<p>Can i bring
CR:480 to 600
W:650 to 700
M:750 to 760+
I’m in a really depress mood right now. I know I suck in english. I literally have 1 month to get 600 in CR, if i dont get it my parents are sending my to an out of state english camp. I really dont want to go. I’ve worked so hard in school this year and literally had no breaks to study for the SAT. Spring break is coming up and I’m going to give less focus to school work after it so i can do better on the SAT. Is it possible to get the 600 in english, thats all i need to avoid english summer camp(6 weeks). I dont want my whole summer to be devoted to english. I’ve had no social life this year, i was thinking about volunteering and hanging out with friends over the summer plus study for the SAT. I dont think i can talk them out of it unless I get 600 in CR. What should I do am i doomed?</p>
<p>sorry for double post</p>
<p>CR will be tough, but I’m sure you can do it.</p>
<p>If I were you I’d buy/find the SAT blue book with several practice tests.
Start taking the CR sections, practice your timing and go back through and understand why each problem you got wrong was.</p>
<p>What helps is copying down/cutting out each incorrect problem, put them somewhere for a week or two, then go back and try them again. If you still get it wrong you really need to focus on understanding that problem, if you get it right then you’re learning! (unless you still remember it too well 
)</p>
<p>The more practice tests you take the better you get at it, there isn’t really a substitute for it. The only possible exception is if you vocabulary is weak, then you can find word lists from some outside aid to go through them. But also note that many SAT words show up every year/every other year so if you can also simply identify words you don’t know from practice tests, save them and study them.</p>
<p>Also you could look into programs in your town (like Sylvan or something) as an alternative to an out-of-state program for English this summer, so you could stay in-town.
You could make a case for it with your parents saying volunteer work or something else you’ll be doing will build you college resume much better than the English camp would.</p>
<p>Good luck; I’m sure you’ll do great!</p>
<p>@megaman6c…I said this in your other duplicate thread, but here it is again. Hopefully others can get some benefit out of it too.</p>
<p>You can do it. It’s definitely possible Just get one more math question right. For writing, study the grammar rules more than anything. Writing the essay is harder, so just focus on grammar rules.</p>
<p>And now for Reading…</p>
<p>Here’s the secret: SAT CR is NOT about analysis or interpretation like you’ve been trained to do in English class. It sucks, but you have to UNTRAIN yourself now for the SAT. If you do what you’ve been trained to do in school, which is to analyze and interpret, you’re going to get stuff wrong on the SAT.</p>
<p>This ain’t English class. This ain’t Ms. Holden’s British Lit class. This is the SAT, which is about finding the answer directly in the passage (not analyzing). It’s a giant open book test.</p>
<p>Here’s another secret: don’t justify your answer, identify the wrong answers.</p>
<p>Looking for the right answer is the WRONG METHOD for the Critical Reading section. Instead, you need to identify which four are wrong and WHY they are wrong. The reason you are debating between two or three choices is because something about each of them feels right; that’s why they’re still in the running. You can easily convince yourself that any one is right (this is called justification). But if you identify what’s WRONG with a choice, it’s game over for that choice. Identify four wrong choices and you’re left with the right answer.</p>
<p>There are 7 main reasons why something is wrong:</p>
<p>1) Not stated in the passage. Duh. The trap here is that some answer choices actually feel really logical and make sense to any smart-thinking student like yourself. But if it doesn’t say it directly in the passage, it’s wrong no matter how much that choice makes sense.</p>
<p>2) Opposite of what’s stated in the passage. Duh again. But they will try to trick you by mentioning something you remember reading about, and then contradicting what the passage said. Even small discrepancies can mess up the whole game and meaning of an answer choice.</p>
<p>3) Too extreme. Good writing is about grey areas, nuances, and subtleties. So the SAT probably isn’t going to make the right answer so black and white. Things like “extremely” or “absolutely” or “undoubtedly” or stuff along those lines are probably wrong. “Always” or “never” are usually bad too. The SAT is also part of the PC (politically correct) police, so controversial stuff probably isn’t right either.</p>
<p>4) Too broad. Good writing is about being specific. So if one of the choices feels too general or vague, it’s probably wrong (unless the question is asking for the main idea). This answer choice might feel true in a general sense, but it’s just too broad.</p>
