I am a junior who took the ACT back in December. I remember being so stressed about it. The math portion was so hard that I ran out of time on it, so I went back and filled in the remaining answers. This voided my test and I’m disappointed about that, but striving to do better.
Also, I took a practice test in my ACT prep class (reading and math only). My reading score was a perfect 36 but math was only a 23. After reviewing my skills in ACT prep I took the math practice again but it only went up 1 point.
Does anybody have tips on how to increase your ACT math scores? I am taking the test in March as required by my school and on my own in April. Both my reading and english scores are excellent, and my science is pretty good too. The types of math questions I missed were all over the place, so the poor scores might be a combination of a lack of studying and timing problems.
Get these two books: The Best ACT Math Books Ever, books 1&2. Also get a copy (doesn’t have to be the most recent edition) of The Official ACT Prep Guide, because it has a bunch of practice tests. If you have done all the tests in that book, then you might be able to download for free old ACTs that are legally in the public domain - sometimes you can find them by googling and looking on reddit.
Ignore the English sections. Do one practice science section every few days, and you’ll bring your science score up to a 36, since the science section is only about learning how to interpret data from their graphs/charts.
Here is the hard part. You’re going to need to do an entire math section, every day or two, using the ACT Prep book and the Ultimate Guides to review or relearn all the math. As you go through this, and find you’ve reviewed all the math topics, then start taking the math tests under timed conditions. You won’t be able to bring it up to a perfect 36, but you should be able to bring your score up to 30 or above with this technique.
Someone who gets a 36 on the two verbal sections, but a 23 in math, doesn’t have a strategy issue. They obviously understand test taking strategy, if they can get a perfect score on the English sections. They’ve got an issue with the math material, meaning that they need to learn or re-learn the math.
My son had issues with speed also. He got a graduate student that does some tutoring to help him with the timing of the test. The actual math really wasn’t the issue for him. Act is a faster test for math then Sat. Take some practice Sat ones and see if that’s a better test for you overall.
I’ve checked and it does say that all colleges take both ACT and SAT scores, but the ACT is more common where I live, and its the test that I’m most familiar with. Some colleges don’t even require scores.