<p>Yep, practice is key. One other thing that’s helpful is being calm and confident. Don’t second-guess yourself, just fly through it. Try to turn on the auto-pilot and just destroy that test. You sound like an extremely capable student, and I’m sure you were nervous since it was your first ACT. Don’t worry, I know some people who have had extreme score increases with just an extra test or two. If you do buy a prep book, go for the Princeton Review’s Cracking the ACT. I like the list that Techno made, so I’m going to offer up my own (I’ve taken the test successfully).</p>
<p>English: As a general rule of thumb, the shortest, simplest answers are usually good to go with when you’re stuck. There are a few questions that ACT really likes to trick people with, but the PR’s book covers them, which is why I advise to buy it. Examples include misplaced modifiers (“Tripping over his books, the door opened and Andrew stumbled in.” - The phrase “[t]ripping over his books” modifies “Andrew,” not “the door,” so the sentence needs to be rearranged for grammatical correctness) and unnecessary repetition (“The young newborn squirmed and cried until his mother nuzzled him in her bosom.” - We already know that newborns are young, so the word “young” should be omitted here.) In my opinion, the hardest English questions are the ones at the ends of the passages that address the writing as a whole and ask about themes, messages, etc. If you miss a few of these, it’s not the end of the world, but because they’re easier to screw up on, try to nail as many grammatical questions as possible. Oh, and if “No Change” or “Omit” are options, there are pretty good odds that they’re the correct choices (something like over 25% of the time). Just don’t be afraid to answer with one of those options more than once, as it’s expected.</p>
<p>Math: This is really the only section you can study for. This is where the PR book will be invaluable. Also, something that helped me beyond belief was the fact that ALL FIGURES ARE DRAWN TO SCALE, although the ACT doesn’t specifically say so. The PR got their hands on all of the ACT practice tests possible and measured every single diagram. The result? Yep. Every single one was drawn exactly to scale. This will be of unimaginable help to you when you’ve narrowed down the answer choices to two options and still don’t know which one to pick. Again, go through all the math concepts and just practice. There are a lot of techniques you’ll pick up eventually, and most involve your calculator (plugging in, for example). Just read through the entire math section of Cracking the ACT. Finally, make sure you READ WHAT THEY’RE ASKING FOR. Sometimes you’ll find “x,” which will be the first answer choice listed, but the question will have originally asked for what “3x” was. I know extremely intelligent mathematicians who have gotten sub-30 scores on the ACT’s math section from making stupid mistakes like these.</p>
<p>Reading: Ironically, I would advise AGAINST taking the PR’s advice on this section. Just read through each passage, carefully and quickly. Then go to the questions, and answer them one-by-one; if you’ve read carefully enough, you’ll know where to jump to in the passage. This will save you time for others you’re not quite sure where to find. And most importantly, answer ALL of the questions in each section before moving on. It’s extremely difficult to leave a few blank, go to a completely new passage, and then come back seven minutes later, still with a clear picture of what you barely skimmed over a while ago. </p>
<p>Science: This section is always the most unpredictable for me, though I’ve managed to do surprisingly well on it each time I’ve taken the test. For this one, I’d advise going straight to the questions. After a while, you’ll get an understanding for what the experiment is addressing. And, unlike reading, it’s easier to come back to a science section, so don’t be afraid to skip a few questions here and there. The most difficult aspect of the science section is being able to sort through and accurately read confusing charts, graphs, and figures in a very short amount of time. There’s really nothing you can do about this except pay close attention to labels and axes.</p>
<p>Writing: This is what I call the joke section of the ACT. From what I’ve seen and experienced, the more you write, the better your score. But honestly, don’t worry about it too much; schools rarely place too much weight on the writing section. I know students with 35/36 composite scores and 6/7/8 writing scores who have still gotten into Ivy League schools and other colleges of that caliber.</p>
<p>Overall? The best overall piece of advice I can give you is to treat each section as its own subject test. When you’re done, completely erase it from your mind. It’s going to hurt you a lot if you go into science worrying about those three reading questions you left blank. </p>
<p>Hope this helps, and good luck!</p>