<p>Hello CC!</p>
<p>People have been telling me the only way to gradually improve my overall CR score is to read read read read read, especially challenging books.</p>
<p>Please give me a list of books that will help my critical reading score </p>
<p>Ill buy and read anything, as long as its warrant to improve my critical reading capabilities.</p>
<p>you should read some classic novels, I suggest Frankenstein; its sentences structures are closest to SAT passage. By the way, you should read some books about law and history to get acquainted to the language of law. It’s quite hard to comprehend law “thing” in the beginning but it’s quite lucrative eventually.</p>
<p>I would actually discourage reading random books to help critical reading. If you want to improve your CR, you should just keep timing yourself and reading actual CR passages, then answering the questions. After you’ve gone through a few hundred CR questions, you start to realize that college board isn’t all that creative, and some answers just “smell” wrong. This ability to identify wrong answers just based on how it sounds is what carries your score to the 700-800 range, and the only way to acquire that is through time and practice. </p>
<p>Reading novels is a long term way to improve CR, but this is done over several years, not one summer. I’d strongly recommend the above strategy.</p>
<p>I agree with Prospector.</p>
<p>What Prospector said is 100% correct. What you’re saying is equal to doing all of your algebra and geometry HW problems just to get better at SAT Math. Sure, you’ll be more comfortable for SAT Math, but it won’t specifically help you for the SAT. Similarly, reading books over the summer will make you a better reader, but will not necessarily make you good at SAT CR. The best way, as Prospector said, is too practice actual CR passages.</p>
<p>Yep what Prospector said. Of course I agree that true talent and genius is supposedly measured through your ability to comprehend the passages and use your own analysis to answer the questions. But, you are a high school student and probably don’t have time for it. Most people who answer it PURELY from the basis of experienced reading and get an 800 are English majors such as your SAT instructor.</p>
<p>My AP Language teacher who is trying to find a summer job scored an 800 the first time she ever took it in decades by applying for a job as an SAT instructor. She scored about a 690 when she was a high school student. She now has a Masters in English and is trying to get a PhD in 18th century British literature. </p>
<p>Again, reading is the best, but long-term, improvement that you probably don’t have time for.</p>
<p>This was posted by another poster on another thread with the same question: </p>
<p>“You can also read nonfiction magazines online. If you pinpoint your weakness (humanities, social science, or natural science), then you can focus of specific magazines, like Smithsonian Magazine, The Economist, or Popular Science. I recommend tackling an article a day, focusing on the main idea and the author’s attitude toward the topic.”</p>
<p>To me this makes perfect sense. Random reading won’t help but reading up on certain topics that are sure to come up on the sat with the same format seems like a good idea to prep for the reading section.</p>
<p>Don’t bother with books for CR. Granted, it’s probably the best way, however, that method takes YEARS, and a single summer of perusing Withering Heights is not even going to make a dent.</p>
<p>What you should do, is actual SAT exams in a timed and controlled environment. Once you go through enough passages, AND GO OVER YOUR MISTAKES, you should see an enormous increase in your score.</p>
<p>It’s pretty disappointing to hear that students are letting SAT prep dictate their summer reading lists. That’s really the wrong attitude to have.</p>
<p>Read different types of books…because it’s fun. Stretch your mind. Learn how to think critically and write better. All of this will enrich your life. That’s far more important than getting into college, isn’t it?</p>
<p>If you just want to improve your SAT Critical Reading score (and that’s setting the bar rather low), read a lot of SAT reading passages and answer the accompanying comprehension questions. <em>shrug</em></p>
<p>reading books should improve your critical reading score by familiarizing you with sat level vocab words, but if you’re trying to improve on the passage questions i think a sat review book like the princeton review’s would be more helpful. as for high level vocabulary material, magazines like time and scientific american or newspaper like the new york times are good. i also remember the great gatsby had a lot of good words in it. but you should read what you enjoy, not just what someone tells you to read.</p>