<p>.. Can it be done? Of course. You could be find yourself with an 800 - you've got two years. Just motivate yourself about reading. Its not a waste, and though sometimes its hard to start, its good for you!</p>
<p>hey tetrahedron guy.... how much reading??? how many hours per day???</p>
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I hold no respect for anyone who isn't familiar with the great works of literature and finds reading a waste
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</p>
<p>I agree. Too many people are one-sided.</p>
<p>I'd say reading helps; keeps the brain ticking after all. But there's a difference between focused review and just passive skimming; maybe that's where your friend had difficulty? Obviously if you're not thinking "critically" of the reading passage at hand, then well...you could get lucky?</p>
<p>Could you score an 800 Verbal and not have read any classics/periodicals? Absolutely.</p>
<p>how many hours a reading every night???and how many points improvement in 6 months?</p>
<p>I don't know, man. Just spend the time you spend on CC and checking your e-mails reading. And it may not help you all that much because if you just read to get through as many books as possible you won't comprehend or absorb anything which will defeat the purpose of reading.</p>
<p>cumon anyone who has gained like 100+ points in verbal after studying please teell me how.</p>
<p>English is my second language. Apart from phonics books, the ONLY book I've read, meaning from the start to the end, was "The Witches" by Roald Dahl, a book recommended for elementary school students.</p>
<p>Of course, I did read Romeo and Juliet and few other classic stories like Lord of the Flies during english lessons but I usually read the summary and review on the internet to understand it.</p>
<p>and my verbal score? (this is the New SAT) its in the low 600's :D Not a fantastic score but for a person with such low english level I find it pretty decent. I'm not too sure how accurate the Real SAT practice exams are but the lowest verbal I scored was a 570 and the highest was a 630. Due to my weak vocabulary, I usually omit a quarter of the sentence completion part and don't perform very well on it, but CR is a lifesaver. </p>
<p>I think that enrichning your vocabulary bank is the primary thing to do. I don't think that reading novels will give as much effect as most people expect. In my opinion, reading lots of books only helps you read faster. Reading magazine articles from Times and summarizing it will be a better preparation. Again, this is just a humble biased opinion from me.</p>
<p>yeah and I agree with jthecanadianrevived.</p>
<p>your friend may have read numerous books but he/she must've just skimmed through it just picking up the important plot rather than doing 'critical' reading. It'll be far better off if you could read an article, analyse it, and debate through with your opinions than just 'ordinary reading' a thick classic book.</p>
<p>PS. notice all the grammar mistakes I'm making, hence my writing score of 480 :D</p>
<p>Bingo! I am an overanalyzer.</p>
<p>2nd practice test: missed none of the 48 passaged based questions
after 8 practice tests on the real SAT: 600 (-18)</p>
<p>I also hope that I am an exception, but I still would never expect above 690 for myself.</p>
<p>I've been reading nonstop since I first learned, and I got an 800 PSAT Critical Reading without preparation.</p>
<p>Half of it depends on your skills. The other half is how good of a test taker you are.</p>
<p>I think saying "how good of a testaker" is over emphasized. All the test-taker has to realize is "dont be nervous!!" and they're good to go.</p>
<p>Fact is, I don't think you can prepare for any "reasoning" test, unless you're going to learn format. Taking a dozen practice SATs is a total waste of time. I took two and considered myself bordering on obsessive.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, but test-taking is an innate skill, and if you don't have it, you can't get it. Sure, you can improve a hundred points here and there. (Maybe, if enough time elapses you can improve a lot more than that.) But someone who scores a 1100 in May is not going to get a 1600 that fall.</p>
<p>Oh, and, if you're reading the classics to score well on the SAT, I know of no vocabulary word to define that kind of pathetic. It's an insult to the authors. (Being an author, that makes me touchy.)</p>
<p>Sorry to be somewhat offensive. I deserve the flames I get.</p>
<p>I raised my PSAT verbal from 640 to an SAT verbal of 770. All I did were practice questions, so I could learn how to think in order to answer the questions correctly. Plus, I already had an abundant vocabulary at my disposal so I didn't really need to study words.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Those aren't actual testing conditions. In a real testing situation, you aren't staring at the other person who takes the test, and the person taking the test knows beforehand that that is test day. I think your anecdote proves nothing--and was the sample section you gave her even a REAL sample section, or was it from one of the phony cram course publishers?</p>
<p>And was she under the influence of any intoxicating substance? Perhaps your sexifying gaze put her hormones into overdrive? Maybe it was the blueberry muffin she ate .5734pi seconds too quickly? Oh come on, the guy's just seeking help and reassurance. No need to bash him.</p>
<p>lmfao whisperwind</p>
<p>there really is no need to make fun of the people who enjoy reading just because the vast majority doesn't (not on CC, of course:) ) BEsides, there are studies that suggest that even the smartest people can choke and perform poorly on tests because of the pressure they put on themselves. I have been inhaling books of all kinds since I was younger than five years old, and i am quite happy with my 740 verbal on the old SAT I. By the way, thanks for defending the fantasy fiction books, because I've found lots of the vocab words that are forced on us in english class within the text of Anne McCaffrey's books.</p>
<p>my score increased at least over 100 points over the course of 2 or 3 months just by doing practice tests.</p>
<p>"hahahaha ......</p>
<ol>
<li>I do know what classic means...</li>
<li>If you couldnt figure out when i said she read 70% classic books, I was being sarcastic.</li>
<li>No, she struggled. I bet she would score lower than me on verbal and I barely read.</li>
<li>So my point is reading stuff that will show up on the SAT is better to read than wasting precious time reading other stuff in trying to improve SAT verbal.</li>
</ol>
<p>i hope this clarifies the situation a little bit."</p>
<p>Of course, the entire point of reading is to improve your SAT score. Not for personal enjoyment, aesthetic appreciation, or anything along those lines. We can all count on discontinuing all use of our literary skills after college, opting instead to use our 'precious time' for other things, like nose-picking.</p>