<p>My junior son just got his results back from recent ACT. Did fine in Math, English, & Reading (34,34, 33) but bombed in science reasoning. We thought he may have misbubbled or something. But then we bought some practice tests and discovered that he just misses too many in that section. Why???? We dont' know ---- he is the top AP kid in AP Bio and AP Chem and honors Physics classes. </p>
<p>Does anyone have a book or something to recommend for this? He is retaking the test in April. </p>
<p>Jlauer, the ACT Science is more a test of REASONING, than of science knowledge - kids with lots of science knowledge may try to read too much into the test. First, is he finishing the sections? If so, then the easiest thing to do is you or your husband, and son to take the same practice science section. I think you will see what is tripping him up. There are lots of graphs and tables on the test, and at first glance, it looks like you have to have a lot of knowledge about some aspect of science, but if you actually look at the question, all you have to do is read data off the graph or out of the table. The test makers purposefully pick a topic that the students are unlikely to have any factual knowledge or ecperience about, because they are testing the ability to read a graph, not factual knowledge - this really throws some kids for a loop, and they just to need to recognize that you can answer the question even if you know nothing about the effects of humidity on wind speed in the Amazon.</p>
<p>Finally, there is some factual knowledge on the test, although it is fairly basic - remember these kids should NOT have had physics yet - bio, chem, ninth grade general science - but there may be a discrete area where he has knowledge gaps.</p>
<p>He could get this from reading the explanations to the questions - but we found it faster and easier in this type situation for Mom or Dad to taks the difficult part of the test, and help identify the problem.</p>
<p>ACT Science is NOT a science test. It's a very inaccurate name -- it's really about reading graphs, data interpretation, and reading comprehension/logic (the reading passages just happen to be about logic). Since it is such an odd section, and since the ACT folks are the ones who write it, I would just suggest practicing with the REAL ACT tests, using the ACT official study guides. I think the Grammatix folks have an ACT Study Guide -- their SAT Guide gets good reviews, but not sure about the ACT one.</p>
<p>j, I know one size doesn't fit all but my unit had a similar first try 36, 34, 31, .....26 science. All she did to improve to a 34 in science was to %$#$% and moan for a while then do every practice test section she could find. Not that many. But she did them under timed conditions.</p>
<p>D is a kid who finishes every test early. The SAT? She had time to check her answers. The science section of the ACT left her out of breath and bubbling nonsensically the first time. There was also one particular chart that she just didn't get. Once she found the pace, and the simple concept that everything needed to answer the question she already knew or was provided in the text, chart, or graph - she was fine. Familiarity, in other words. Not necessarily studying in a traditional sense. He'll do fine.</p>
<p>It could be that all he needs to do is to read these replies, then go back and take the practice tests - with the knowledge that everything he needs is in the question, you can get frantic looking for the trick.</p>
<p>The ACT science has always been this way, I remember from 30 years ago doing well on the science despite having VERY poor preparation at my high school. I think the test is designed to identify potential for doing well in science, so that talented kids from schools with poor preparation can show their potential. Since the rest of the test is heavily knowledge based, especially the math, it leaves well prepared students looking for the trick.</p>
<p>Curmy: sounds like your d and my s had a similar ACT experience. I just got back from the bookstore with a pile of ACT books and will have him do lots of practice tests -- especially the science portion. I also ordered online a book that is focused on the ACT Science reasoning (guess that is a problem for many).</p>
<p>Cangel; good advice. both h and I took the tests. I went over the ones my s missed and he seems to "get it" a bit more. Told him to be careful about answers that say "always" "never" etc because unless similar words are in the passage or can be obviously inferred from the graph, those words are usually not in the correct answers.</p>
<p>mum07 I will check out the thread... thanks for providing it.</p>
<p>Yes, the good students do worse in the science. You can check by looking at the percentiles.</p>
<p>For example, a 32 in science puts you in the top 1%,. You can't say that for any of the other 3 tests. The reason is people do the worst on the science portion. </p>
<p>You can see this all the way down from 32 to 21. For the same score on each test, you are in a higher percentile for science.</p>
<p>Students do the best in the reading portion. You have to get a higher score in the reading to get into higher percentiles compared to the other tests.</p>
<p>This is a direct result of the many erroneous reports that the ACT tests what is taught in high schools. Just as the SAT, students need to understand the way the test is built and how questions are posed. The type of questions that are the most difficult for students to master are the questions that require a higher level of reasoning and concentration: for the SAT, it is reading comprehension and the mathematical word problems. Most people will also call those type of questions ... the trickiest. The reality is that they are only tricky because they are cut from a different cloth. For instance, the word problems on the SAT are extremely easy because they are so predictable. The ACT is a bit tougher because it is essentialy a poorly written test that contains more questionable questions than the SAT. </p>
<p>The solution has other posters have written is to gain more knowledge of the questions by practicing. For the ACT Science part, an important element is to NOT get stuck on the minute details and try to "understand" the technical part of the discussion. The scientific part is bogus, and what is important is to identify the patterns and relationships of the NUMBERS discussed. The best way is to hunt for the information that is necessary to eliminate incorrect answers and pick the correct ones. In most cases, it is not necessary to read the problem statement and complete text with great care before answering the questions.</p>
<p>xiggi: Ok, I know that you are really good at giving advice for tests. What do you suggest? Is there a particular book that is better than another? Son is doing practice tests.</p>
<p>Personally, I've decided that the ACT Science is a crap shoot. My S took the ACT three times. First time the Science was a 34, second 32 (despite missing the same amount of questions) third, 25. Who knows why he dropped so much the third time when all of his other subscores went up. He didn't do anything different, just blew one part of the science on the third try.</p>
<p>I have found that two books help a great deal in preparing for the test. One must, however, closely follow the examples in how to reason through problems at the beginning of the book.</p>
<p>Problem Solving and Comprehension
by Arthur Whimbey, Jack Lochhead</p>
<p>Beyond Problem Solving and Comprehension: An Exploration of Quantitative Reasoning
by Arthur Whimbey, Jack Lochhead</p>
<p>My D had the same experience. Science is her best HS subject, worst ACT score. She also was exasperated with the many graphs and charts. Thanks jlauer, for bringing up this topic!</p>
<p>I taught my d. to substitute a shoe color everytime she saw a chemical formula or a term she didn't understand. Raised her score 4 points.</p>
<p>(By the way, the way science actually operates - by inference, critical reasoning from the known to the unknown, and interpretation of data - I think the ACT is one of the best tests I have ever seen. It doesn't test scientific knowledge, but one's capacity to think like a scientist.)</p>