sat critical reading semi-guide

Test Preparation
1

<p>YET ANOTHER SAT PREP GUIDE BY SOME AMATEUR KID WHO THINKS GETTING A HIGH SAT MEANS HE CAN HELP OTHERS DO IT TOO</p>

<p>INTRO</p>

<p>Recently, a bunch of my friends have asked me how I did so well on the critical reading section of the SAT (-0, 800, the whole shebang and it wasn’t even hard, albeit part of it involved getting a 2390 - which is probably the worst embarrassment i've suffered in my life), so I’ve decided to write something up to help them and answer their question(s). The quick and easy answer is that if you can’t already get an 800 without any problems, you’re probably mentally disabled, an English language learner, and/or possess some sort of dyslexia. Just kidding. You’re probably not. The CR section is a <strong><em>ing *</em></strong><em>, and doing well on it matters just as much on luck as it does on being “intelligent”. Personally, I could get 800 on a practice test one day and then get a 700 the following day. It’s pretty depressing, but hey don’t worry – if I got an 800 and sucked *</em>* on practice tests, then you can probably do it too. </p>

<p>* STOP WORRYING IT'S BAD FOR YOU*</p>

<p>So first off, don’t take your practice test scores so seriously. Like, take it from a kid who used to stress out about his practice test scores – it’s not your real score, nor is it actually that good of a predictor of your actual score. Do it for the practice. The point is to get better so by the end of your actual SAT – you’ll have raped that ****. I know it’s hard to shake off the fears of “failing” (aka no getting 800) on the real thing when you’re scoring consistently in the low 700s like I was, but try your best to disregard those fears. If you’re already getting low 700s/high 600s you’re definitely capable of getting an 800.</p>

<p>Now that brings me to the first part of doing well. Be really <strong><em>ing confident. When you do something it’s always good to have confidence, and if you think you’re going to fail you’re going to fail. I know it’s kinda trite, but it’s a truth in life, so learn it. Granted, you shouldn’t lie to yourself by thinking you’re going to get a 2400 if you’re getting 1500s – that’s just setting yourself up for disappointment, but even then– it’s definitely going to give you a few extra points if you think you’re a smarter *</em></strong>er than you already are. It’ll make you overall less anxious and less prone to ***ing up under that anxiety. </p>

<p>* PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE*</p>

<p>This next part is imperative to your success. Do a **** ton of practice tests. You don’t have to read a lot of classics or be an obsessive bookworm to get an 800 on the CR section – anyone who tells you that you do is <strong><em>ing retarded. So don’t waste your time on that *</em></strong>. However, practice tests are like *<strong><em>ing awesome. They help you better understand the types of questions that might be asked and the overall format of the test. Along with that, you’ll begin understanding what the questions are asking for and how to think like the Nazis at College Board think – which will inevitably lead to high scores. You might not see improvement at first, but it will slowly and steadily improve as you get up into the 10th to 20th practice test. Of course, there is natural variation between tests and sometimes the passages just don’t sit right with you – that’s okay, it’s all in the name of practice, so shut the *</em></strong> up and suck it up if you failed the last practice test. Note: you actually do have to time yourself, giving yourself 40 minutes to do a section isn’t going to help ***</p>

<p>* VOCABULARY*</p>

<p>That covers most of the basics behind doing well, so it’s time to get down to business with the actual strategy of tackling the questions. You’ve probably heard of Process of Elimination and basic stuff, so I’m just going to skip that since it’s pretty much all just logic stuff you should’ve figured out by now. However, one thing people get confused about is how to figure out the often times arcane vocabulary questions that the SAT employs in its arsenal of tools to torture kids. In my opinion, vocab is probably the easiest thing to do well on and it involves simply sitting down, opening up a copy of Direct Hits or any other legit word list and memorizing words. Google words you don’t know when you’re reading the news or from what you’re reading for English class, and make note of words you missed or don’t know on practice tests – regardless of whether they were actually part of the right answer or not. It’s a lot of work, but if you want to go to prestigious Ivy League elite top 3 harvard yale princeton college in the name of family honor then get your ass to work. A few vocab questions wrong can totally **** up your score and prevent you from getting into college because your SAT score sucks, so do it. (JK, but seriously memorize vocab - it’s crucial for writing well and making friends think you’re a dick for knowing the definition of diaphanous or any other word they don’t know) Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Pro tip for vocab double sentence completions – put the 2nd word of the answer choice into the sentence first to see if your choice is right. Then check the 1st word to confirm. Even the best of us look at the first word and seeing that it fits, mark off the answer choice as right, even though the 2nd word doesn't work. Don’t know what vocab lists to use? Try Direct Hits or something, I hear that good. Or you can just Google honestly, I’m too lazy to do it myself.</p>

