<p>The problem is that just reading for meaning doesn’t seem to have as much efficiency as reading while analyzing the passage. Simply reading for meaning, for books such as the hunger games, Harry potter series, or Percy Jackson series does not provide much help in analyzing passages with historical contexts. In fact, some books don’t even have proper grammar to convey a meaning, but it hardly does anything for the reader trying to understand and analyze passages. </p>
<p>I have read a lot and I plan on reading literature such as the New York Times and famous classics ( perhaps Macbeth or war and peace if I have the time). What I seem to think is that while reading, it would be advisable to annotate the passages and see WHY Tolstoy does this or how these words were able to combine in order to form a sentence full of meaning. </p>
<p>The negative part about simply reading is that one’s progress is not easily measured, perhaps part of the reason why I’m stressing a bit on critical reading. On writing, at least, I can measure the amount of new concepts I learn and assess my progress. </p>
<p>In contrast, if I were to read War and Peace, and not improve at all, that may demotivated me for some time.</p>
<p>In fact, I read a thread where someone was freaking out after not improving after taking 3 practice tests, which was quite funny to me since I have taken over 10 with little progress in critical reading despite heavy analysis.</p>
<p>However, reading is definitely golden, but how we can make it even more efficient, and be sure that we are improving is a matter of concern. As it is, many voracious readers have similar critical reading levels to people who may have read less, perhaps due to the unfamiliarity of the syntax or subject matter. But as I like to say, surrounding oneself with good literature and people who speak articulately is invaluable to ones progress. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, critical reading is undoubtably the most difficult section to improve, but it is definitely possible to improve, through an understanding of passages, collegeboard syntax, and logic. Even so, the road is difficult as a few errors is enough to drag one down from an 800</p>