<p>I've scored a 33 and a 36 on the reading portion, but a 24 and 26 on the science portion, respectively. All my instructors and books say my science score is supposed to be within two points of my reading, but something is going wrong. </p>
<p>Any advice or insight? I'm becoming frustrated.</p>
<p>The reading portion is often about fun interesting topics…literature, humanities, etc. While the science is graphs and what not. I had a friend who scored a 36 on Reading and 25 on science. It’s normal but if you want to improve your score approach reading the science passages/graphs differently or gain more confidence.</p>
<p>I have the exact same problem, only worse! It is so frustrating! I scored a 36 English, a 35 reading, a 34 math and a 24 science. It is SO much lower… and I have no idea how colleges will view the drop. I took the ACT again today but I feel like I did just about the same in science. It isn’t that the section is particularly hard. I usually get maybe 1 wrong of all the questions that I actually read, but I can’t get through them all in the allotted time!</p>
<p>A tip for science is NOT reading the information provided unless needed for the questions. Reading the passages will make you think too much about the subject (if you get what i mean) and spend too much time on few questions. First go straight to the questions and then find the information needed and answer the questions.</p>
<p>I think the problem with the science portion is working to a fast pace while also understanding the concept. There are sometimes so many graphs that you have to refer back to and perhaps references to physics or biology that we may have forgotten. Because of that, our concepts might not be clear, and so we don’t work fast enough…</p>
<p>Here’s some tip from someone who’s scored well on the science portion:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Get the ACT prep book and read the text before each question. (most questions will recycle this so just get a sense of what it will say.)</p></li>
<li><p>During the test, NEVER read the questions; it will only slow you down. Usually, I just go to the question and look at the graph/information for the stuff I’m looking for. This is the quickest and most effective route to scoring high.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t know it? Don’t waste time trying to find the answer and just skip it and return later if time allows.</p></li>
<li><p>Familiarize yourself with all types of questions so you will get a sense of what it will ask later.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Hope it helps. I scored a 36 on science.</p>
<p>Never read the questions? I hope that was just a typo and you mean never read the passages… Because you should DEFINITELY read the questions.</p>
<p>The consensus on this board is that you should go straight to the questions and just refer back to the graph/study/figure mentioned in the question. No need to read the paragraphs or anything unless it says “Based on the information provided…” or it questions something else not shown in the graphs/figures.</p>