Help: Critical Reading Wishy Washy

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<p>Does anyone else face this issue: sophomore year I scored a 220 on the PSAT: 80 M, 71 W, and 69 CR. This year, I scored a 215. And the entire drop of five points was in critical reading… (Still got 80 math, 71 writing). That’s won’t help me for the schools I am looking at if I do that on the actual SAT.</p>

<p>I call this wishy-washy because to me, the Critical Reading section feels less concrete than the mathematics section. In math, I am certain of the right answer, but when it comes to critical interpretation of literature, I struggle to gain a foothold on central ideas. Now, most of that Critical Reading deficit can be attributed to a limited list of tough vocabulary (broach, ruse, enmity… I need to study up on words like these a little more). </p>

<p>But at the same time, even when I do know the words, I sometimes find difficulty analyzing which is best for the sentence. Am I just overthinking it?</p>

<p>Does anyone else have this problem? Has anyone else found a good solution to this problem?</p>

<p>Post your thoughts.</p>

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<p>I don’t know my score for this year yet, but I scored higher as a freshman than as a sophomore. My rationale behind this drop would be that I paid out-of-pocket for the test freshman year, and it was free during sophomore year.</p>

<p>I find that overanalyzing any parts of the CR tends to give wrong answers. In my opinion, I think that the answer they want is the most general, least finicky answer there that the vast majority of the population will interpret. So yes, I do think you’re overthinking it a bit. I had the same problem when taking my first practice AP Lang MC test, where they asked for much deeper interpretations than the SAT asks for.</p>