<p>5) Too narrow. This choice might actually be true and stated in the passage. But it’s not the full reason, so it doesn’t completely answer the question.</p>
<p>6) True, but unrelated. This choice might actually be true again and stated in the passage. Unfortunately, it’s unrelated to the question, so again, it’s wrong. This one is a killer because if you read the entire passage at once, you’ll have all these thoughts about various parts of the passage in your head jumbled up. The SAT loves to ask something about paragraph 3 but have an answer choice reminding you of something you read about in paragraph 5. This is why you reading the passage all at once can be detrimental. </p>
<p>7) Only half true (or partially true). Remember, even if the rest of the choice is perfect, if there’s even ONE word that’s wrong, then the entire choice is wrong.</p>
<p>Note:
The answer choices themselves are not the only things to pay special attention to though. The question itself is quite deserving of your attention. Be wary of key words such as “primarily.” A choice might say “because Bobby was a smart guy.” There might actually be a specific incident in the passage where Bobby did something incredibly stupid like microwaving a metal fork. Many test takers would then say the choice is wrong because Bobby did that one stupid thing. But if the rest of the passage shows how smart Bobby was, then Bobby was “primarily” or “mostly” smart. You can’t cross this choice off as wrong anymore. </p>
<p>Again, don’t justify why something’s right…identify what’s wrong. What I suggest (and this will take a lot longer in the beginning…by like tenfold) is to create a Word document with the following:</p>
<p>A) _____________
B) _____________
C) _____________
D) _____________
E) _____________</p>
<p>Have A, B, C, D, and E for each and every reading passage question. You’re going to need a lot of paper. When you answer a question, write down the reason why the four answers are wrong. Print out the list of wrong answer reasons and refer to it every question. Just leave the right answer’s slot blank.</p>
<p>It’ll end up looking something like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>A) too extreme
B) _____________
C) opposite
D) not stated
E) half true</li>
</ol>
<p>Getting the right answer is good, but it’s not enough. To become a master, you have to know why ALL the other choices are wrong. It’s not hard to get the right answer by looking for it in the easy questions, but my method is going to train you for those tough questions.</p>
<p>Parting thoughts on the right answer: the correct answer should feel right easily and effortlessly. You shouldn’t have to force it to feel right. You shouldn’t have to say, “Well, if I think about it from this angle, I can see how it’d work.” No. If you have to look at it crookedly for it to make sense, it’s probably wrong. </p>
<p>The right answer MUST BE SUPPORTED by the passage itself. That means you must be able to point to a specific word, phrase, or sentence(s) that led you to your answer. Don’t let yourself off the hook with “Oh, I got the overall sense that she was feeling scornful.” Instead, be able to point to a sentence that says, “Those theories are all hogwash. The pioneers of those schools of thoughts knew nothing.”</p>
<p>No matter how attractive or logical an answer choice sounds, if you can’t support it with the contents of the passage, then you can’t pick it.</p>
<p>And try Direct Hits books for vocab. But keep in mind, there are only 19 sentence completion (vocab) questions out of 67 total questions. Yeah, there are some vocab in the reading comp too…but really not that bad.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>OP, </p>
<p>My son went from 490 to 620 by doing practice tests from Barron and Kaplan. He also had 2400 Barron book. He did about one test a week for 3 months before last SATs. If you dedicate time every day during school break to practice and invest some time to understand the strategy for this test, your goal is definitely reacheable.</p>
<p>I totally agree with the poster above–I was too analytical and CR was my lowest section. From practices in the 600s, I raised my CR to an 800. Granted, English is one of my favorite subjects. You just need to learn to look at each answer, go back into the text, and see which answers you can point to. I call it the CUP system (Can (yo)u point?). If you can point to a sentence in the text that explicitly supports the answer, you’re as good as gold. No matter how tricky, the other 4 choices will always be wrong, extreme, or unsupported by the text.</p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>
<p>Follow the yellow brick road. It’s all right there. You cannot go wrong. It’s the SAT, it is possible to ace. It’s not designed to trick you in any way.</p>
<p>Actually it’s completely designed to trick you. The SAT is not straightforward at all. The answer choices are not chosen arbitrarily. They are chosen deliberately because each one caters to a common mistake people make.</p>
<p>That said, the SAT is completely possible to ace like you said, aahs12.</p>