<p>Hi everyone, on April 27th I will be taking the real ACT along with the additional writing section. I have taken one practice ACT session and received only a 20 composite score which extremely disappointed me. Considering the time until the test date, I am gradually becoming concerned as I want a 27 or higher. I was surprised to see I received a 20 on the practice because throughout every year of school I have been a 4.0 GPA student. I believe my main problem is managing time and completing what I can. I am the type of person that thinks too in depth on literally every problem.</p>
<p>I come here today asking for some suggestions and advice. Currently, I work over 20 hours a week on top of going to school so finding time to study is sometimes not available for me. I will be going to Mexico April 12th-18th so I find this an excellent time to study as much as I can before going back to work. Before going I plan on obtaining a copy of "The Real ACT" book, hopefully helping to buffer what I know. It seems I need further help on the Math and Science sections. I am excellent on Calculus and Algebra, although, most of the geometry I need to review again. As for science, I have a lot of trouble completing successfully because I sit on each problem too long.</p>
<p>I hope I covered everything I am trying to ask. Considering the scarcity of time, what do you recommend I do in order to hopefully reach my desired score of a 27+ by April 27th? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any help the community may provide me with.</p>
<p>When you study, take practice tests — an entire section at a time. Your score will improve dramatically as you simply get comfortable with the test format. As you score those tests, obviously you will need to review the problems you get wrong. Practice, practice, practice!</p>
<p>Any particular sections you are struggling with? On reading and science you have to learn to work fast. I’m also someone who likes to think about questions a lot but on the Reading and Science thats not going to work</p>
<p>As far as Reading goes, the answers to the questions are ALWAYS in the passage. There’s none of the stuff in the SAT that asks you about mood and stuff, so often times it’s just a matter of finding the part of the section that confirms your answer.</p>
<p>In Science, skip reading the material until you need to. Go right to the questions. The Science test isn’t testing you on what you know and understand about the science in the passage, but rather your ability to manipulate data. Go straight to the figures that it references and get an answer, even if you have no idea what it means.</p>
<p>I doubt time is an issue for you on English (~53 sec per question), but if you find yourself thinking about any one for any more than that amount of time, skip it and come back. All the questions are worth the same amount of points and for every hard one you spend 5 minutes working on you could be getting 5 easy questions right.</p>
<p>Math is the same thing, except it is much more likely that you are strapped for time. I rely on my speed in the first half of the section to give me extra time at the end for the questions that take more thinking. Again, the skipping thing also applies, and the last half tends to have lots of questions that could trick you if you’re not careful (and/or rushing through), so you need to be fast in the first half.</p>
<p>Often times I find that the questions I skip because they would take a while are much easier and obvious when I come back to them later.</p>
<p>To me I feel as if I am struggling on each section. I received a 17-21 on each section with reading being my highest. For Math, it appears I have almost lost all knowledge of trig, I am really into physics so calc and algebra are more my thing. Today I reviewed over a practice test and literally was struggling for more than five minutes on simple trig questions. I plan on getting the RED book today so I can be studying while I am in Mexico. Do you think the RED book will help brush up on many of the math skills? I’m sure when I see a brief explanation it will immediately come back to me. I am aiming for a 25+, obviously I am aiming a lot higher but I will be happy if I can score above a 25.</p>
<p>For example, one of the simple questions I struggled on was, "Which line is perpendicular to y=-2x + 4 and passes through points (0,3). I could of sworn perpendicular meant opposite reciprocal of the slope but when I check my answer I was wrong. I put y=(1/2)x + 3. Apparently the correct answer was y=-2x +3. That completely makes absolutely no sense at all, the line would be parallel, not perp.</p>
<p>"In a standard (x,y) coordinate plane, which of the following is the equation of a line perpendicular to y=-2x + 2 and that passes through point (0,=3)?</p>
<p>A. y=-2x - 3
B. y=-(1/2)x + 2
C. y=(1/2)x - 3
D. y=(1/2)x + 2
E. y=2x - 3</p>
<p>I chose D and it says the correct answer is A. I am using Version 1 Free ACT Practice Test from The Princeton Review. It was provided to me when I attended a $80 practice session for 2 days at school. (It was totally a rip off, teacher had no idea what she was talking about and was extremely slow)</p>
<p>Also, do you possibly know how to work this problem?</p>
<p>This is where my scarce knowledge of geometry and trig come in. I know sin is opp/hyp which provides us with a proportion of the two sides, then we use the inverse sin to find the angles degree. First do we need to use the pythag to find the hyp? So a^(2) + b^(2) = c^(2) resulting in 2√3^(2) + 2^(2) = c^(2) coming out to be 12 + 4 = √16, therefore, c = 4. With the following numbers we can then use opp/hyp to determine that (2/4) = .5 and the inverse sin of .5 = .577 degrees. I seem to manage with the math but they come up with a much quicker answer such as √3/3. Can anyone expplain how to come up with the answer?</p>
<p><em>Ok, the english and reading section i cant help you at all because i totaly stink at it.
*for the math you get 1 min. for each question. the 1st 30-ish questions are pre/algebra so they should be done pretty quick so you get more time for the last 20-ish harder questions.
*Science: like arrness said skip to the questions because most of the info are useless and unnessasary(if you are a fast reader, read it-it gives you more science knowlege you might never use in life ^.^)
*now on the math questions you said earlier:
*1st one is C b/c a line perpendicular to the given should be the negative reciprical (so a,b,and e is wrong) in guessing the point is (0,-3) (0,=3)?
so the y-intercept is -3 thus correct answer is C (D has an y-intercept at 2)
*the 2nd question: the answer is G b/c, you know that sin is Opp/Hyp.
Idk what you did but the distance formula is not needed.(we are looking for the angle not length)
so the point (2rad(3),2) means it is 2rad3 units in length and 2 units high
so Opp over Hyp is 2/ 2rad(3)…the 2s cancel which leaves you 1/rad3…now you rationalize the fraction giving you rad(3)/3 which is G…
*</em>the test makers sometimes throw a hard question in the easy half of the math section so skip it and come back to it later (dont waste time, you are going to need it)
***practice does help, my english score went from a 19 to a 21 to a 25 so it helps…
any other questions?</p>
<p>Ok don’t review using the red book, its terrible for that and is only good for tests. Use Princeton Review or Barrons(Super Indepth and way harder information than actual test)</p>
<p>I have heard Princeton Review is good, but I used Kaplan and got a good score 30+.
The ACT isn’t all about knowing, it’s also about guessing correctly, using time wisely, and there are some particular test strategies to note. </p>
<p>Just know the format of the test.
Brush up on basic math knowledge.
And practice like CRAZY.</p>
<p>Good luck. By the way, the practice ACT could be completely different from the ACT you’re going to take on the 27th. You might work well under pressure and the problems could be different. It all depends.</p>
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