ACT Tips, Tricks, Secrets, and Experiences from a First-Time 36er

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
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<p>Hello everyone!</p>

<p>I’d like to share with you all my experience with the ACT. I took it for the first time on the December 2014 date as a junior with the intention to take it “once and done,” and I ended up scoring a 36 on it (35E 36M 36R 36S). Throughout my experience with studying for and taking the test, I’ve learned some pointers and tips that I’d like to share.</p>

<p>INTRODUCTION – CHOOSING THE ACT
My first experience with college-entrance standardized testing was taking the PSAT last fall as a sophomore. It was a rude awakening to the world of time-crunched testing: not only did I find the test more difficult than expected, but timing was an issue. I scored a 198, which was within a score bracket that I didn’t want to be in as someone preparing to apply to top colleges. Later in my sophomore year, I took the PLAN, which is ACT’s “PSAT.” On that test, I found the questions to be more straightforward, more connected with what I was already practicing every day in school, and easier to finish within the time constraints. I scored a 31, with only one question wrong on the entire test. </p>

<p>From the PSAT and PLAN alone, I made my decision about what test to take. Now, I knew that I could improve on my SAT skills – a 198 in my sophomore year would be a good starting point to work up from. Plus, in my ultra-high-achieving New York high school, the SAT is considered to be the “default” standardized test to take. We have the ACT, sure, but the SAT is simply more prevalent here. At the same time, the PLAN indicated that I was naturally suited to ACT’s style of test, meaning that I would likely be able to score well with less preparation than what the SAT would require. So with this in mind, and the assurance that – yes – there are no colleges that “prefer” the SAT anymore, I decided that the ACT would be the route I’d take. Not only did I plan on taking the ACT and the ACT only, but I wanted to take it once and hopefully be done. I did not want to spend the time nor the energy to test more than necessary.</p>

<p>TIPS FOR PREPARING FOR THE ACT
• Choose a test date and stick with it. You’ll find yourself procrastinating if you adopt the “I’ll take it when I’m ready” approach. I selected the December date because I wanted to finish the ACT before AP tests, etc. roll around. So look at your calendar and select a date – but stay with it. This will add just a touch of pressure to your preparation, but I believe it helps.
• Compile a “practice test bank.” From experience with AP and SAT Subject tests, I’ve learned that the very best practice comes from doing tests written by the test company itself. Personally, I’ve found practice materials from Barron’s and the like to be inconsistent, poorly written, and not a good representation of the actual test itself. So, where do you get practice for the ACT? I ended up doing a total of 7 practice tests, from…
o ACT’s 5-test “Red Book” – yes, the tests, particularly 1-3, are a touch easier than the real thing, mainly because they are 10+ years old now. The conversion tables for each test in the book make up for this (they are harsher than what they are now), so your practice test scores will still be in line with the real ACT.
o ACT’s “Preparing for the ACT” PDF guides. You can find the 2014-15 guide on ACT’s website, and a little digging with get you at least a couple more from previous years.
• To go with your practice tests, create an Excel file to keep track of your scores. Calculate scores from every section with the conversion chart that goes with that particular test. Hopefully, after a few practice tests, you’ll begin to notice trends upward.
• BEGIN PRACTICING EARLY. I began a few months before my test date. Now, I wasn’t doing that much at a time – typically two sections of a test per week – but I was beginning to prepare early. I firmly believe in this “slow and steady” approach when it comes to studying for any test, but the ACT in particular. Don’t feel like you need to spend four hours at a time to do an entire ACT. Just do a little at a time…but start it earlier than you’d think.
• Make it realistic.
o The test itself: Use a real ACT bubble sheet. Use a wooden pencil. Sit in a quiet area and be sure to minimize distractions.
o Timing: Use the same watch you’ll use on the ACT. Be HONEST with timing. ACT timing is notorious for being tight. You may run out of time during your practice tests. Put down your pencil when time is up, and calculate your score from this. There’s no use in ignoring what is arguably the most difficult component of the ACT test – timing. After a couple tests, I began reducing the time I allowed myself, typically by five minutes per section. You do NOT want to be cutting time down to the second during the test. By training to finish up a couple minutes early, you’ll be in better shape for the real test. When I took my real ACT, I finished each section with at least five minutes to spare. Use that time to either check questions over or take a deep breath and relax before the next section. (The latter suggestion sounds silly, but endurance is important, and that couple minutes of recovery time will actually make a difference.)
• Analyze your mistakes. The ACT is an extremely predictable test. The way that questions are asked and the skills that they are testing are very consistent from test to test. For example, nearly every ACT English section I’ve done has at least one question testing your ability to find redundancy in a sentence. ACT Math often asks a question about averages, typically something like “What score does Bob need to get on his 5th test to bring his total average up to an 88?” ACT Reading will always have context-based word meaning questions. ACT Science likes to ask why a certain precaution or measure was taken when performing an experiment. Pinpoint the “types” of questions you’re having trouble with, and pay more attention to them as you continue practice.
• My final tip in terms of preparation is a bit more general. Approach preparing for the ACT like getting to know a person. As you work through practice tests, you will find many ACT questions to be shockingly similar to past questions. Get to know the nuances, the language, the tone of the ACT. What skills does it seem to test over and over? What kinds of answers to questions does it seem to have? What kinds of passages? What kinds of graphs? This is something that you’ll only learn from practice over a long period of time. I promise, however, that it’s worth it.</p>

