Hi @aszumilo , would you qualify to take the TOEFL since you recently moved to the US and (I’m assuming) you haven’t had English as your native language? That might be a viable option if you’re allowed to take it instead of just the SAT. How are you doing on the reading comprehension sections? I think that what would really help would be to practice the CR sections untimed and do your best to understand the reasoning behind the correct and incorrect answers. You can work on improving your test-taking speed as you learn, but right now learning the material and practicing it thoroughly should be your goal. Let me know how I may be of further service to you.
I have to make a research about the TOEFL, I have never heard of that before. Thank you so much.
I am taking the SAT in October. @Apoc314
Hi @RiceEater108 , I think you have enough time to read through some of that book you mentioned along with taking practice sections and reviewing older tests as well. As the SAT gets closer, remember to keep on reviewing the actual previous tests so you have the strategies fresh in your mind. Good luck!
@Apoc314 Any SAT books that you can recommend that you’ve personally used? (Besides for the Blue book of curse, already have that)
Hi @chyaboi123 , I’ve only used the Blue book, Kaplan SAT prep, and Princeton Review primarily for my preparation. I used the blue book as the SAT test date grew closer and was able to practice with most of the tests in there.
hi quick question during the real SAT did you feel that simply studying the words from the blue book was enough for you? or do you wish you had learned more vocab words?
Hi @wanderlustgal ! During the SAT I took, I felt that studying the words from the blue book was fairly comprehensive for me. I did not know every single vocabulary word in the answer choices on sentence completion questions, but studying the structure of the sentence completion questions and the previously used SAT words helped me know how to eliminate answers and gauge which types of words fit the question better. I was pretty satisfied with learning vocabulary from the Official SAT Study Guide.
When will you be taking the SAT, and how much preparation have you done so far? Let me know how I may further help.
hey i’m going to be taking the SAT in november and so far i’ve went thru barron’s 2400, grubers, and i’ve taken the first two practice tests of the blue book. i’ve already compiled what i think is a pretty decent list of sat words (about a 1000, which i still need to study). i’m scoring around a 2100 right now on practice tests, but i’m aiming for a 2400
i miss about 6 or 8 questions per CR part of the test (all 3 sections) but obviously i need to bring this down to barely one question for an 800. any tips?
Hi @Apoc314 , thanks for the guide! What would you advise someone who scores in the low 700 range and has timing problems to do to be able to score an 800?
Hey @wanderlustgal , approximately what score is that for your CR sections (if I’m interpreting that correctly you mean you miss about 6-8 questions total on CR)? In the beginning, I usually recommend to focus more on practicing CR section questions with less of a strict time limit, but consistently narrowing down your time until you hit the actual test time. This should help with improving your critical reading understanding before working on speed. If 6-8 wrong is around 700, then I recommend to focus on implementing tip #9 in my guide (devil’s advocate).
Devil’s advocate is a strategy of looking at a critical reading question and asking yourself why each answer choice is WRONG instead of right. When you look back at the passage, you would then look for why there is no direct support for the answer, then eliminate it. Only when you find direct evidence supporting the correct answer do you choose that one and continue answering questions. This mindset really aided my improvement from the high 600’s/low 700’s to reach an 800 on the CR section. Hope this helps!
Hi @BethanyD ! First off, scoring in the low 700s range is already a great achievement - you’re farther along than when I first started preparing, so keep it up! How much problem is timing for you? If you have a pretty good understanding of the questions and can usually answer them all correctly if you had more time, then I would give yourself a few extra minutes for each practice section you take, review your answers for both incorrect and correct selections to really add to your critical understanding, and then continue taking another practice section another day with reduced time. For example, you could take a few practice sections over 2-3 days, see that you are doing very well in understanding, and then decrease the time you give yourself by 1 minute or so and try it again. You don’t have to strictly do this by 2-3 days or 1 minutes (these are just examples). Modify this technique as it suits you, as you may be able to start decreasing the time even sooner than expected or so. Overall, don’t worry about this - keep on preparing, and you will score well!
Hi @Apoc314, thank you! I used to socre 45 on the PSAT CR and I wanted to thank you for your useful guide because it helped me reach a 600 on the actual SAT on June.
I’m glad to know low 700s is good, I worked so hard for it!
