Tips for CR?

Test Preparation
1

Ok here’s the thing. After putting in hours of practice, I was finally able to break 700 in both M and W categories [800,730]. The thing is, no matter how many practice sections I do, how many times I have friends tell me “the answer is always in the passage” I can’t even break a 600 in CR [580]. I seem to get lucky on the vocab and usually get about all of them right, does anyone have any advice with the passage reading?

2

Hi, I was in a very similar situation as you a few months ago. I took my SATs four times and have 800 math, 800 writing, 600 reading. 600 was my highest (580, 590, 600, 590), and it was mostly because I got 18/19 of the sentence completion parts right, so Im assuming I know exactly how you feel. What score do you want to aim for CR?

Honestly, because Im not even good with reading myself, Im not sure if my advice would be as helpful, but here they are anyway:

  1. If you have no idea what the answer is, skip it (but dont overskip it). It minimizes the number of wrong and further deduction from your raw score. I skipped 4 (and thats kind of a lot for me, considering I skipped 1 for math/ writing) and got a 600.
  2. Which passages are you the weakest at? Narrative? Practice more of those.
  3. I read a few paragraphs and answered the questions that correlared to the paragraphs I had read. Like for example, I read from like lines 1~20 first, answered questions that are directly from lines 1~20, and then read like lines 21~40, and then answered questions from lines 21~40. It was overwhelming for me to read the whole passage and then answer questions and reread things again. And I did the questions that ask for like overall theme ones at the end after having finished most of the questions. It might not work for everyone but it did for me.
  4. Read the blurbs before the passage, as they often help.

Im assuming youre a junior. The ACT reading may be better for you and you should give it a try!

Have you always had trouble with reading comprehension? Like at school, do you find yourself reading a book and not understanding it thoroughly? Do you dislike reading books? Good luck and feel free to PM me/ ask more questions!