<p>It was my first time taking the exam. I usually do well on the practice tests usually have 5-10 min to spare for each section ; I usually get a score of 30-32 but I thought the actual exam was more difficult that I expected.
I used Barron's 36 and the official ACT prep book. </p>
<p>English:
English was average . It was like the RED ACT prep book and I had 5 min to check </p>
<p>Math:
I found this section really difficult and believe that I screwed up in this section . This is ironic cuz math is usually my highest score . I ran out of time and had to guess for the last 5 or 7 questions . There were questions which I was not familiar with </p>
<p>Reading :
It was up to my expectations . The Hawaii one was confusing so I had to skim a few times . But I ran out of time and had to guess for the last 3 questions </p>
<p>Science :
It was what I expected . Ran out of time for last 4 questions </p>
<p>Essay :
I didn't expect much because I'm not a very good writer . I thought it was fair </p>
<p>Overall what are your views on this exam? For past test takers , was this exam more difficult than usual? Any predictions on the curve?</p>
<p>English: easy as balls as usual
Math: easy as balls as usual
Reading: pretty good, a few stupid questions and stupid answer choices as usual
Science: pretty good, a few stupid questions as usual</p>
<p>This is my second time taking the ACT. It didn’t feel any easier than last time, but I think I did better overall.</p>
<p>English: This is my strong point, and I feel confident I got a 33+. Pretty average
Math: The first half was simple as always, but I always do poorly on the second half. I had to guess on many of them. This could really bring my composite score down. Felt much more difficult than usual.
Reading: Not too bad. I usually work backwards on this test because it tends to be the easiest order for me, but the film passage was a little difficult. Just my opinion.
Science: Most of the passages were OK, but the DNA one was especially challenging. When I looked over the diagrams, it wasn’t so bad. I ran out of time though with 2 questions left.</p>
<p>English: Easier than usual imo. I think I missed 2-3 at the most which should be 33-35 depending on the curve. Definitely happy with this. </p>
<p>Math: The first ~55 with the exception of 2 (the one with the parabola, and the one with triangles in a circle and you had to figure out which was biggest angle) were easy. However, the last five (the “two multiplications” one, the one where the answer choices were like 7/sin 28, 7/cos 56 etc, the one with the inequalities for the triangle like 2a+2b>a+b+c in particular were hard) were really hard! I was hoping for a 34+ based on practice tests but now I’m thinking a 32-34 based on getting 5-6 wrong. </p>
<p>Reading: Easier than usual for the humanities and social science prompts (bookstores & movie lighting). Prose section I think I did better than I was expecting, but not completely sure because I ran out of time and don’t remember all my answers. Natural science was a bit more difficult than usual. Expecting a 34-35. </p>
<p>Science: Five passages were about the level of difficulty I expected. Two of them were god awful, though, and I think I completely bombed the whole section because of the two (the one about soil or whatever, and the one about catalyses or whatever). Hopefully a 31-32 but a 29-30 is more realistic. </p>
<p>Writing: I was hoping to improve from last time (I got a 9) but I don’t think I did. I don’t think I did any worse though.</p>
<p>My daughter took it on Saturday and she said she thought she did well on all the sections. She thought the reading was the most difficult but there’s not much you can do to prepare for that. She did do the writing, but like we all know…that’s a crap shoot and it all depends on who’s reviewing the exam.</p>
<p>Everyone is saying that actual test was more difficult than practice test. What should we do differently to get ready? What is the best book to use?</p>
<p>The REAL ACT Prep Guide is your best bet since they are real tests. This particular test was a bit harder than those found in the red book, but there will be tests that are easier than the red book as well. </p>
<p>The September test was SLIGHTLY harder than the practice tests; it was still in the same league. It wasn’t drastically harder or anything, just a bit. “A bit” as in I probably missed 1 more math question than normal and 2-3 more science questions.</p>
<p>The test overall was similar to the red book but I felt this exam was more difficult because of the math section. The last 5 questions on math I was unfamiliar with and ran out of time . Hoping for the best and expecting the worst</p>
<p>My son said that Science section was little easier than the May 2013 test, Math was bit harder, reading about same and the English section was easier. He scored only 26 in science section in May 2013, with total composite of 30. He is confident of 29 in science this this time. (He wants his overall composite to go to 31, as the college that he wants to go, super -scores the ACTs). </p>
<p>He did some practice over the summer for science test and ultimately decided that he does his best by targeting only 35 questions in 34 minutes by reading passages carefully and most of all reading the answer choices of each question carefully. (he calls it money in the bank)</p>
<p>He also stopped attempting one of the data passages with 5 questions at all, as he identified the data questions to be his weak spot. He would just bubble in 2nd choice of all the last 5 questions and invariably would get at least one of those questions right. Over the summer while taking practice tests he improved his score up to 28 and 29, from 23 in science section of his first attempt at ACT practice test in Feb 2013. </p>
<p>For this test, he said even after going by his strategy he had one extra minute at the end and solved the question number 46 and 47, by reading the questions and choices first and then finding the answer in the data tables. In last 15 seconds he bubbled the remaining 3 questions with 2nd choice. </p>
<p>Lets see what happens in about couple of weeks. I will update you all, as we both (Dad and son) learnt a lot from this forum and will share what worked and what did not. He is confident that this strategy in science worked!</p>
<p>Did anyone find themselves filling in No change alot for the English section? Or is it just me
Math: not bad, but towards the end i guessed on alot
Reading: I found the Hawaiian story difficult as well.
Science: not sure; but not so bad
Writing: I may have used a little more pathos than I should have not sure.</p>
