<p>^^^^</p>
<p>What’ the name of the iPhone app you used?</p>
<p>thesmiter, I totally agree with you. When I started studying for the SAT, I realized that I was already quite familiar with many of the words, largely because I also read TIME on a weekly basis. Another benefit from reading is that it gives you a better sense of the word and how it’s used than you would if you straight memorized the definition.</p>
<p>The app is called SAT Vocab, and it’s made by Princeton Review. It’s actually really fun. Or at least <em>I</em> think so. There’s 2 different versions of it. </p>
<p>And for the passages, I’ve never been good with the read-the-questions-first method. I always read the passage all the way through and finish with plenty of time. But to each his/her own.</p>
<p>I studied no vocabulary whatsoever, and got a 780 (and 19/19 sentence completions). It’s more about strategy than about knowing the words. If you read a lot, you’ll be familiar with at least one word in “families” of words, and you’ll know what kind of connotation a word has, even if you can’t define it. It’s ALL ABOUT CONTEXT - they will essentially define the word for you somewhere within the passage, either by signifying that it’s an antonym/synonym or that it’s in a descriptive clause. So yeah, study vocabulary so that you know if a word is negative/positive so that you know a good percentage of the words used, but it’s really about eliminating things that don’t make sense (often in a sentence completion with two blanks, the words might mean the same thing but they’re really supposed to be antonyms, or something like that) and trying to figure it out from context/similar words you might know. Personally, the idea of studying a list is far too overwhelming.</p>
<p>My son got an 800 in CR.</p>
<p>I don’t think you can study for this section.</p>
<p>It is mostly natural ability.</p>
<p>For math, I think you can indeed study.</p>
<p>^ That’s some of the worst advice ever. The CR is most definitely a section that can be aced through hard-work and practice. One can learn patterns to questions, learn new strategies to approaching passages, learn to identify types of questions to answer them accordingly, memorize vocab lists and practice sentence completion questions, etcetera. I concede, there are some who have the innate ability for CR, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be attained through hard-work, determination, and smart practice.</p>
<p>I got 18/19 on the october test from memorizing direct hits, although i never really knew all the words. From my practice tests i noticed its a lot about finding relationships between words or just word prefixes and of course a bit of luck. </p>
<p>Sent from my MB855 using CC App</p>
<p>@ SirWanksalot: you’re right! I was getting REALLY low scores when I started practicing, but with time got better, well not to the extent of an 800, but much better :)</p>
<p>I’m going to be quite frank here: in order to break 700 on CR you usually need to be naturally good at it to an extent. If you’re not the kind of person who frequently reads or analyzes literature then chances are, no matter how much studying you do, you’ll find it extremely difficult to break 700. So first and foremost, read hard, read often, and take challenging English courses. That’s not to say that someone who reads often can go without taking a single glance at a practice test and then sit down and get an 800, nor is it to say that someone who isn’t much of a reader but who has done hours of practice cannot possibly break 700; however, people who read more will find it much easier to learn how to “crack the code,” so to speak.</p>
<p>There are strategies you can use to improve your score, whether or not you’re a frequent reader. For the vocabulary, as you read the sentence you can insert words that you feel fit and choose the answers that most closely resemble yours. If you can break it down to 50/50 then try to choose what you feel is the least popular answer - chances are that’s the right answer. If you want to whip out the flashcards then I’m sure that will help, but you have to know them in context rather than their definition. </p>
<p>For the passages, try to A. like the vocab, insert your own answers and find the one that closely resembles yours; and B. choose the least specific answer. The latter strategy works best when there’s multiple answers that look like they could be correct.</p>
<p>I will admit that I didn’t practice as much as I could have for the CR (I focused on math prep above all else, and still my score was atrocious…sigh). I think my downfall was that I never did the practice tests in order so when I actually sat down and took the SAT I was so focused on doing well on the math that I felt reading and writing were my “given” sections because I always got 800s in my jumbled practice. I did get a 760 W and 720 CR, but I could have done better if I was used to putting my all in every section in one sitting. So try not to make the same mistakes as I did - while you should place more emphasis on preparing for your weakest section, you can’t completely neglect the others.</p>
<p>I got a 780 on CR</p>
<p>I remember using hand-me-down flashcards, memorizing a couple a day, and reading a lot and I end up finding a lot of these vocab words in the text I read, and I go, “Oh, so that’s how it’s used.” and then it’s imprinted into my brain.</p>
<p>Most of it is unfortunately, unstudiable. It really is on how exposed you are to these higher-level vocabulary words on a daily basis.</p>
<p>thanks guys!</p>
<p>I got merely a 610 in CR, though 18/19 corrects in verbal questions.
It had taken me two months to memorize those vocab, but I later found that more than 80% words memorized are useless.
The scope of verbal questions is really narrow. On the other hand, passage questions are my insurmountable shortcoming. I cannot get how one can handle information with such complexity and intricacy in such a short period meanwhile successfully avoid the traps.
Perhaps it because I’m not a native speaker, though I have been contacting with English for more than 12 years.</p>
<p>barron’s cr word list has 80 word lists of 10 each. DH 1 + 2 and the place where I took classes which gave 700 words. I memorized all of these words and got all of my sentence comps right on all my diags/blue book tests. on the november test i ended up omitting 1 question…</p>
<p>Memorize Direct Hits. If you have a smart phone like most people download an app that lets you use flashcards (I have an iphone and I use mental case and I pulled the direct Hits flashcards from quizlet), and study whenever you are bored, taking a crap, or simply want to study.</p>
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<p>LOL! where did you come up with this!</p>
<p>lol…it can be boring in there sometimes.</p>
<p>What do you guys recommend I can read online for daily practice? Is economist good?</p>