Yes exactly! My main problem is that my comprehension is quite slow (I’m not a reader!). So of course, when I’m given more time, I do so much better. My score can drop by 100+ points if I’m suddenly timed.
I am applying this! (y) I initally started with 15 extra minutes to achieve a low 700. Everyday, I decrease the time I take by one minute and I solve 2-3 sections with the new timing on each day. Then I analyze all my mistakes carefully and write in a notebook what to do next time to reach the correct answer. (I play devil’s advocate too, and I attribute my score increase to it!) I also study the new vocabs in each section. (my sentence completion mistakes are almost equal in number to my passage question mistakes) I study Barron’s 1100 and direct hits as well to strengthen my vocab.
My major problem is that when I’m given a passage harder to comprehend, I tend to take more time than I do when I get a passage easier to understand. I might also be misled by some information (and the SAT would have the choice corresponding to my thinking there!!) I have just tried a hard passage and I got 5 mistakes on that section (2 sentences, 3 hard passage) but yesterday I got no mistake on the section with the passages I found easy to understand. I have an issue with comprehending the information then relating that information given in the passage to the questions. (specially if they’re dual hard passages, which was the case with my 5 mistakes section, that’s my nightmare)
For me, the questions themselves got so much easier when I played devil’s advocate and learned how to derive the answer ONLY from the passage without my bias interfering. (thanks for teaching me that!)
What do you advise me to do to be able to comprehend difficult passages (correctly) as quick and efficiently as possible? Also what strategy would you use to answer questions of dual passages that link the two passages? Do you believe that I need to skim the entire passage before I answer the questions? (I answer them while reading the passage) I’d appreciate any advice you have to give. Thank you so much for everything!
Hello,
Currently, I have been using apoc’s great method of underlining key lines mentioned in the questions, eliminating answer choices by devil’s advocate, and doing the questions as I go.
Currently, I’m grinding on CR because it’s my only weak section. I do at least 2 passages a day, and I don’t get any vocabulary questions wrong.
I now miss 1-2 comprehension questions on each CR section. Almost all the time, the questions I get wrong have my second choice as the correct answer (I’m stuck between 2 and I choose the wrong one). Is this (pardon the grammar) something that I can improve through consistently practicing same study method (getting better at elimination), or something that I have to remedy by a completely different method?
@BethanyD , great to hear of your improvement! I would recommend continuing to practice the devil’s advocate strategy on all passages and sentence completion questions. I know that it may be difficult to get used to at first with the difficult passages when it might seem quicker to look for the “right” answer instead of the “wrong” ones, but please keep on using that technique and your accuracy and speed will increase. I usually look at the questions first and answer them by going back to the lines in the passage needed (for main topic or bigger picture questions, then I would have to read both passages to compare and contrast before answering). I would practice difficult sections and still work on lowering your time as you improve your practice so you get more used to the real SAT. This way, if you have a hard section, you will be able to do well on the real test, and if you have an easier one, you will do very well based on how your practice has been going. Keep on practicing the devil’s advocate and focus on the details that matter in the questions and passages before looking at the big picture. Hope this helps!
Hi @thetex , I would suggest continuing to practice the devil’s advocate technique to improve your comprehension understanding and score. It took me a while to hone the devil’s advocate strategy, and it may seem like you’re stuck at a plateau at times, but keep on consistently practicing that study method and you will improve your score as much as you can! Hope this helps!
@Apoc314 you were right! I got my first 800 on a practice test today with 2 wrong.
I’m currently scoring upper 500s to lower 600s. I’m currently aiming for a 750+. Do you have any tips when it comes to inference questions? Those are the questions that make the devil’s advocate strategy almost obsolete…
Hey @thetex , glad to hear of your improvement! Keep on practicing! You’ll do well on the real test, I’m sure of it!
Hi @OptimisticLad , hmm…the devil’s advocate strategy comes in handy but is best used when you are in the high 600s - low 700s and trying to reach the highest score of 800. Are you good on timing? Is it mostly the inference questions in the CR sections that are toughest for you? Do you have an example question or two you could post here and I could do my best explaining how to answer it? Please let me know how I may more specifically help - hopefully by going over the questions with how I would think through it, it would help you see better how to answer it in your own style. Thank you.