<p>I must be doing something terribly wrong. My critical reading score has remained stagnant (600-670), regardless of the prep books I have used. I've recently finished The Complete Guide to SAT Critical Reading by Erica L. Meltzer, but the book hasn't done much to improve my score. I don't think it's because the book is bad; it got excellent reviews and people claimed to have raised their scores by a lot using it and I have learned a lot from it, but I must be studying or reviewing wrong. I'm going to be a junior this school year, taking AP English, and I have been in Honors English for the years prior, maintaining solid A's. So I don't think my reading skills are weak; what is the best way to improve my score? I have the whole summer to review, and I am willing to adopt any rigorous study schedules/techniques that'll help me raise my Critical Reading score to above a 700. And in case you are wondering, my other scores are: 740-780 writing, and 700-750 math. Critical reading is the only section bringing me down. And just to add, I raised my math score the same way I tried raising my Critical Reading score: by buying books specific to the subject (for math I used PWN the SAT). The only difference is that my math grade improved, but my critical reading grade didn't.</p>
<p>Sorry one last thing: here are the things I have done to practice/study for the Critical Reading section
1. I read news articles and magazines like those from The Economist and The New York Times. I also read for pleasure frequently.
2. I try "talking to the text" by underlining, circling key words, in the passage.
3. I try to identify the main idea, as well as the structure of the passage (ex: they say, I say).
4. I tried untimed and timed critical reading sections (from the blue book of course) but get similar results.
5. I review my answers online on the college board website. Although, sometimes I don't understand CB's explanations.
6. I have also tried various methods like reading the entire passage first, then answering the questions. Another method I used was answering the questions as I work through the passage.
7. I skim the questions for line references, and bracket the references so that I could pay attention to them as I read.
8. I also know to be suspicious of extreme words like "never, always, all, etc..."
9. I also familiarize myself with common topics that the reading passages are about (like the mind-body problem).</p>
<p>Feel free to share your study methods, techniques, schedules, etc... </p>
<p>You’re a lot like I used to be - you know the strategies, you know the test extremely well, but your score is stagnant. So here’s what I have for you:</p>
<p>1) Try some untimed Blue Book practice tests, and try to get 100%.
2) How’s your vocab? In case that’s holding you down, do some vocab practice by buying a book like Direct Hits. Or, try an app like Mindsnacks (found on the Apple App store).
3) Take AP Lang (which you will be this year). You will do some extremely tough multiple choice practice questions, assuming you have a good teacher. He/she will hopefully prepare you well for the AP test, and believe it or not, your SAT CR score will also indirectly (directly?) improve. Trust me, I have personal experience with this. For best results, take the SAT in June of junior year.</p>
<p>If 2 and 3 don’t work well (or if you’re not planning to wait until you have completed AP Lang), keep doing 1. It helps A LOT. Plus, once you have nailed accuracy, timing should be a piece of cake.</p>
<p>Oh I’m glad someone has gone through this. I read all these posts and articles about how people went from a 450-800 on CR, but when I apply their strategies nothing seems to be working. I also heard that H.S English, regardless of AP, Honors, CP, etc…, doesn’t really reflect your ability to tackle the SAT CR section. But I heard that after taking AP lang people improved their CR scores, so I guess I’ll just have to find out. And I’m planning to take my SAT in November, but I’m definitely going to retake it in June if I don’t do so well. </p>
<p>By 100% in the Blue Book practice tests, do you mean to retake the tests until I get 100%? I heard from a couple of people to keep redoing the blue book tests until you get a 100%, so I’ll probably try that, but wouldn’t you know the answers after taking the test once? </p>
<p>And my vocab doesn’t seem to be a problem; I have a pretty strong grasp on words and I usually get 2-3 vocab questions wrong per test. I’ll definitely brush up on my vocab though.</p>
<p>If you don’t mind me asking, what did you get on CR? And how much did you improve?</p>
<p>By 100% on Blue Book practice tests I mean take all the time you need and try to choose the correct answer to the best of your ability. If you really read into it, you’ll see that the correct answer is almost always in the text. For sentence completions, choose the answer you think sounds correct and then look up any words that you don’t know the definition to in order to ensure that you have picked the correct answer. Basically, cheat on the practice test without looking at the answers and do that until you get better and faster before going back to timed tests.</p>
<p>Also, although 2-3 vocab questions doesn’t seem like much, you could be getting lucky (I know that I used to). Try one or more of the aforementioned resources for vocab and you should be able to miss one or even none. After all, any points redeemed can be helpful!</p>
<p>As for my score, I started out with a 62 on the PSAT during junior year (with as low as a 51 freshman year…eek!) and was stuck in that 600-650 range for a while, but brought it up to a 720 by the June SAT with fairly minimal prep.</p>
<p>What are you getting wrong in Critical Reading? Try and categorize the mistakes you’ve been making, perhaps it’s just a problem with one type of question. </p>
<p>Also, my advice is that if you want to score 700+, aim to get all of the vocab questions right. Like what EngineBus2015 said, try to amass as many points as you can in the more straightforward sections of CR. Sentence completions become easy once you know the vocab words. I’d recommend Larry Krieger’s Essential 500 Words. I’ve been using it, and there have been “hits” on every SAT practice test I’ve taken so far.</p>
<p>Ooo that’s a good idea. I have started to categorize my mistakes (like function questions, vocab, inference, etc…). It helps me see which topics are my weakest and which ones I should review more. Also, I recently took an entire test in the Blue Book, and I got 3 vocab questions wrong, and 7 reading passages wrong. So I’ll definitely try to get my vocab to 100%. Those 3 vocab questions I missed are crucial to getting up to a 700.</p>
<p>Someone who scored a 2370 told me that reading classic novels actually helped him a lot in both the critical reading and the essay portion as it allowed him to expand his vocabulary and get used to reading boring passages. He said it also helped him score a 12 on his essay as he was able to make a connection with works of literature which he says works in your favor.</p>