Best way to improve CR score?

Pre-College Topics High School Cafe
1

<p>I’m having a problem improving my critical reading score but I haven’t started studying that much yet. So what’s the best way to improve my score? Is it best by sheer practice over and over or finding strategies?</p>

2

<p>(coming from someone who fluked and got a decent score on the CR section)</p>

<p>Honestly, if you’re not a senior already, the greatest suggestion I can give you is to read pretty voraciously. Analyze literature independently - this is especially easy if you’re in like honors/AP/IB English - learn new vocabulary (which comes naturally with reading), and, above all, think when you read. If you do that already, then I guess you would do well to practice some more. I didn’t practice much at all for the October SAT (one mock, completed entirely within an hour) but I really wish I had, since I feel that my score was unflattering.</p>

<p>I’d also recommend finding strategies (though I’m unsure of what this means) and just practicing to the point where you’re comfortable with your score. I don’t think there’s really that much to it, though you probably don’t want my word on this alone.</p>

3

<p>(coming from somebody who has not taken the SAT yet but got 93rd percentile on her 10th grade PSAT)</p>

<p>Completely agree with OP, the more you read the better you will do on CR. If you read advanced text in school make sure you truly understand and try reading some other things as well (newspapers, scientific journals, nonfiction (so few people read nonfiction these days)). I also recommend signing up for Dictionary.com’s word of the day if you vocabulary is on the weak side.</p>

4

<p>760 on PSAT reading. 800 in each of my two SAT sitting.</p>

<p>Learn tons of words. Read tons of analytical news.</p>

<p>But seriously, specifically studying new words — not just reading them (that’ll only get you a vague idea of the word; you want linguistic mastery). </p>

<p>If you’re a Junior, there’s loads of time to improve significantly. I’d get a reading and a vocab list for the summer and just pass the time. No pressure, just do it for fun.</p>