<p>Name a job where you actually have to read. Exactly, you can't.</p>
<p>That's sarcasm for those who didn't catch on.</p>
<p>Garbage truck man! Dancer! Government official!</p>
<p>to be a dancer, you have to read a contract, to be a garbage man you have to read directions and instructions for handling garbage (some environmental stuff, I'm sure)</p>
<p>I think there's a Calvin and Hobbes where Calvin says he wouldn't have to read if he became a Neanderthal...</p>
<p>no duhhhh people</p>
<p>LOL at post #60. </p>
<p>My somewhat querulous tone in my earlier post was caused by a thread title that didn't deliver what it promised: a new discovery about the SAT. </p>
<p>If, in fact, you haven't even taken the real SAT in real testing conditions yet, perhaps you would like to listen to advice from someone like me who aced the SAT verbal section (back in the 1970s) the first and only time I took the SAT at age sixteen. My advice for anyone who wants to score well on the SAT verbal (critical reading) section (and I wish all of you test-takers well) is to READ, READ, READ, and READ. Turn off the TV and read. Put away the video game machine and read. Find an interesting book about some subject you are interested in. Pick up a magazine and page through it looking for some article on something you want to know about. In general, treat reading as an enjoyable, fun activity and make time for reading. Read nonfiction, fiction, and whatever is at hand. Think while you read, and practice your reasoning powers, but practice those while reading passages of connected text, not just vocabulary lists. The College Board has published enough old SAT tests that you could practice several full-length SAT tests over a period of a few weeks under close-to-real testing conditions. But what you do with the rest of your free time (for the verbal section) is read. (You do math problems to practice for the math section, and THINK about the math you are studying in school.) I kept a list of the books I read while I was in high school, and added to that list the books I remembered reading up to that time. I read about anything and everything, and there were about 1,000 books on that list by the time I took the SAT. I didn't need a cram course, I never memorized vocabulary lists, and the only practice test I did was the one in the booklet about the SAT that every test-taker gets. There was no SAT-prep industry in my town when I took the SAT. I aced the verbal section (and did pretty well in math too). Just read; you'll do fine. </p>
<p>By the way, did I mention it's a good idea to read to prepare for the SAT verbal (critical reading) section? </p>
<p>Good luck on the test.</p>
<p>Yeah. I took one practice test the night before and got an 800 V (math was much much worse. don't want to go there) - and I didn't read everyday or anything (unless you count fanfiction, which is usually a waste of time - yes, i'm v. asian). I did read a lot as a kid. I even won this random elementary school award for reading the most pages in a year.</p>
<p>BUT...in terms of the subject matter. I don't think it matters what you read. Although classics are outdated simply because their writing style is medieval/romantic/etc. and not modern. So the only advice I would give is to stick to the modern language books - fantasy, science fiction, espionage, whatever.</p>
<p>Taking previous standardized tests help too - they help you learn what exactly the question is asking for. </p>
<p>Beyond that is just 'critical thinking' - speech and debate really helps you with that. You learn to analyze literature and write much better. So if you have the free time, join a debate team and you'll read the paper everyday anyways.</p>
<p>tokenadult, nice advice.</p>
<p>I have 1 years and 8 months to improve my verbal from a low 530 to a 700+. Can it be done?? IF i read, say 2 hours daily, will it help my verbal?</p>
<p>OR is it too late now that i'm 15 and past my adolescent age when I refused to read books.</p>
<p>as you seem to know, please please tell me; it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>If you're still fifteen, you have time to learn a lot. Just make sure to read about what you really like to read about--your interest in the subject will help you apply critical thinking to what you read.</p>
<p>The only thing you can do to improve your score on the critical reading sections is to practice. Honestly, I think that section is quite worthless, and to prove that, I gave myself a little test. I've heard of other people trying this trick as well:</p>
<p>Do the CR questions blind! Don't even look at the text! If you do enough of them, you'll see a pattern. For example, the question that goes "The word (blah) in line X most nearly means:" has five answer choices. There are almost always two pairs that mean the same thing. The correct answer is the unpaired one.</p>
<p>The same sort of thing applies to the actual CR questions, not the vocab ones. If you've read the little summary blurb above the text, these are actually quite easy. Usually there's a pair of answers that mean the same thing - those are out. Then, one of the answers is usually too ridiculous to be true, and another one is too deep or dark for a SAT text. Then the remaining answer is the right one.</p>
<p>The first time I tried this (on a practice test in the Kaplan book) I got something like 15/17 correct. Without reading the passage, without even skimming it. I don't recommend doing this on the actual test, but I'm just saying that if you know their style, the CR section is easy.</p>