<p>Ok, so I have this fear that not doing well on the SATs will keep me from being accepted into Ivy League schools. I've maintained a 4.0 GPA, my ECs are fine, and even though my school doesn't offer AP/IB classes, I'm still in all honors. My critical reading just wont get any better! I keep getting scores from 500-560 and that is just awful. I feel like I'm short on time and then 3 of the choices always seem like the right answer and it's just a mess. Please advise me on how to practice this. I have 3 months left to prep and I really want to make the most of it. I'm aiming for about 2300+ so whoever has gotten that, or even 2100+ please tell me how you did it. All advice and suggestions are appreciated!</p>
<p>Learn a lot of vocab and read like you love the passage. The questions are NOT arranged in order of difficulty. So pick out the easier ones, that are those that don’t require you to read the entire passage. I always read the first few lines at the top of the passage first and then read the introduction of the passage or part of it. Then I tackle the questions. If it is one long passage, I’d do questions asking about a particular part of the passage. Always reading before and after that specific part. Some answer choices just make no sense and don’t relate to that part at all so you just cross them out. Got to be as alert as possible. Whatever is left, look for key words that directly relates to what you read. So questions asking the tone of the passage and main purpose etc, tackle them last as you would need to read the entire passage first. </p>
<p>Double passages same procedure just tackle passage 1 questions first and then passage two questions then the combined questions.</p>
<p>Short passages if it is doubled I read both passages first. It’s just two paragraphs and takes about a minute to read. After reading I make a note at the side and say if the author was sounding positive, negative or neutral ( I do this for all actually cause I’m not gonna remember or wanna read over) and also indicate if the author used a citation, authority, disclaimer. If it was an analogy, allegory. Then answer the questions. </p>
<p>Single short read passage first, make notes and tackle questions after. </p>
<p>It is important to learn different tones/attitude words like trite, pessimism, didactic, whimsical etc as well as techniques/styles of writing …citation, authority… allegory, assertion etc</p>
<p>So in short learn vocab so you will be able to understand what you’re reading and what they are asking you. Love what you read and apply what ever strategy works for you.</p>
<p>Know what type of passages( doubled/paired short passage and long doubled/paired passages etc) and questions come too (tone, main point, similarities etc) from there you could figure out what type of questions you’re good at and what needs work! </p>
<p>Good Luck and have fun! :)</p>
<p>Stop thinking why the answers might be right.</p>
<p>Start thinking why they might be wrong.</p>
<p>What glasscube says!</p>
<p>Hmm, I think I’ll really have to work on that then. I tired thinking about why an answer is wrong and when I narrow it down to two, I’m at a dilemma. Do you think I can go from a 550 to a 750 in 10 weeks time?</p>
<p>I raised my CR from 590 to 760 in about 5 weeks.</p>
<p>-Study lots of vocab!!! (use direct hits, hot words, and krieger’s essential first - learn all of them!!! making notecards is the easiest, then find lists online for more words) To get 750+, you can really only get ~4 questions wrong total, so if you can get only 1 or none wrong in vocab, then that’s really good</p>
<p>-practice, practice, practice, and practice some more. Do as many practice tests as you can (you don’t have to do full SAT tests, just CR), make sure you do them under real conditions </p>
<p>-analyze your practice tests - go over EVERY question, not just the ones you got wrong. This will help you score higher and do better on the next test. You should analyze so much that if you were to retake that practice test, you would get every one correct.</p>
<p>Good luck!!! You seem to be in my situation (good ECs and every thing, and perfect academic except for SAT (only 1980 the first time which isn’t good enough for the Ivies. But then I studied and brought my score up to 2330!) It definitely is possible!</p>
<p>Wow! Just five weeks? That reallllly gives me hope haha…thanks all of you!
Oh, one more question. How did you prepare for the writing portion? Not the MC but the essay part.</p>
<p>got one for the essay too (written by me 
)
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1525053-defeating-sat-essay-2-days.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1525053-defeating-sat-essay-2-days.html</a></p>