Reading a lot helps you more than learning words 3000 words from barrons.

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>I am a junior right now in my high school. I am bad at reading. I cannot focus while reading and i cannot grab the information. So right now i have a bad SAT score.
480 on CR
630 on Math
470 on Writing..
Well i saw some forum and read those. Well many of them insisted on reading novels than reading the words. Well i think, i have to become pretty serious. </p>

<p>Can you guys give me the name of novels from where i can start developing my skills on reading?
I hope this will work..</p>

2

<p>I’ve read quite a few books of literary merit and have a pretty good CR score (700), so I’d be glad to help!
If you don’t really like reading, some easier but important books you can start out with are To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, Anthem, Of Mice and Men…I’m not suggesting you have to read all of them, but you can look them up and choose which one sounds the most interesting to you. Personally, I like the first two the best; I read To Kill a Mockingbird in the 9th grade, and that’s the book that inspired my writing style. I would also suggest The Catcher in the Rye, but it doesn’t really include a lot of SAT words in context, but it is a great book to get teenagers interested in reading. </p>

<p>Some other books you might want to consider are The Great Gatsby, 1984 (or Animal Farm, both by George Orwell and both VERY important books!), Metamorphosis (very short Kafka work, but if you read this, I would suggest you read some study guides or criticisms afterward; your understanding of this story on many levels would help you in analyzing literature), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (somewhat childish, but imperative reading), and any Shakespeare if you feel comfortable with it. Romeo and Juliet is the easiest, but I prefer Hamlet. </p>

<p>Of course, there’s supposedly a list of books whose passages appear on the SAT, but to me, trying to read those would be ridiculous. There’s only a small chance that what you read will actually appear on the test, and it would be a much better use of your time to read books that will hone your critical reading skills, rather than reading one book, trying to understand it, and hoping that you’ll see it again on the SAT. </p>

<p>If you want extra help, I would suggest asking your English teacher if maybe he or she could assign you analysis essays on the books you read, not necessarily for a grade, but so you can get pointers on how to read without your brain acting as a funnel. </p>

<p>I’m sure this all sounds very tedious, but the reading part is pretty fun! Most of the books I listed are pretty good, and some are my absolute favorites. It’ll be worth it!</p>

3

<p>I’m not sure reading books will help too much with the passage parts. You’d be better off learning the techniques that are available on this website or prep-books. For vocabulary, I’m also not convinced it will help much unless your vocabulary is weak on the most fundamental level. You would be dependant on the words the author chose as well as having to look up the definition for each word you don’t know. The moment you do this, you may as well just be learning it off a list instead of out of the dictionary, especially as this list is designed for the SAT and so far more likely to come up on the actual test. Context clues won’t teach you the exact meanings needed for vocab. questions. </p>

<p>I would say the only part of the SAT reading novels is useful for is the essay, and even in that part you really can do without.</p>

<p>What could be useful would be taking random passages from books or articles and writing down the tone of the author, underlining the lines that give information and highlighting the words that indicate opinions/feelings. Try to define the difficult words and come up with synonyms and only if you can’t do this, look up the definition.</p>

4

<p>You need to read - a lot - to improve your score. I would recommend the opinion or editorial pages of the newspaper as a good place to start. That is the place where the best, highest level writing is found. Get a subscription and do this every day for three months. As you are reading, underline any word that you don’t know. When you are done with the passage, look up each one and make a flash card.</p>

<p>After 3 months, test yourself again.</p>

5

<p>Personally, I think that reading novels will not make such a great impact on your score. In my experience with studying for the SAT, I found doing practice tests much more important. Beyond format, it can help with recognizing patterns in the questions. Especially in math and writing, there are only a finite number of topics College Board can test you on, so some questions are bound to be repeated (even with different wording or numbers).</p>

<p>Since you said you were a junior, your time is relatively short. It will probably be more efficient to just practice. Still, if you insist on reading, I would recommend just anything you have interest in- if you like politics, read political articles; if you like science, read scientific journals, etc.</p>