Tackling the CR and Writing sections

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>CR: How often are there going to be words on the vocab section that you'll most likely not have a clue on? I mean words like dilettante and picayune, etc.</p>

<p>CR is easily my worst section, never having broken 750 yet and usually scoring in the low 700s or occasionally high 600s. Are there questions I should be asking myself when trying to choose between two very similar answers? I never seem to get them right when there are two similar ones. I know all of the answers should be substantiated in the text and I've really cut down on choosing answers that are wild inferences based on the text but I can't always find the answer in the text</p>

<p>Writing: the biggest thing for me are the idiomatic expressions. Anyway to practice these?</p>

2

<p>Normally in the sentence completions, there will be 2-3 per section which you may stumble upon. Just study vocab lists. DH is the best I believe and Sparknotes is the second best. A lot of people use the Sparknotes 250 but I use the Sparknotes 1000 wordlist as it’s more comprehensive. I know now about 850-900 of those words now.</p>

<p>I used to have more trouble with CR until I started thinking more in a logical, linear way as opposed to trying to do shortcut methods. This type of thinking allowed me to break into the 700s range with limited fluctuation between tests.</p>

<p>If you have 2 similar answers, ask yourself why one would be wrong, not why one would be right. For ex:</p>

<p>Passage:</p>

<p>Johnny likes apples. He eats them regularly.</p>

<ol>
<li>Based on the passage, it can be inferred that:</li>
</ol>

<p>a) Johnny hates apples - NOT SUPPORTED, ELIMINATE
b) Johnny would settle for no less than apples most of the time - COULD BE ANSWER
c) Johnny likes grapes - NOT SUPPORTED, ELIMINATE
d) Johnny would be inclined towards eating apples daily - COULD BE ANSWER</p>

<p>Now, you have choices b) and d). </p>

<p>Now, again, you’re looking at why choices would be wrong. The easiest way to do this is by separating choices into single ideas.</p>

<p>Let’s look at b)</p>

<p>It says, “Johnny would settle for no less than apples most of the time.”</p>

<p>This means:</p>

<ol>
<li>Johnny likes apples - SUPPORTED BY PASSAGE</li>
<li>Johnny does not like many other foods other than apples - NOT SUPPORTED BY PASSAGE</li>
</ol>

<p>We have one idea here that’s not supported by the passage. Now let’s look at d)</p>

<p>d) Johnny would be inclined towards eating apples daily</p>

<p>This means:</p>

<ol>
<li>Johnny likes apples - SUPPORTED BY PASSAGE</li>
<li>Johnny eats apples on a regular basis - SUPPORTED BY PASSAGE</li>
</ol>

<p>Both ideas are supported by the passage. Thus, d) is the only right answer choice.</p>

<p>I have found that all CR answers can be analyzed by this type of straightforward, breaking down linearly type of thinking. Remember, CB cannot legally make a question that doesn’t have a direct link to the passage. Otherwise, they wouldn’t exist today due to being bombarded by 1000s of lawsuits by students.</p>

<p>As for idioms in writing, you really can’t learn those in many other ways than practice with them. I usually don’t have issues with those because I can usually notice they don’t “sound right.” You could try memorizing some idioms based on lists but I doubt that would help on the actual exam when you’re under pressure. Thus, just keep practicing on it.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>