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<p>TIPS FOR THE ACT ENGLISH TEST
• Read the entire passages. Do NOT skip through to only sentences with underlined portions. The ACT seems to be shifting more and more to questions about tone, patterns, and rhetorical strategies in the passages as a whole. You need to understand both the rhetoric and the meaning of the entire passage, very much like the Reading section.
• The topics in ACT passages are sometimes (often) (always) uninteresting and downright ridiculous. My ACT, for example, featured an article about the history of the clothing iron. As boring as these passages are, try your hardest to remain engaged and interested. If you read the passages with the mindset of someone reading for pleasure, you’ll understand the passage that much better, which will come into play when it comes to “passage as a whole” questions. Call me crazy, but I would literally have an internal monologue when reading and doing the sentence corrections: Wow, that’s interesting! I didn’t know that…. What a stupid sentence correction choice. Who would ever put that?! So I really think the most important tip for the English section would be to just remain engaged. It’s mundane, I know. But the more interested you pretend to be, the better you’ll understand the passages and the more successful you’ll be with the questions. This is something I learned as I worked through practice tests – it’s not a common tip, but for me, it seemed to help.
• Often, the right answer also happens to be the simplest. Don’t use that as a foolproof rule, but that’s a trend that I’ve noticed. Also, don’t be afraid of putting “OMIT” or “DO NOT CHANGE” as your answer. It’s correct more than you would expect.</p>

<p>TIPS FOR THE ACT MATH TEST
• This is the hardest section to improve upon, in my opinion. Full disclosure, I’m currently in AP BC Calculus, and I’ve been in a double-accelerated honors math track throughout high school. So the Math section definitely was the one that required the least amount of preparation. With that said, ACT math corresponds directly with what is taught in typical math classes. The more you retain from your regular math classes, the better you’ll do on ACT math. This is something that is a differentiator between the ACT and the SAT, the latter of which tends to ask trickier, “outside the box” questions.
• Use your graphing calculator! You have it – use it to its full potential. An absolute value inequality (something the ACT LOVES, by the way)? Solve it by graphing on your calculator. A system of equations? Calculator. A series/sequence question? Calculator. Seriously, why not.
• Understand that ACT Math tends to increase in difficulty. Questions near the end are typically harder than questions at the beginning. As a result, you need to keep track of time wisely. You should not be spending an entire minute per question for the first half of the questions. I typically worked through the first 30 questions in 20 minutes. This way, you have more time to work on the questions that will inevitably take more time anyway.
• If all else fails, guess and check. Especially considering you have your calculator, many ACT questions can be done through “brute force” – literally checking each of the five answer choices. A question about spacing on a number line? Try each of the choices. A question about an equation involving a matrix determinant? Check each choice. This should, of course, be a last resort.</p>

<p>TIPS FOR THE ACT READING TEST
• Ditto on my tip for the English test – stay engaged and pretend to be interested. I promise it helps.
• Here’s the secret to the Reading test. Nearly every question is linked directly to a particular sentence or paragraph in the passage. Unlike the SAT, there is little to no inferring necessary. The vast majority of Reading questions are based directly off a particular section of the passage. They correspond so strongly that most correct answers to questions will use the exact same words that are found in the passage. The passage may say, “The biologists were shocked and confused by the results,” and the answer to a question asking about the reaction of the biologists will probably be, “shocked and confused.” At the most, it’ll be something like “taken aback and befuddled.” So when you’re doing the Reading test, ignore everything about analytical reading you’ve learned in English class, and instead, play Where’s Waldo. When you approach a typical Reading question, the first thing you should do is locate what in the passage the question is referring to. In general, if you can do this, you’re guaranteed to get the question right because you’re answering the question with direct textual evidence.
• In terms of how to tackle each of the four passages, I highly recommend (a) going in order and (b) reading the passages before starting the questions. I know some people like to go back and forth, but I found that to be more a time waster than anything else. Quickly read the passage, understand the basic idea, and then start the questions, again keeping the approach of grounding your answers in textual evidence in mind.
• Do NOT spend more than a few seconds debating between answers. You don’t have time for that. Go with your gut. I realize how scary that can be, but chances are, your gut reaction is correct.</p>

