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<li><p>For both SC and PBR (passage based reading), the overriding approach should be to eliminate wrong answers. Only on the easiest questions should you be directly finding the correct answer.</p></li>
<li><p>Vocab study helps for SC, but only for about 3-4 out of 19 items. The rest you should be able to narrow down using a process of elimination and your current vocab. These hardest 3-4 will require a good breadth of vocab - there are numerous resources out there that you can find and work on. </p></li>
<li><p>For PBR, I do not recommend skipping to the questions first. Often the 1-2 hardest questions associated with a given long-format passage will require a thorough grasp of the 'big picture', or will ask you to make an extended inference. Begin by quickly and accurately reading the passage!</p></li>
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<p>The only reason to skip to the questions first would be to save time, but the reality is that you can not consistently score 800 on CR if you aren't able to quickly and accurately read the passages. Work on your reading speed and comprehension on practice tests, or by reading articles from your favorite news source - The Economist is one of my favorites. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>When you finish reading the passage, ask yourself a few broad-stroke questions before advancing to the questions. What was the main idea/topic? How does the author feel about this topic? Ensuring you've got a good grasp on these themes will help with the next step.</p></li>
<li><p>On the PBR questions, cover the answer choices with your hand while you read the question. If you've understood the passage fully and followed step 4, you should be able to come up with an answer in your own words before reviewing the answer choices. This step may feel silly, but it can be instrumental in eliminating wrong answer choices that don't match your 'own words' answer. ETS loves to devise distractors that fall into a category I call "Not Mentioned, But Sounds Good!", where the answer choice seems very logical and defensible... but is not directly supported by the text. These distractors are often the final barrier between scoring in the low-mid 700s and reaching 800.</p></li>
<li><p>If you're at a 660, these questions probably aren't an issue for you(as they're always the easiest!), but on the vocab in context PBR questions, simply "read in your head" the sentence in question five times, substituting each of the answer choices A-E for the chosen word. </p></li>
<li><p>Above all else, remember that correct answers are always, and I repeat, always DIRECTLY SUPPORTED BY THE TEXT. I can't emphasize that enough. </p></li>
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<p>Let me know if you have any other questions I can help with.</p>
<p>indie good strategy, I follow the same strategy for solving CR questions but my problem is getting 2-3 wrong per passage which adds up and lowers my score, any suggestions on tackling the inferences/hardest questions?</p>
<p>Thanks indie, this is great. I haven’t tried the strategy of covering up the answers for PBR before. I normally use it for SC only, but I’ll definitely try it now. After all if I want to increase my score I have to change the way I take the test.</p>
<h1>7…most important of them all, raised my score 570–>780 with that…and also, for crit reading, you really need to practice BB tests ONLY. Writing is easily studied through outside sources, and to a certain extent, math, but Crit Reading NEEDS to be practiced through official tests.</h1>
<p>I find it helpful to answer the questions as you the passage. The questions are arranged in chronological order, for the most part. Think about it, after one reads a passage, what will they they tend to do? After reading the question, they go back to the passage to read over the part pertaining to the question.</p>
<p>I think the main problem most people have is they scrutinize the passage focusing way too much on “exactly what the passage says”…the key difference between those receiving 600’s and those who get 800’s is that they UNDERSTAND what is “exactly being said.” This understanding can be only determined through an overall understanding of the main idea and the STRUCTURING of the paragraphs and its’ FUNCTION (role it plays in the relation to the main idea)…</p>
<p>i always, i mean always, “infer”, instead of finding the answer directly from the passage. It words kinda differently in the passage, so it makes it kinda hard ;p</p>
<p>^ I completely agree with the post above. Normal everyday reading is worlds away from critically reading. I have come to the conclusion that critical reading is a skill that must be developed from early childhood days, or through assiduous daily practice.</p>
<p>What about you, indie500? How did you finally master the skill? I’m assuming practice (of course), but also a tinge of intrinsic ability?</p>
<p>Definitely not intrinsic ability, I believe in working hard…I never liked to read …EVER…but two years ago I started to read “the Economist” …why you ask?..I wanted to become an economist…that pushed me to read that daily…in the first year, it was painful just to read 1/4 of it…This is non-fiction college level reading and exactly the kind level of reading the SAT loves to test! I read “The Economist” trying to figure out “What is the author’s main argument, or Why the heck did he write this article?” That kind of mentality would make the SAT passages EASY to understand…</p>
<p>I’ll tell you this…for those who say they simply practiced using the Blue Book and got an 800 are readers that have read this level of text prior to BB. Also, those that just say I never read and just practiced on BB, it is luck…they happened to get a easy CR section on their test with a harsh curve…all they did was not make a mistake…but I promise you this…they would not be able to consistently get 750+ on the Critical Reading…</p>