<p>That is how much I've improved after about 3 months of prepping.</p>
<p>I really want to get a 33 but I'm not improving much anymore? Somehow the dissecting the ACT book improved my Science. How can I improve my science and reading more? And how can I get my Math and English higher to help me get a 33? I've been reading New York times daily in order to improve my Reading score.</p>
<p>I only have 2 full practice tests left. I'm taking the ACT April 24th.</p>
<p>Jesus ColombianX, you make sooo many freakin ACT threads</p>
<p>Anyways…</p>
<p>After a certain point your score plateaus. No matter how much studying you do, you will never be capable of a 36, or a 35, or a 34, etc., depending on your intelligence. You obviously have one helluva work ethic to increase your score by 10 points, but if you have gotten a 31 continuously then it will probably not increase much anymore. There is a chance for you to pull out a 32 or 33, but you will not be able to hit that number consistently if you are stuck at a 31. Congrats on your work this far, but you may have reached the end of the road in terms of ACT studying.</p>
<p>But can you do that consistently? The first official time I took the ACT I got a 35, after getting 31s and 32s on practice tests. That was awesome, but I was not able to replicate it on my two next official tests. If you can consistently hit 33s on science, awesome, but just because you do it once on a practice doesn’t mean you will be able to do it on the real test.</p>
<p>What do you mean “depending on your intelligence.” This is a standardized test. Thus, it is designed in part to remain consistent for every test taker. Therefore, once you have solved your weak points, you should be set. Of course the ACT might put sneaky tricks that the average person might not be able to see, but a fully trained test taker should be able to observe all possible choices accurately, instead of picking an answer and going to the next.</p>
<p>The dumbest person in the world could study the test for a year, 8 hours each day, and still would not get a 36. There are several questions on the test that are just… tricky. Your ability to solve these tricky questions (that’s what I mean by intelligence) partially determines your plateau point. When I was taking practice tests I would look over the questions I got wrong. Some were stupid mistakes, some were things I hadn’t learned/memorized yet, but after reviewing some questions I thought to myself, “there is no way I could’ve gotten that question correct”. Also, a person of higher ability to sift through data and reading passages more efficiently (intelligence?) will have a higher score plateau than someone who is not able to sift through data or read passages as well.</p>
<p>Oh that’s what you mean by plateau? Hahah O_O I just took a science practice test and got a 30. But all the questions I got wrong were simple mistakes except for 1 which was a competing scientist and I forgot to analyze both parts of the question.</p>
<p>hey ColumbianX, for the science section do you skip the passages and go straight to the passages? or do you read the passages? (excluding the conflicting scientists)</p>
<p>I skip the passage entirely except for competing scientists I read the passage AFTER I read the question.</p>
<p>But I don’t know how I got to that stage of skill O_O</p>
<p>I used to get like 22-24 using that method but my “brain” was eventually able to process more information at a time and I made a jump. (That may sound foolish, but the practice tests really helped me.)</p>
<p>HELP ME FOR READING.
Reading I can finish the Natural Science and Social science with extra time, but Prose and Humanities are still tough ones. New york times DOES help your ACT timing believe it or not! Before it took me 11-12 minutes to do a passage! </p>
<p>Speed reading new york times HELPS TREMENDOUSLY for pacing on the test. O_O.
Though… it doesn’t help with answering the questions faster. I think I might need to keep track of data within the passage a little more.</p>
<p>I’m not that familiar with the ACT, but here’s what I know about plateau-ing and the SAT: it’s a myth. Of course, some people putter out at a certain score, but the fact is that the SAT is a game and it can be gamed and your intelligence will help you game it but a dumb person is capable of scoring highly if s/he is aware of all the strategies and capable of applying them (and that comes with practice).
The other thing with the SAT is that there’s a degree of sheer luck - the difference between a 2390 and 2400 is laughable, and anyone scoring a 2300 is able to score a 2400 (with more practice, more luck and more awareness).
I don’t know whether that’s the case with the ACT, but heh. Hope I helped. :)</p>
<p>So the dumbest person in the world is able to get a 36? No, he/she would not be able to process information fast enough or accurately enough. Even if he/she learned all the tricks and rules and whatnot, he/she would still make mistakes.</p>
<p>I didn’t say a 36 (though I’m sure that’s not impossible) - but I stand by my point because I stated the limitations clearly - IF s/he is capable of applying the strategies. But then, that works with the SAT, and time isn’t such a big constraint so “being able to process information fast enough and accurately enough” is unlikely to be a major problem.</p>
<p>(how do you quote? even the newbies quote and i feel so out of it 'cause i don’t know how )</p>
<p>Don’t worry retrohippo, I have posted on multiple message boards and don’t know how to quote on this particular site either. Usually on the post that you want to quote, there is a quote button that you can click on that will allow you to quote. I don’t see any such quote button here. Perhaps some nice poster will enlighten us and let us in on the secret of how to quote here?</p>
<p>Hey retrohippo, I finally figured out how to quote on here and wanted to come back and tell you how. First, you have to copy the part of the post that you want to quote and then paste it into your reply. Then around the part that you want to quote, put the following tags, but do not put spaces in between any of the characters in the tags. I am only putting spaces in them so you can see what needs to be typed out. For example:</p>
<p>[ quote ] This is where you will type your text. [ / quote ]</p>
<p>If you do it right, this is how your quote will look when you actually submit your post:</p>
<p>^ ALL that I saw is an example of how a strategy can be mastered. I don’t know what you are smoking dfree, but you ONLY GET 1 SHOT for victory, to be good, superb, BEST. NEVER GIVE UP!</p>
</p>
)</p>