{"id":1751,"date":"2014-05-14t09:00:33","date_gmt":"2014-05-14t09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/sat\/?p=1751"},"modified":"2015-11-04t14:37:07","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04t22:37:07","slug":"how-to-study-sat-critical-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.catharsisit.com\/hs\/sat\/how-to-study-sat-critical-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"how to study sat critical reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"how<\/a><\/center>
\n <\/p>\n

a quick anecdote<\/h2>\n

first, i should mention that this story is a bit tweaked\u00a0for dramatic effect (read: not completely true), but the main point of the story is untainted by the details i\u2019m adding.<\/p>\n

a few years ago, i was working with class of around ten sat students through a difficult reading comprehension passage and its questions. one of the students, david, was a normally enthusiastic high-scorer, the kind of guy who finishes all the practice material first then seems to enjoy helping his friends get through tough spots. at least, that was definitely true about his attitude toward the math and writing sections of the test.<\/p>\n

but rather than tear into the passage and questions we were doing, david pulled out a blank piece of paper and started doing origami. when i asked him why, he said: \u201creading comp is subjective. and i\u2019ll memorize the vocabulary words at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

a part of me was angry, of course. it was cheeky and a bit arrogant. but i also got it. sat critical reading questions don\u2019t jump out as being something you need practice with\u2014not nearly as much so as the math or writing ones do. when you get a math question wrong, after you look at the solution you might think, \u201cohh. right. next time, i\u2019ll do that.\u201d when you get a reading comprehension question wrong, you might look at it twice and think \u201cbull.\u201d<\/p>\n

but once you\u2019ve spent enough time with the test, it becomes clear these answers aren\u2019t<\/i> subjective; they\u2019re based on the text, and they follow strict rules.<\/p>\n

and what about sentence completions? it\u2019s true that your vocabulary is one of the most important parts, but the test is more than that. it\u2019s also about strategy, understanding what the test-maker wants and how to get there.<\/p>\n

it takes practice to really understand how these questions are written and what they ask of you, (as it does for any section of the sat). vocabulary flashcards<\/a> alone aren\u2019t enough! you\u2019ll need a three-pronged attack to hit the best sat critical reading score that you can:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1) learning skills and strategies<\/h2>\n

what you basically want to learn is a) what makes wrong answers wrong and b) what makes right answers right. okay, so that doesn\u2019t mean a whole lot in and of itself. in order to get what i mean, you\u2019ll need to do a little bit more<\/a> reading<\/a>.<\/p>\n

once you do start to see the patterns, what the sat makers want from you, you\u2019ll start to see your scores go up.<\/p>\n

but that means more than just reading the blog posts linked above. learning the test means both getting those lessons\u2014whether that\u2019s via a teacher, a book, a blog, or an online resource like magoosh<\/a>\u2014and doing practice alone<\/i><\/b>. if you do nothing else to prepare for sat critical reading, you should still do this.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2) reading, reading, and more reading<\/h2>\n

there\u2019s no way around it: sat critical reading is largely a test of how comfortable you are with difficult texts. this isn\u2019t just literacy, and it\u2019s not just vocab; it\u2019s having so much experience with the written word that you can understand the author\u2019s exact intentions. the way people write isn\u2019t really how they speak. thoughts are strung together a bit differently and expressed with structures or phrases that might sound too stiff or formal for a conversation.<\/p>\n

diving into that style of english\u2014written english\u2014pays off. i\u2019m not talking about dr. seuss, here, but i\u2019m also not talking about reading the constitution or your biology textbook. i mean that you should be reading articles from the new york times<\/a>, say, or harper\u2019s<\/a>. or hey, lighten it up a bit and spend your time on mcsweeney\u2019s<\/a>. whatever it is, make sure that it\u2019s advanced enough that you sometimes have to reread a paragraph to really get it and that you don\u2019t know every<\/i> word on every <\/i>page. challenge yourself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3) memorizing vocabulary<\/h2>\n

gung-ho sat students often focus too<\/i> much on vocabulary. but at the same time, it would be a huge mistake not to study it at all. after all, you\u2019re going to see 19 sentence completion questions out of the total 67 questions in critical reading sections. those add up to a pretty hefty chunk of your overall cr score, nearly 30%. and there will be a few vocab questions in the passage-based questions, too.<\/p>\n

and as you do build your vocabulary, soaking up words like \u201clugubrious,\u201d \u201claconic,\u201d and \u201clucre\u201d (the l<\/i> section seems to be disproportionately large in my mental dictionary), make sure that you\u2019re actually retaining<\/i> what you learn. review, and review often. use mnemonics<\/a>. and use those new words in your writing, too. not only will that help bump up your essay score, but it will also make those words stick.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

the moral of the story<\/h2>\n

it wasn\u2019t that same day, but after i talked with david about the above\u2014especially trying to see how reading comprehension questions are structured and how to beat them\u2014there was a clear change in his attitude. i can\u2019t say it was definitely because of anything i said, although i like to think so. instead, i imagine it was because once he got a little bit more exposure to the test, his interest in the reading section snowballed.<\/p>\n

with the right mix of experience and training, the critical reading section, like the other sat sections, becomes just another type of puzzle waiting to be solved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

and don’t forget to take a look at the other posts in this series:<\/p>\n