Critical Reading Strategies

dchow08
Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:04:36 +0000

I’d hate to break it to you, but a 700 by June is a bit of a stretch, especially if you’re doing things other than just studying. It’s hard to improve on critical reading. I’m not even going to answer the question about whether to read the passage first and then…, because it all depends on personal preferences. I personally like to read the first question I can answer and then read the passage until I find the answer and do that until I get them all, but other people like other methods. Why don’t you try and see what works for you.

There are tons and tons of posts on improving critical reading. Before you post this, you probably should read the other posts, which are all pretty much exactly the same as this.

Again, at least a 700 by June, in my opinion, is a long-shot. I think a more reasonable goal is 600, and then 700 when you retake in fall. Here are some posts from Friday up to today on critical reading (Seven!), and this isn’t even all of it!

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/479042-anyone-got-650-cr.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/478549-how-improve-sat-verbal-section.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/478559-how-i-did-2210-2400-a.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/478277-advice-needed-critical-reading.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/478215-improve-critical-reading.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/478177-critical-reading-vocab.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/477271-580-critical-reading.html

You can imagine how it gets annoying. But not to worry–there’ll probably be another critical reading emergency crisis situation by tomorrow.

Notice that everyone has different ideas, but the same general concept:


Get used to reading by reading magazines, books, newspapers, that you enjoy reading.
Learn vocabulary.
The way to tackle critical reading passages depends on what works best for you (notice that people recommend lots of different methods).
Practice.