<p>Hmm… My approach is pretty much the exact opposite of most. I’ll tell you what I told someone else struggling with SAT CR & W the other day…</p>
<p>Don’t read the passage until you HAVE TO! This sounds nutty as can be, but trust me, I got a 750 on CR (I missed 2 vocab questions and made two bubbling errors, circled the right answer and bubbled the wrong one, curse my thoughtlessness!) without ANY prep… Anyway, in a lot of cases, you don’t need to read the passage until the last 2 questions about it (they usually ask about mood, tone, author purpose, style… Things that require you to read the whole passage); if a question gives you a designated line number that you need to read, read it, answer the question, and move on! When you havvvvvve to read the passage to answer a question, go ahead and read it. This saves time, which can be especially beneficial if you’re a slow reader. I’m not a slow reader, but I like to have time to check my answers, and it also just keeps things simpler… It makes a lot of trick questions untricky. </p>
<p>This is a very general and overly-simplistic piece of advice (it goes with the tricky bit earlier) but answer the question… Make sure to answer strictly what it’s asking for, don’t try to “interpret” it or anything… It’s not subjective. The SAT is tricky, they want you to mess up, so keep your cool and keep it simple. Look at the concrete… Find something concrete in the question, the answer, and the passage. If all pieces are in agreement, and relevant to each other, you have the answer. You’ll never have to analyze anything on the CR section… Just find things! </p>
<p>Also, (more of a writing tip I guess, but still) learn how to recognize passive voice if you aren’t already able to. If you didn’t know, Passive voice is a more advanced kind of grammatical “error” in the English language… </p>
<p>Active voice: David plants a tree.
Passive voice: A tree is planted by David. </p>
<p>A few incorrect answer choices on a bunch of questions are likely to be passive voice, so if you can recognize passive voice and eliminate those answer choices quickly, you can save lots of time stressing over answer choices. While these answer choices are gramatically correct by conventional grammar rules, if they’re in passive voice, that means they aren’t the <em>best</em> answer.</p>
<p>Anyway, you should also read a lot, and look up words you don’t know… As a testament, I read a lot, and for about two years straight (before I became broke from it, and sort of got a life) I used to read a new book (of ~400 pages) every day. I was reading Jane Austen in 3rd grade, so yes, reading definitely helps [with vocabulary and with getting a feel for different sentence structures]. If you really, REALLY hate reading, at least try to memorize some vocabulary… I’ve heard “Direct Hits” is pretty good for that, but I wouldn’t know, as I’ve never really prepped for CR. </p>
<p>Take practice tests too, of course… Use these strategies, and you’ll be astounded how much simpler the test seems, and hopefully with how high your score rises! Best of luck, and remember… You can do it!</p>