<p>I keep hearing bad things about Barrons. People say it is much harder than the actual ACT, but isn't that a good thing? I'd think it is better to over work yourself rather than under work. I have the 15th edition, and I plan on taking all the tests and going through the entire book. I will read the strategy sections and do the practice tests. Once I am finished with that, I will do the tests in the red book. I plan on saving 3 red book tests for the week(day) before the ACT. Does this sound right? Start out hard to get myself familiarized with the process in a harder book, and end with the official and authentic tests?</p>
<p>I like the harder tests too to help me prep. I don’t have the same Barron’s book as you, so I can’t comment on how that one compares to the real test. But I have done the red book. In my opinion, the math section on the red book was easier than it was on the actual thing… I got 35/36 consistently, but on the test, I got a 32 and 33. Well of course, it might have been just nervousness or something else. But I just wanted to say that the test may have changed a bit since the red book was published.</p>
<p>I would agree that it is much harder than the actual ACT. This is exactly the reason I enjoy it; when you take the actual ACT, you will sit down and feel much better about it because of the difference in difficulty. The material presented in Barron’s is still pertinent to the test, just harder and requires more thinking and knowledge of math. I have finished all the practice sections ests, and I think it helped me greatly.
I think saving the red book tests for last will give you a general idea of how you will do after you’ve taken the harder ones. In other words, you should have learned from your mistakes/lack of knowledge from the harder ones, and just have an easier time on the other tests.</p>
<p>As a user of the barron’s 17th edition prep book this makes me hopeful, i just thought the ACT was absurdly more difficult than the SAT from the diagnostic test</p>
<p>I only got to study Barron’s 36 book for a week. I went from a 23 to a 25. If I would’ve studied longer I think I could’ve gotten 32+.</p>
<p>Official practice questions are the way to go. The only way to get comfortable with the test is to practice on questions that represent the test accurately.</p>
<p>There’s nothing more annoying than studying for problems that are completely different than the ones on the test. I’m not saying harder is bad, but I love the red book because you know that’s what you are going to get. Barron’s was really helpful in its Barron’s 36 version for its English portion. Honestly, most books aren’t too helpful with their reading and science; Barron’s 36 is no exception.</p>
<p>Personally I found Barrons to be not too much harder than the actual ACT. I used Barrons 6 ACT practice tests along with the Real ACT Prep Guide and was able to get a 35 on the October ACT.</p>