How to improve Critical reading on SAT? Best methods etc.?

Question

I'm going to be a senior and have already taken the SAT once in May. I KNOW i can do so much better and it's frustrating to do well in English in school and do so poorly on the CR portion of the SAT. I have a 4.2 weighted GPA and a 3.7-3.8 UW gpa, in the top 20-15% of my class and yet... my scores are this on the SAT:

math - 750

writing - 670 essay 9

CR - 560..

total - 1980...

I get As in english. I've practiced and taken like 3 classes and my Critical reading seems to be really scattered- I've gone thru 3 prep books, and I sometimes get whole passages right whereas some passages just completely bomb... I find it all so inconsistent and I really need to desperately improve my SAT CR score in order to get into a decent college... Any advice? I get stressed easily and I know time is often a problem for me...

Answer 1

Well, you're better off with a good GPA and a bad SAT than the reverse, which situation I am in...

anyways, I got my SAT score up to what it is mostly by practicing, because after a while you really get to understand what KIND of questions they ask, and what to expect, which is like "using" the system...

i.e. there are questions including;

meaning of word in context

what the author implies

compare two sentences

etc.

dunno.  For me I can usually read the passages fast enough that I go through them completely and then go back for review, dunno if that is a problem for you, it is for most people.  I think it's mostly a time issue, as supposedly if one spends enough time on one question they'll be able to get a good answer

CR score- 740