<p>What did you miss more of-vocab or passage questions? I'm trying to get 700, and while focus on passages should be stronger, I must not get more than 4 wrong on SC, otherwise it'll be near impossible to get a 700 since missing 2-3 passage questions after that puts me at a high 600. How many SCs did you miss to give yourself breathing room for passage questions?</p>
<p>I got a 690 on the March Test ... (shame!).</p>
<p>Anyway, here's the breakdown of my CR sections:</p>
<p>1st section: I answered 23 out of 24 correctly. And omitted 1 question (a reading based one).</p>
<p>2nd section: I answered 21 out of 24 correctly. Answered 1 incorrectly (a vocab one... dude, it was the first frickin question! UGH!). I omitted 2 questions (one vocab and one passage based).</p>
<p>3rd section: I answered 16 out of 19 correctly. Missed 2 (1 vocab and 1 passage based). Omitted 1 (the very last one... passage based). </p>
<p>So basically, I missed almost equal amount of vocab and passage based!</p>
<p>Well I heard that March was harsh on the CR curve, so a 690 is very good. I don't ever omit on CR, which can be a problem for me, but it's so easy to eliminate at least 2-3 choices on the passage questions because those 2-3 are usually very stupid and make no sense or you can just tell that they aren't right if you've done a lot of practice tests. Same for vocab, hopefully I can know at least 2-3 of those words. I've got two 1000 word lists(I'm sure they share words), an entire archive of dictionary.com word of the days, and then some vocab workshop books to end it. I haven't focused on passage questions, which is worrying me. I mean I still focus on them with practice tests, but I've given most of my attention to vocab because I see it as the key to my 700.</p>
<p>I find it hard to omit questions too, but really, think about it... if you miss a question at least you aren't losing any points you have already gained!! Yes, it sucks if you were gonna take a guess but you omit and that ends up being the correct answer, but hey, one in hand is better than two in the bush! ;)</p>
<p>I don't think vocab is the key to 700 (although I have to admit I am impressed by the effort you put into learning vocab)! In my opinion, do what you can on vocab, and pwn the passage questions, because really the answers are right there! You don't have to <em>prepare</em> for them in some way and really, you can't...(except the tone questions which have anal vocab words that one doesn't know).</p>
<p>My suggestion: Forget about vocab (don't forget the words themselves... just forget about doing any more... you have done a LOT more than I did :)). Take plenty of passage based practice questions. You don't have to take the whole practice test to focus on passages. Here's a great site:
SAT</a> Sample Reading Comprehension Questions</p>
<p>Just click the next pages to get a new passage!
Good luck! =]</p>
<p>I need to keep studying vocab for surePeople say that you don't need to study vocab at all, or do flashcards, but the way I look at it, if you want your 700, someway or the other you're going to have to know the high level vocab words on those hard questions. You prepare for that. You can reason out every passage question. English was my 2nd language, and I didn't know what words like refute and conventional meant before I started studying these words. On the weekend, I will do 70% passages and 30% vocab for CR. I had a 670 on Math, which I can easily boost to a 700 no doubt in my mind.</p>
<p>English is my 2nd language too. And I didn't know the meanings of refute or conventional either. Don't be insecure about that! I'm pretty certain you know a lot of strong words. But you should realize that the SAT test makers like to really winnow out the words in the dictionary and use THEM! Words like 'vituperative' or 'doggerel'. As I have posted earlier, I still haven't heard of a single person who has not seen an unfamiliar word on the SAT (yea, even those who get 2400 encounter a vague word) . You can't cover all the bases on vocab (unless you spend all your summer memorizing the dictionary lol ;))
I just did SparkNotes 1000, and you know what really helped me with vocab? I took practice CR sections and then went over my mistakes, and underlined all the words I didn't know. After that I made my own flashcards and went over them with my brother every night for a whole month.
Pretty much engraved on my soul now. (Don't believe me? Try a whole month of SAT flashcards with your sibling or friend... :o)</p>
<p>I'm not saying you should STOP with vocab. Just try focusing more on passage questions, that's all. You said yourself that you haven't been focusing on them as much as you ought to. Anyway, it's your choice to make!</p>
<p>Good luck! =]</p>
<p>I was working on sparknotes 1000(got to the F words) until I came across this other 1000 word list of which I'm at like 360 words through. I also have to think about the ACT because if I don't do good on the SAT, I can fall back on the ACT which I'm taking 5 days later. I have to take a practice test for that as well, which will be a lot to handle for me lol.</p>
<p>Well, good luck with that too.
The ACT's just not my thing. I'm not gonna take it. Probably gonna take the SAT another time. I've got too much stuff going on to start working on the ACT.</p>
<p>Anyhow, have you given a real SAT? What were your scores?</p>
<p>If I were you, I'd just concentrate on the SAT, instead of trying to do well on both.</p>
<p>^ I've heard the ACT works better for some people, so I wouldn't say that.
But I admit that's my strategy right now.</p>
<p>I'm already fully acquainted with the SAT. Just need loads of practice now.
Turning to the ACT would be like getting a blank slate. And I don't think the SAT wants to divorce me. :)</p>
<p>I got a 740 with 3 wrong on MArch SAT. two of these questions were level 1 and level 2 questions. I actaully only gto one question that was deemed higher than level 3.</p>
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<p>Don't you hate it when the questions you get wrong are like Level 1-3? >_<
Btw, I envy you.</p>
<p>yeah, same for me.</p>
<p>i read the Barron's 3500 list and got -0 on SC. pretty extensive list. PR is good also. imo, SC's are the easier than many passage questions.</p>
<p>In October 2007 I scored a "perfect" 800 in Critical Reading.</p>
<p>I answered one question wrong: a "difficult" question on the passage reading.</p>
<p>Last March I got an 800 and missed one level 5 vocab question. </p>
<p>I didn't study ANY vocab at all fyi, because I regarded it as a waste of time. I would only recommend studying vocab if you consistently get 25% or more of the SC wrong.</p>