<p>I having trouble with the Critical Reading Section, especially the passage reading part. Any tips for suggestions on how I should approach the passage and the questions? Thanks. :)</p>
<p>I think determining the best strategy for the passage part of Critical Reading really depends on what kind of reader you are.</p>
<p>I’m personally a very fast reader, and I find it tremendously helpful to read the passage thoroughly before even looking at the questions so the answers don’t give me misconceptions about the passage. I also tend to not mark up the passage because I find the graffiti distracting. This is what most prep tutors will tell you NOT to do, but it’s how my brain, and potentially your brain, works best, so I thought I’d just share. </p>
<p>A better strategy for slower readers is to “chunk” the passage. Most questions are something like “In line 2, blah blah…” and they’re normally in order. Using this “chunking” strategy, you would only read the passage up until the sentence AFTER line 2 (so maybe line 4), then stop and answer the question. You would continue using this strategy until you get to the more general questions about theme etc. It saves a lot of time and is helpful for organizational purposes. Also, you’ll want to underline a lot using this strategy…</p>
<p>Just try a bunch of different techniques on practice tests and see which ones work best. This is the only way to ensure that you’re approaching the test in the way that’s optimized for YOU specifically, since the Critical Reading section isn’t necessarily like the Writing MC section, where a formula exists for every question type.</p>
<p>I hope this helped you haha… Good luck!</p>
<p>Just saw this now.Thanks! I better try that! And probably your strategy too!</p>
<p>I’m going into my senior year & did pretty good on my SATs last spring. Some of the students in our school put together an “SAT club” and its been going on for a few years… essentiually its a bunch of students (acting like a support group) that realize we have to get decent scores on the SAT in order to get into a good school… so as a team we simply get together and take practice tests. not that there is anything magical about it but each week we take a different module. one week its reading, other weeks its math… but we are always taking practice tests… I started as a freshman and as a group we have been doing well. Last year one kid got a perfect 2400, last spring I got 2 800’s & a 750 (so I’m trying to get my stuff ready for Early Decision). esentially its just practice and more practice. Also my AP Physics teacher was pretty bad… so we have been watching OCW (open course ware) modules through MIT and reading the SAT Physics practice book (which is pretty good) to make up for a crappy teacher.</p>
<p>Everyone has a different strategy but they all converge on one aspect: The answer is supported in the text. No matter how dumb, inane, or stupid an answer sounds, if it has strong support then it is probably correct. I personally just read the passage once and take notes along the way. That way, I can go back and confirm the answers with my notes.</p>