<p>So, when i took the ACT, I got i think a 33 on the "english" section which is sort of similar to sat's writing section...but the highest score for me on writing was a 610. comparatively, i did bad on the act reading and sat reading. Any techniques you have used that worked (as in raised your score(s)) with writing or critical reading? Confused :-'( Thanks</p>
<p>Just practice as much as you can. The tips in Cracking the SAT are pretty useful for writing and CR. Have you tried that yet? What other materials have you used?</p>
<p>I have used the blue book, but that does NOTHING to help...and my tutor (yes for one week i had a tutor) said "oh, don't bother. if you suck you suck, end of story." and i felt like crap after that :-(</p>
<p>I had a tutor for about 3 months, really helped, went up 150 points just in writing.</p>
<p>Read and read again. Read books, newspaper it helps.</p>
<p>Do as many writing sections as possible and see what the errors are and then go over the problems that you go wrong and what you did wrong. The writing section the most easiest section to up your score. Take you time and know how to write the essay.</p>
<p>In the essay, take the first five minutes to brainstorm, it helps. Don't think about what other people are doing. If you just start writing your going to stop midway through and run out of ideas and your easy will not be organized. Also take 10 minutes for the intro, because that's the most important paragraph. Statistics show that the reader has the score in mind by the first paragraph. Choose your examples really well and have enough ideas about them. Choose ideas for each area ... (One from sports, one from books, one from history, one from TV shows) Don't ever choose a personal experience or anything from the present like Iraq. Write as much as you can and get the main idea down. When you come up to the five minute warning marker, say you are still writing about third example, end the sentence and write like two sentence conlusion and then go back to the third example.</p>
<p>Even though I didn't finish my essay, I got a 10. I had the intro, and two examples plus a two sentence in third example. All based on idea of your first paragraph. If your first paragraph is good, you get a good grade.</p>
<p>If your weak in english like me, then don't ever do the last five sentence ID errors, just before the reading paragraph in the long writing section. They are the hardest of all the writing problems. They might seem easy but they try to trick you. You'll just get them wrong; advice only for people that suck in english like me.</p>
<p>Answer all the problems in the 10th section, they are the easiest problems in the writing section.</p>
<p>You welcome</p>
<p>Sounds like you had a crappy tutor.</p>
<p>The blue book is great for practice, but it doesn't have any strategy. You need a strategy book. Seriously, try the Cracking book. It helped me a ton with verbal, even though I'm an A student in English.</p>