<p>* PASSAGE BASED QUESTIONS *</p>

<p>Passage based questions on CR make up the majority of CR questions, so I’m going to type up a pretty big paragraph on it. **** its 7:00 and I need to start homework, so you owe me a **** ton if I get you an 800. Anyways, most of you will probably turn the page, see a passage and start immediately reading the passage. That’s what 1600 plebs do. Don’t be a 1600 pleb. Those kids go to community college now. You’re better than that. Start first by actually reading the little italicized blurb at the top of the passage – if it’s there of course. If it’s a short passage with only like 1-2 questions at the beginning of section, do it normally – read first, then answer the questions as you read. Be sure to keep focus – underline keywords, or phrases that speak to you. Then read the questions and answer them based on what you just read. It’s pretty simple and I’m sure you didn’t need a guide for that. </p>

<p>For the long passages however, it’s different. You see a huge wall of text in front of you that you’re supposed to read in like 3-4 minutes (don’t use that as a rule of thumb, it’s only an estimation for the purposes of my explanation) and you’re probably like ***. Calm down, read the italicized blurb so you understand what you’re about to read. Then skip the passage, and go straight to the questions. Skim the question so you know what it’s asking about, and then find the lines in the passage the question draws from. Mark those lines and include one word about the nature of the question – if it asks you to infer then write “infer” next to your marks and if it asks to define a word write “def”. You can definitely mix up what your “annotations” (not really annotations but let’s just call them that) are in the text and add more descriptors if you want to – e.g. a question like “The author blames all of the following for the failure to impart scientific method through the education system except” you could underline the relative location of the information and then write “blame education except” or anything that helps you remember what you’re looking for. Oh yeah, that brings me to another point, if it doesn’t have a line number, quickly look for the relative area or paragraph and mark that with a bracket or anything that helps you find the location when you reach the question when you actually answer the question. After you’ve marked one question, go on to the next, and so forth until you’ve reached the last question on the passage. Usually for like the last few questions they may ask some broad questions so just mark that at the bottom of the paragraph and you can remember to keep them in mind so you can bring it together when you actually read. For the double passage questions, if there’s a compare question that involves broad topics – write something under both paragraphs that keeps the question in mind for you. This process should be done as quickly as possible – and that can only be achieved with practice.</p>

<p>It might seem awkward at first, but just stick with it and practice it. Once you’ve finished marking up the lines of the passage that the questions pertain to, get to the actual reading. Read as quickly as you can and keep focus until you hit one of your annotations. Read slower and once you’ve finished the area, read the question over again – then answer it. If you can’t answer it reread the area, and then read/reread the lines below and above it if you still don’t get it. You can always skip a question if it really stumps you, but be sure to get back to it by marking it in a manner in which you can remember that you skipped it. Then continue reading until you hit the next section and do the same. </p>

<p>Essentially, you’re reading a little bit, then answering a question, reading a little bit, and answering a question. You should be able to do this for all the questions and it should be easier for you to think of an answer for the question, since the passage is still fresh in your mind– unlike the more common method of reading first, then answering, which relies too much on memory than comprehension. Continue through until you’ve finished the whole passage. Make sure that you’ve read each question correctly and don’t skim the questions, since you can end up misreading them. For the questions you’ve skipped, play the devil’s advocate, use PoE, and throw everything you have at it. Reread the parts obsessively and don’t over analyze. Try to look for lines out of the passage that directly support an answer choice without needing to read into it. Look for gray answer choices – ones that aren’t too extreme and are general enough to encompass what you’ve actually read in the passage. </p>

<p>* CONCLUSION *</p>

<p>If this method seriously doesn’t help you, then just do the normal way, but for a lot of people I know this method has really helped them. Oh yeah, you can definitely adjust this method to your own needs – it’s more of just a guideline than anything, so don’t be so tight ass about following it religiously. Do anything that works for you pretty much. As long as you’re doing something that helps you answer the question as faithfully to what’s actually written in the passage as possible – then you’re doing it write. CR is all about direct comprehension and choosing the answer that supports a direct comprehension of the passage. Last little thing I want to reiterate. CR isn’t just about intelligence, it’s often times luck that gets people the illustrious 800. Sometimes your brain just doesn’t agree with a passage or question – I know, I’ve had passages and questions like that. Other times you forget to do a question or stretch the definition of a vocab word without noticing a word that fits the blank 100x better. Honestly, there are a 100 things that can **** you up, but taking a crapload of practice tests, learning how to crack the passages, and memorizing the vocab can help you increase the chances of you doing well a hundred fold. Being diligent and focused test-taker never hurt anyone either.</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