<p>TIPS FOR THE ACT SCIENCE TEST
• Unlike the Reading section, I recommend not reading the graphs, descriptions, etc. at all before launching into the questions. Typically, at least the first few questions of each passage will direct you to a graph or table and ask you to basically get data from there. (“According to Study 1…”) So since the first few questions are having you interpret data from the passage already, you’ll automatically be able to begin understanding the passage as a whole. In other words, the questions themselves are a good way of familiarizing yourself with the passage.
• When answering questions, particularly ones involving graphs and tables, locate the data the question is asking about and literally put your pencil on it. Zero in on just that portion of the passage and focus on that only – this is similar to using specific sentences/paragraphs in the Reading section.
• With Science passages that involve paragraphs of text, the key information tends to be in the first and last sentence of each paragraph. You might even consider underlining these sentences as you read them.
• Process of elimination works well on the Science section. ACT loves questions that basically ask “Yes or no? Why?” So try to answer “yes” or “no” first – and cross off the other two answers. You’re already down to two. From there, answering the question shouldn’t be as hard.
• Yes, the Science section does occasionally ask VERY BASIC science questions – for example, F=ma, fire needs oxygen, conservation of mass, photosynthesis occurs in the chloroplast, etc. If you are answering questions using anything beyond that level, you might be doing something wrong. The ACT assumes a very basic knowledge of science, and anything above that level will be found in the passage itself. You should approach each question with the mentality of “where is this in the passage?” instead of “we just had a quiz on this topic in AP Physics last week!” </p>

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<p>TIPS FOR THE ACT WRITING TEST
• Now, I haven’t gotten my score on the essay yet – it should be coming in a couple weeks. So I’m not really qualified to give tips on this section yet. All I can say is that I approached the essay with an emphasis on using more sophisticated rhetoric, varying sentence structure, USING A CLEAR STRUCTURE OF THE ESSAY (the 5-paragraph format will do just fine), and discussing at least one counterargument. The common structure for the essay is Intro/two reasons to support your thesis/Discussion of a counterargument – can come right from the background info to the essay question/Conclusion. I did this, but I found myself indirectly addressing counterarguments in my first two paragraphs.
• Quantity actually matters. Aim for at least two pages. ACT essay scorers seem to be trained to look for quantity as well as quality here.</p>

<p>That’s about it! A final word of encouragement: yes, the ACT is a challenging beast to tackle. But it is predictable and practicable. This is something you have to train for, but I promise, it’s within your ability. It’s really a matter of learning the test itself. Standardized testing is hell, but you WILL get through it! </p>

<p>I hope that my experience with the test helped those of you who are preparing. If you have any questions about this, please ask. I’d be more than happy to help in any way I can. Good luck to everybody!</p>

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<p>So how early did you begin to prepare for the test? 2 months, 3, 4 months early? I took the December 2014 test, just saw my scores, and decided that I should study more so I can retake the test in June 2015. Do you think it’s too early to start preparing more in the sections i scored poorly in? (Math & Science)</p>

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<p>@autris I began mid-September, so that’d make it right around 3 months before the test. It’s definitely not too early…start now and do just a little at a time. </p>

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<p>When you did the science portion practice did u do them in order or did you do 5/6/7? So far I have tried different ways and I keep getting 28/29 and I want to increase it to a 31/32. Thanks</p>

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<p>@wannagetin123 I did the science section – any all other sections – in order. I felt like skipping around would distract me more than anything else.</p>

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<p>Great post and Thanks for sharing your method.</p>

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<p>wow you will help a lot of students out with this information, very generous of you! Congratulations on your 36 and sit back and enjoy it!!</p>

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<p>Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and techniques. I’m sure your intelligence and kindness will take you far! </p>

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<p>Thank you for sharing. Congratulations to you on your 36.</p>

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<p>Thank you very much for the kind words, everybody!</p>

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<p>@hscruiser Any experience with any of the online resources such as Math Planet - ACT or Khan Academy?</p>

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<p>@collegemom2son No, sorry, I didn’t use any of those resources.</p>

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<p>@hscruiser have you gotten your writing scores back yet? and if you did, do you have any more tips on how to prep for the writing test?</p>

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<p>@autris Yes, I got my writing score yesterday - I got a 10 on the essay. Not thrilled but not bad either. I think where I felt short was having concrete, specific examples; I tended to use a lot of logic.</p>

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@hscruiser‌

What scores did you get on your first practice test, if you still have the excel document? I’m shooting for a 34-36, and I just wanna see if I’m at a healthy starting place for that goal.

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@ThatOneWeirdGuy‌ My first practice test was a 33, and everything following that was a 35. (Never actually got a 36 on a practice - weird)

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@hscruiser‌

Wow I wish I was as smart as you… My first one was a 30, and I doubt I’ll be getting a near-perfect the next time around lol.

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Wow you’re like the exact same as me. I got a 36 middle of my junior year last year first time with a 10 on the essay