Speeding Up CR

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
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<p>Hello Everyone,</p>

<p>I am taking the October SAT. I feel completely ready in all of the subjects except CR. Basically, I never finish on time. I get most (enough) of the questions correct—when I go over time by a few minutes. But I really need to find a way to speed up my passaged based questions. I usually spend about 5 minutes on the vocab questions, does that seem right to you? I also find that the comparative passage sections are my worst. Do you have any tips? Anything would be greatly appreciated! :)</p>

<h2>Thank you!</h2>

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<p>Buy the SAT Prep Black Book by Mike Barrett. It has the best CR strategies by far. For the reading, it basically says that every choice is restated in the text and no interpretation is necessary; the answer must be spelled out in the passage. Hope this helps.</p>

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<p>I think it depends on how you answer. Do you read the whole psg first? Or do you read in chunks? If you’re not a fast reader, me neither, reading in blocks and answer in paragraph helped me with the speed. Also, the time pressure made me unable to think in the last couple minutes, and I used to assume I’m not reading fast enough. So I tried not to time myself. The result turned out great, and I only spent one more minute. Last, if you really think the problem is with your reading speed, check out some speed read method online. I did, and I think it also helped. Anyways, hope these help and great lucks! :)</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the replies! :slight_smile: Sorry for the late response, I have been super busy…</p>

<p>I am taking the SAT in 10 days (October) and am still having trouble pulling my CR together… I would like to get as close to 700 as possible. My May SAT was a 640.</p>

<p>I still just can’t get through all of the questions! My past strategy has been to mark up the passage underlining all of the parts that are line reference questions then read the the entire passage answering them as I go; then, at the end, I answer the general questions. Using this method I NEVER finish the questions in time because I just simply DON’T read fast enough to make it work.</p>

<p>My current strategy (over the last week) is to NOT read the passage and just read each question—for the line reference questions I just read the area around them to get context. Then, at the end, I answer the general questions. This method has been working a bit better than my previous method; however I am still not getting through all of the questions. Does this strategy work? Has anyone got a 700+ with this method?</p>

<p>I currently omit about 2-4 at the end of each section. Do you have any tips? What strategy do you think I should go with? Do you know of any others? Being a slow reader, I need to find a way to maximize my score ASAP—hopefully near 700.</p>

<p>Thank you! :)</p>

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<p>I generally suggest you to really read the passage to at least get a gist of what it’s saying. The best way to speed up reading is by practice. Concentration is also very important. Most people can’t get through the passage because their concentration breaks during reading and got bored. I prefer nonitaprep’s method: mark line references and skim through the passage, and slow down and zoom in when you see line references. Hope that helps.</p>

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<p>I would actually not read the questions beforehand, because I tend to notice that a lot of people end up wasting more time. They read the question, go back and read the passage for specific answers, realize that they don’t understand the passage without reading thoroughly, spend time reading the entire passage, go back to the questions, etc etc</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I can’t help you improve your reading speed because I happen to be a naturally fast reader and I’ve honestly never had to practice for reading tests. So I wouldn’t know strategies for improving that specifically.</p>

<p>However, I’d say spend less time on the vocab. If you know the vocab, great, you can answer in a few seconds. If you have a question where you know absolutely none of the vocab and can’t figure out meaning through context or roots, don’t spend too much time deliberating over it. At that point, you’re basically guessing, so don’t waste time trying to decide how to guess and save that time for the reading where the answer will be in the passage, and you just need time to look.</p>

<p>What I’ve always done is skim the passage quickly, enough to read through and get the general story. Then I’d move to the questions and from there, decide whether or not I needed to go back and read in more detail. If I did, then I’d just read the chunk around where the information should be. For example, for the “this word, in context, means closest to” questions, I’d read a few lines above the word and a few lines below it.</p>

<p>Reading questions beforehand has never helped me personally, just because it would cause me to look only for those answers and I would miss more general ideas of the passage.</p>

<p>Basically, I would skim the passage, move to the questions, and reread smaller chunks if the question required it. Using this strategy usually left me with 5-10 minutes of extra at the end.</p>

<p>I don’t know if my personal strategy will help you, but good luck!</p>