<p>I'm a rising junior (taking honors pre-calc pre-ap next year if that makes any difference), and I've been studying for the ACT a lot this summer and I plan to do a lot more studying. I just have a few questions...</p>
<p>1) Is the Barron's 36 book a reliable source?
2) When should I take my first ACT test? Would the end of the summer be a good time?
3) If I take the SAT just for the heck of it, do I have to report those scores to colleges?
4) I have the red book, and both of the princeton review's books, but I need more practice tests. Where else can I get reliable practice tests? I heard the other people are usually way too unreliable.</p>
<p>As far as hiding the SAT, most colleges allow you to choose the scores you send. But a very, very few (Harvard is actually the only one I know for sure of) don’t allow you to hide scores.
And I think you should take the ACT as soon as possible. I took my first in 9th grade.</p>
<p>1) Yes, the Barron’s 36 book is VERY reliable; English, math, and science are all awesome. Reading I didn’t find helpful, but I never found reading prep helpful anyways so don’t take my word for that.</p>
<p>2) Take the ACT as many times as you wish until your desired score is achieved (know, however, that the maximum number of times one can take the ACT is 12). The September 2012 test is an excellent time to take the test. The more times you take the ACT, the better you will become. To be honest, someone who doesn’t know a thing about the ACT and has never heard about it can buy a good prep book and just study for 2 weeks straight and get at least a 32 on the test.</p>
<p>3) I’m not too familiar with the SAT so I don’t have an answer for this one. Sorry.</p>
<p>4) To get more practice tests, you could go to the library and get some older versions of books and do the practice tests out of those. There are only so many reliable practice tests you can take before you have to improvise. Another thing you could do is have your friends buy different books and everyone rotates the books through the group. Doing this, you and your friends save money, and still get the maximum experience. One last thing you could do is to answer the questions on a separate piece of paper so you can do the questions again 6 weeks later. Yes, you will remember the answers to some, and you will fly through the test faster the 2nd time around, but if you want that 36, or what ever your goal is, you will go to extremes to achieve it.</p>