<p>I’m currently taking APUSH, which has a lot of reading. Do you think that just reading and comprehending my textbook will drastically improve my critical reading score, or should I do something particularly for the SAT reading? I really don’t get that much time to do any major SAT critical reading work, but I guess I could go to sleep an hour later if necessary. I’m currently at a 500.</p>
<p>Work on your vocab; if it’s the reading comprehension you’re bad at, I’d read something more difficult to understand–perhaps Dickens?</p>
<p>The answer is NO for both the reading of hundreds of unrelated pages. And it is also NO for the suggestion of “working on your vocab” if that means wasting time on silly lists. </p>
<p>Concentrate on reading SAT tests with attention and learn how to understand the format and the patterns. Start by reading with the answers in front of you for a while, and then swicth to answering the questions. </p>
<p>This method is the quickest and most effective for someone who does not have much time and started late. You NEED to find time to improve. Chances are that you can skip most of the APUSH reading and find summaries and notes. </p>
<p>I have to diasgree with you @xiggi just from studying vocab, I was able to raise my reading score over 50 points. Having a stronger literary prowess has allowed me to comprehend the passages better.</p>
<p>@xiggi I agree except usually skipping APUSH reading is lethal and will make you fail tests! Unless you have an easy class in which case you can skim/read summaries. </p>
<p>I agree with @Wannabenerd1 - @xiggi is the source of tons of amazing advice, but his opposition to studying vocab is more than a bit overzealous.</p>
<p>As for the original question: sure, it might help, but not much. On this, @xiggi is correct: practice tests are the best practice for the test.</p>
<p>@marvin100 Well I took the test last Saturday, so I’m crossing my fingers that it went well… Do you know if they compare SAT scores to psat scores when determining whether or not to flag ones score because I had an anxiety attack during the PSAT’s, so let’s just say that did not go well.</p>
<p>I don’t think so, no, but the CB isn’t known for transparency, so I don’t think you’ll find an informed answer to that question anywhere.</p>
<p>Haha, some are still insisting on misrepresenting my position on “vocab” and the reliance on wordlists. </p>
<p>Definitely going to agree with @xiggi here. Vocab lists are useless. Learning vocab through other means (which usually take time, that you won’t have) is much better.</p>
<p>@xiggi - we’ve been back and forth on this a few times now, and my position is clear (and supported by 12 years of data–sorry in advance that I won’t share it): studying well-curated word lists is a very efficient way to improve to the 650 range. It can’t make up for inability to read well and it’s not a substitute for practice tests and test analysis, but it’s a pretty essential part of any good CR study plan.</p>
<p>To improve your CR skills, read high quality writing in periodicals like The Economist, the Wall Street Journal, or the New York Times. Reading the readers’ comments will also help u to understand all the nuances in the article. </p>
<p>Here’s my two cents on vocab lists: studying the may be helpful, but it is not an efficient use of time and not even necessary for top scores in CR. I know a number of kids who (1) started SAT Prep with below average vocabularies, (2) learned some words and some roots from reviewing tests and also learned how to answer sentence completions without knowing all the words in the questions/answers, then (3) progressed to the point where they constantly get all sentence completions right on a full SAT test EXCEPT 1 or 2. The curve on CR allows 1-2 wrong for an 800, so there is little to no impact on their scores from their vocabulary.</p>
<p>For many people, the time spent on memorizing lists can be better spent learning the test itself so that one can do better on both the sentence completion and passage-based reading questions.</p>
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<p>We have indeed discussed this a few times! Yet, we are still discussing apples and oranges in the conclusion and ignoring the distinctions. I will try one last time: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>On the one hand, one might look at “well-curated” lists of words. The range of those are from the GRE borrowed several thousand words a la Barron’s to smaller lists borrowed from a number of released tests. </p></li>
<li><p>A few authors have refined the lists culled from past released tests and offered to present the words in context. This is the method of Direct Hits. </p></li>
<li><p>A test prep company claimed to have specific information that allowed them to predict the vocab on the next tests. As we know, their results ranged from very good to insignificant. Anyone is entitled to an opinion about how it worked out for the company. </p></li>
<li><p>And, then, you have my personal suggestion that consists of … reading as many older tests as you can. In this case, reading the tests with attention is NOT the same as attempting to answer every question. It is merely reading with attention and relying on a dictionary to look up words. The same suggestion replaces the reading of lists as I consider the context to be an essential part of learning vocabulary. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>All in all, acquiring a better SAT vocabulary can come from various sources, but I remain convinced that my “approach” works better as it increases the retention of words. Also, a student who finds the exercise of reading the passage challenging will in time develop a better sense for the type of text he or she might see. </p>
<p>There are more elements to this discussion such as weighing the effort vs result ratio. In the past, I “analyzed” the correlation of the well-known lists to actual tests, and it simply showed that few words on such lists appeared, and that the words that appeared with a certain regularity should have been in the arsenal of most adequately prepared students. And, then there is the element of using the proper techniques to shore up a deficient vocabulary through POE or brute logic. </p>
<p>HTH</p>
@xiggi I have an 1800 with a 550 in reading. I need help with the reading section, and I tried all of your suggestions. Nothing just seems to be working. Any ideas?