I want to take the ACT again in September to try to boost my score by at least 2 points.
I took it in June without studying and scored a 30 on it with the breakdown being: 30 english, 30 math, 34 reading, and a 27 on science.
The ACT prep books that I have are The Real ACT Prep Guide (i think this is referred to as the Red book?) and Barrons ACT 36 2nd edition. Are there any books or tips that you’d recommend for science (since it hurt my score the most)? Also any tips/practice for English/Math?
For the English section, I would recommend purchasing the regular Barron’s ACT book (not the Barron’s ACT 36) and intensively studying all of the grammar rules. Although Barron’s ACT 36 is a good book, it does not review much on content. I was able to improve my English score from a 24 to a 34 just by reviewing all of the tedious grammar rules. It also really helps to take timed practice English sections just to develop a strategy that allows you to complete every question.
The best approach for math is reviewing whatever topic you dislike the most. I would always get geometry questions wrong when I was doing practice ACT tests, but I would never truly understand why. After intensively reviewing geometry in the regular Barron’s ACT book, I started to get more geometry questions right. I was able to improve my math score from a 31 to a 33.
If you haven’t already started to take practice tests from the Red book, then get started. Try and do one every week. Just by doing practice tests you can miraculously improve your scores from every section. Once you have finished the 5 practice tests from the Red book, there is also an official act test that can be found on the act website.
Best of luck!
If you already have prep books, just stick with those. Don’t go too crazy with studying. In the time some people spend studying and only managed to raise their score by a point or two, they could easily add a new extracurricular, learn some new, useful skill, etc that would stand out to colleges a lot more.
I did bad on the science too so I bough Mcgraw hill ACT Science book. I can’t say if it’s helping or not because I just started using it. I think it’s harder than the real test and the format is not like the real test but it is good for practice.