<p>I did my first SAT test in March and got</p>
<p>Math - 790
Reading - 590
Writing - 700 (69 & 9 )</p>
<p>Although I'm not satisfied with my Writing score, I can always improve on it because Grammar's just like math; once you know the material, you'll never forget it. However, I'm EXTREMELY disappointed with my reading score, and it's difficult for me to improve on it because you don't know what to expect before the test. There's no way to prep for it.</p>
<p>So what can I do?</p>
<p>Appreciate the help</p>
<p>Well, the Critical Reading section is made up of 2 very different question types: Sentence Completions and the passage based Critical Reading questions themselves.</p>
<p>It is difficult to learn long, detailed definitions in a short amount of time, but to do well on the Sentence Completions you don’t need that level of detail. Instead, break words down to their basic sentiment. For instance, Lugubrious mean “excessively mournful”, but you can just know it means “sad”. Then you’ll find that many words can be placed into word families, meaning you’ll know 20 words that pretty much mean “sad”. That will be enough because the test is never that specific. You could read a sentence and have no idea what word needs to go in the blank, but if two of the answer choices are words from your “sad” word family you can confidently eliminate both because the test wouldn’t make you choose.</p>
<p>For the Passages the best thing you can do is manage your time. Don’t spend more than a minute reading the passage. Instead read only the introduction, first sentence of each paragraph and the final sentence then get to the questions. It is in OPEN BOOK test at that point and many questions give you line references so you’ll know exactly where to look for the answers! By eliminating all the time usually spent reading the passage, you’ll have far more time to understand the question and the tricky answer choices.</p>
<p>Oh, and if an answer choice has an “extreme” word like ALWAYS, NEVER, BEST, etc. it probably won’t be right because the test can’t take the chance they’d be wrong.</p>
<p>Hope this helps and good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks ExpectSuccess,</p>
<p>I will now expect success :)</p>