PWN the SAT Q&A • Hi, I’ve been using the resources in your blog and I’ve made a lot of progress, thanks to you! I can’t seem to understand *why*, but my scores in critical reading seem to have stagnated. I improved a fair bit, from low 600s when taken cold, to high 600s/low 700s, but ever since I’ve reached that point, I haven’t improved! I look at the mistakes I make, and aside from words I wasn’t familiar with and not “looking at the big picture”, I can’t seem to see where I go wrong. Always -7 to -10 marks!

Anonymous

Anonymous asked:

Hi, I've been using the resources in your blog and I've made a lot of progress, thanks to you! I can't seem to understand *why*, but my scores in critical reading seem to have stagnated. I improved a fair bit, from low 600s when taken cold, to high 600s/low 700s, but ever since I've reached that point, I haven't improved! I look at the mistakes I make, and aside from words I wasn't familiar with and not "looking at the big picture", I can't seem to see where I go wrong. Always -7 to -10 marks!

Thanks! I’m psyched that you’ve been improving. :)

I think, and I don’t mean to be flip, that you need to look at the big picture here. If you’re only missing 7-10 questions per exam, then it’s quite possible that you’re missing NOTHING BUT “big picture” and vocab questions. So to set those aside and look for where else you’re going wrong is probably not the best way to approach your remaining mistakes. Rather, try to tackle those two issues head-on!

If you’re taking the test this week, you’re more likely to help yourself out by learning a bunch of vocab than you are continuing to work on main idea stuff (those issues typically take more than 5 days to sort out). I’d recommend getting your hands on a nice vocab list like Direct Hits and trying to learn as much of it as possible. Maybe you can shave your 7-10 wrong down to 4-7!