<p>Anyways, I think that’s all I have for now, but if you have any questions just ask them. I probably won't answer them, but what the hell - go for it. </p>

<p>disclaimer - if you get offended at any point in this guide i don't really care. as for the excessive swearing, i think this site has a swear filter anyways, so it should be a non-issue</p>

<p>oh yeah, this is totally similar to what notraperp's guide or whoever wrote that guide, i know. in my defense i learned this method at an sat prep place and it's my own take on how to do it and do it well i. plus i just wanted to help some people out because helping people makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.</p>

2

<p>My $0.02 about improving in general.</p>

<p>As said, the point of the practice test is to make sure that everything you miss on the practice test is something you won’t miss on the real one. If you got a 1800, good – that’s a 600-point pool of questions that you shouldn’t miss on the real thing.</p>

<p>Improving is all about applying your knowledge. Except vocab, everything in CR works this way. If you got a question wrong, don’t simply think, “the passage said Megan Fox was pretty, but the one I chose said she was absolutely gorgeous; that’s why I got it wrong.” You should proceed to think, “hmm, maybe in general, I shouldn’t choose answers that are too extreme.” Generalize what you learned. Phrase your mistake in a way that you can apply to your next test(s).</p>

<p>This doesn’t really work for vocab, of course. If you don’t read a lot, just hit the vocab lists. It’s actually a really good investment of your time. Memorizing vocab lists might seem intellectually dull, but colleges don’t think so, and it’s worth the undeserved respect you get from other people when you get that good SAT score.</p>

<p>Do that right, and you shouldn’t have to take more than 10 practice tests.</p>

3

<p>For what it’s worth, and as a mini-tangent, doing well on the SAT takes 3 things (from what I’ve observed):</p>

<ol>
<li>Being smart</li>
<li>Being able to change the way you think</li>
<li>Wanting to do well</li>
</ol>

<p>If you think about it, rarely is there anyone with these three traits who did poorly on the SAT.</p>

<p>As far as being smart goes, you do have to be somewhat smart. But not that smart. You can’t be ■■■■■■■■. Since intelligence isn’t really quantifiable (can someone please get rid of the IQ test?), it’s hard to describe how smart you have to be. I think the best thing to say in a public post like this is to say, almost anyone can do well on the SAT.</p>

<p>Don’t let your initial score discourage you. I seriously knew a guy who pulled his score from a 1500 to a 2400. Granted, he started taking prep classes in seventh grade, but it shows that the SAT is at least beatable. So beat it.</p>

<p>A lot of smart people don’t do well on the SAT because they stick to their system of thinking. Part of it is confidence; it takes a lot of faith to pick up a new system of thinking. Learn to think the way the SAT wants you to think and your score will benefit. Critical reading, for example, isn’t about logic; it’s a word search. The sooner you realize that, the faster your score will go up.</p>

<p>Finally, you have to want it. When I studied I needed little discipline, because I simply wanted a good score. I was tired of people thinking that I was stupid; I saw people who were just as smart of me with good scores; a friend of mine got a 2400 without taking any prep classes. I probably studied harder for the SAT than I have ever studied for any test, but I definitely put less mental effort in.</p>

<p>Like OP said, don’t worry too much. I mentioned that you have to want a good score, but once you’re past a certain point, caring about the SAT paradoxically has a negative effect on your score. Listen to songs about being the best and about not giving a **** to boost your confidence if you have to (I did). Strut into the test room without a calculator. And finally, don’t let pride get in your way – you’ve probably heard it too many times now, but how well you do on the SAT is little measure of your intelligence, ability, or anything but your ability to do well on the SAT.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>“the worst embarrassment I’ve suffered in my life.” You must not have suffered much embarrassment.</p>

5

<p>Holy Jesus, that was an entertaining read. Good job.</p>

6

<p>Lol. Funny stuff bro.</p>

<p>Yeah tho 2390 is a bitter-sweet score. A perfect SAT would be pretty sweet…</p>

7

<p>Your sense of humor rocks. Seriously. I checked out that post of yours where you’re freaking out about admissions due to ECs(sorry about stalking, in my defence, you sound more interesting than so many people on cc). I don’t know much about admission officers, but if you write your essays in the same spirit as this post, you’re better off than many people with great ECs. But that’s just my opinion.</p>

8

<p>2390…
I feel your pain.</p>