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i always get all the CR right and get half of the analogies and SC wrong...all u have to do for CR is to eliminate the stupid choices..its so obivous to figure that out..i hardly ever read..only the newspaper and non-fiction books

By Serene (Serene) on Thursday, August 28, 2003 - 04:51 pm: Edit

"why do you find analogies and sc difficult? you just eliminate the stupid choices too.. it's so obvious... and i never do analogies or sc in daily life either..."

By Aspirer42 (Aspirer42) on Thursday, August 28, 2003 - 06:07 pm: Edit

I've always found them awfully subjective. Then again, I haven't taken it in a while.

By Almondjoy (Almondjoy) on Thursday, August 28, 2003 - 11:21 pm: Edit

i agree with dkm. there is actually a secret method to CR that, once you find it, it seems almost ridiculous that you could get it wrong. SCs and ANALogies on the other hand require a large amount of luck and words memorized. I also used to think CR was way to subjective until i discovered....the method.

By Crypto86 (Crypto86) on Thursday, August 28, 2003 - 11:24 pm: Edit

Why don't you share that "method" with us aspiring CR dominators! =D

By Njboe (Njboe) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 12:30 am: Edit

I always cancel out 3 out of 5 answer choices and end up choosing the wrong answer. THat seriously pisses me off...

By Jason817 (Jason817) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 12:33 am: Edit

^^ exact same here.

By Bft (Bft) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 12:40 am: Edit

Same with me too.

I think CR is considered the hardest because it is the hardest to master. Studying for CR is, as another user mentioned, very subjective.

By Almondjoy (Almondjoy) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 01:32 am: Edit

ok when i took PR verbal was my worst section , espceially CR. this was confirmed when my diag showerd that i got like 40% of CR worng. I asked my teacher, why does every answer seem correct? she replied, you must pick the one answer that you are absolutely know is true and that you can find in the text where it states it. Literally, I DOMINATED CR overnight. this method is bascially the PR method of doing CR which most of you probably know but disregarded as ridiculous. anyway, this is my thought process in CR: (I am so cocky about CR that now I look forward to CR when doing the dreadful verbal).

1. Read the italics that give u idea of what article is about.
2. Take a .75 second glance over the amount of questions you are asked, taking note which ones provide you with line references and the ones that refer you to a specific spot on the passage.
3. Do the specific questions first( warning, the specific ones can be at the end as well). read question, then go to the EXACT reference. quickly eliminate any extreme answers (like if it contains ALWAYS or NEVER. you can usually tell which ones wont work caus ethey are too offensive and such...). now, using ONLY the reference and NOTHING else, decide between remainging answers (usually 2 or 3 left). once you determine the answer, go back to text (keep your finger at exactky where u were) and make sure the text specifically states the answer you chose.
4. Mind you, you haven't read the entire passage yet. The only parts uve seen have been referenced to you.
5. Now do the anooying vocabulary ones, making sure you pick the one that is MOST fitting into the context of the sentence (all the definitions are correct, but u must pick the one that fits best).
6. Last (you might even choose to skip one or two of these ones), do the general ones like "the point of passage is...". by now, the references have given you 80% comprehension of thepassage without even reading it.
7. get perfect critical reading score.

There it is, the method. For those CR weaklings, just try one CR section with this method and u will immediately find improvements. But here is the biggest point: Choose the MOST BASIC and MOST BLAND and MOST LITERAL answer. The right answer in CR is 99% very straightforward. The answer wont include insight, foreshadowing, transcendentalism, NOTHING. When doing CR, DONT do ANY interpetaion of the passage (hell you shouldnt even be reading the passage). When CRing, you should be in LITERAL mode. TAKE EERYTHING YOU READ LITERALLY. dont ever try to read between the lines and interpret the author. TAKE IT LITERALLY. the single most important tip is to NOT READ TOO MUCH INTO WHAT THE AUTHOR IS SAYING.

EXAMPLE: I like to sit on summer evenings to watch the sunset.

a. i aspire to be an astronaut
b. i see the sunset as imagery of my inner soul
c. i enjoy spending nights in the summer watching the sun go down below the horizon
d. i think the movements of the sun mirror my love for the phiolsphical aspects of violence in teenage society.

the answer is C. its the most lieral one, and you can use text to prove it. all other answers "could" be right, but where exactly does it say that i want to become astronaut??!!

the reaosn to not read the passage before doing questions is that one of ETS tricks is that they pepper the answer choices with stuff from the passage. for example, one answer choice may be wrong, but it might contain stuff from the end of the passage. even though the end of pasage has NOTHING to do with the actual answer, you will be tempted to choose it since it seems so familiar. in fact, ALL the answers in CR WILl LOOK very familiar if you read the whole passage. Once you start wonder " hey , i read about this in the passage, maybe this is the answer since it seems so familiar..."---you have just been caught in their trap

good luck young grasshopper

By Almondjoy (Almondjoy) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 01:33 am: Edit

reading is not your friend

By Joel_Set (Joel_Set) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 03:29 am: Edit

good luck young grasshoppah.. ahaqhahah wow i might just try that method.. not read and answer half of the questions before tacking half of the questions..

lol i like ur interpretation/method tho.. althought my verbal is at like 660-700.. i am not too worried.. i am hoping ap language will help me tear the verbal portion up..

By Joel_Set (Joel_Set) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 03:30 am: Edit

o and the "taking things literally part".. i am inclined to agree with you..

By Crypto86 (Crypto86) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 10:15 am: Edit

Almondjoy - I totally know what you are saying. On a passage on plastic surgery (May 1997 - Sunday) I got a problem wrong that I absolutely thought I got correct. And I didn't (it was a 5 nonetheless). But without going into detail, I did infer the answer from the denotations and tone of his writing. But I shouldn't have now that I see this. For your steps, thats how I always did it anyway (Quickly glance at questions - if they are line based, do those right away, if not, start reading a bit and answer the "meaning of the first paragraph" ones.) I'll use that today - thanks.

By Papalemming (Papalemming) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 03:11 pm: Edit

I find CR to be manageable, the hardest for me are the analogies. I think they are more subjective than CR.

By Mm314 (Mm314) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 09:18 pm: Edit

yea i dominated CR overnight also...except i actually took the time to carefully read the passage. something a lot of people neglect to do. try it out.

By Njboe (Njboe) on Friday, August 29, 2003 - 10:23 pm: Edit

I think the analogies are the easiest from the verbal section. CR is the EVIL ONE!!

By Dkm (Dkm) on Saturday, August 30, 2003 - 07:57 am: Edit

for analogies u need to know a lot of vocab...but anybody can understand wat the passages r saying as they rarely have words we never use(like analogies and SC)

By Mk1o3o (Mk1o3o) on Saturday, September 06, 2003 - 03:30 am: Edit

i'd like to support almondjoy's approach to cr. I tried it today with 6 practice CR's. At first (about the first 2-3), I struggled but by the end it is way more efficient than reading the whole thing (for me, at least). Thanks.