passage I would suggest : </p>
<p>Long Passages:
1.) Scan the questions and bracket line references
2.) Leave main idea questions for the end as the line specific questions should paint you a pretty good picture of what the passage is talking about
3.) Read up to the first line reference and answer the corresponding question
4.) Repeat for all the questions
5.) For dual long passage comparison questions eliminate choices after reading only one passage, it will help you not get confused.</p>
<p>Using that approach and similar methods to those listed in PSVicki’s thread I jumped from 630 to 760</p>
<p>If you read slowly, it’s one of two reasons: (1) you generally read slowly, or (2) you get distracted easily.</p>
<p>For the first reason, read a lot. Start reading newspapers and magazines. It might not feel like you’re directly preparing, but it will help you read a lot faster.</p>
<p>For the second reason, you have to teach yourself to love the passage. Immerse yourself in it. Care about it. Convince yourself that you’re fascinated by the struggles of African-Americans in the 19th century.</p>
<p>As for answering the questions, it should always go quickly. For 80% of the questions, you literally have to (1) look back at the section in the passage and (2) find where the author directly says the answer. Unless it’s one of those “implied” questions, each question should literally not take you more than 20 seconds (obviously some harder ones will). Don’t try to overthink things, just look for the answer. If an answer choice isn’t stated somewhere in the passage (usually near the lines referenced by the question), it isn’t correct.</p>
<p>Also, when trying to improve CR, a mistake is to think of it as a crapshoot (“if you get lucky, you’ll do well, if you’re not, that sucks”). You have to think of it as something that is improvable, like math or writing. Every question you get wrong, think to yourself, “why did I miss this?” and then generalize that answer. What I mean by that is, say you miss a question because you put words in the author’s mouth. You might say to yourself, “in the future, I need to only choose the answer that is directly stated in the passage, and not simply because it feels right.”</p>
<p>I got an 800 in CR, and those are my tips.</p>