<p>I'm satisfied with my math and science scores (English is alright), but my low reading score crushed my composite score.
The biggest problem is that I never have time to finish the entire section because I am a slow reader.
After I finish 3 "easiest" passages, I usually have 2-5 minutes to solve the last passage.
ACT Exam Secrets Study Guide, Up Your Score: ACT, 2014-2015 Edition: The Underground Guide, The ACT for Bad Test Takers, and PR's 1,296 ACT Practice Questions seem like good prep books as a whole, but I am not sure if they are good for reading.
Please give me some comments on those books and recommend other good prep books if you know some.
Feel free to recommend prep books that are terrible for other sections as long as they are good for reading section.
Or if you have any tips/strategies for reading, please share them.
DON'T RECOMMEND THE REAL ACT PREP GUIDE (THE RED BOOK).</p>
<p>I’m the same as you, on the actual ACT I had around 4 minutes left on last passage and still got a 34 Reading. How many are you missing in the first three? Basically on the last passage just read the topic sentence of every paragraph and you will be able to answer most of the questions. Assuming you miss almost none in the first 3 you should still be in a good position to get a 33+.</p>
<p>@tys123 last ACT, I got 27 on Reading. For subsections, 16 on Social Studies/Sciences parts and 12 on Arts/Literature, so I’m guessing I missed around 3-5 in the first three. (I guessed almost all questions in the last one (Prose Fiction)). I could not get most of the questions when I only read the topic sentence.</p>
<p>@tys123 I found out that I missed total of 3 on the first 3 sections and 6 on the last one. On the last one, I forgot to guess one question… I could’ve got 28</p>
<p>Can anyone recommend me a good prep book?</p>
<p>I’d say the Barron’s is a good option. </p>
<p>I recommend Mike Barrett’s ACT book. You can find in Amazon. He deconstructs the questions and answers quite well.</p>
<p>You don’t need a different prep book, you need practice with actual sections using different strategies to increase your speed.</p>
<p>You will find better ideas on this website than you ever will in a Barron’s or other 3rd party mass market prep book, but the single best strategy is practice.</p>
<p>which books have the best practice questions that are the most similar w/ real act questions besides the red book? is the princeton review 1296 questions similar?</p>
<p>To the OP, get Mike Barrett’s book as already suggested and use it with your red book you already have. As an educator and AP teacher, there is no substitute for utilizing actual released exams/questions that have been used previously and statistically normed. What most kids need are alternative strategies for time conservation. Barrett’s book has suggestions for strategies to attack the test with. Look at the strategies, then try to apply them to practice tests. If they don’t work well for you, move on to the others until you find something to help improve your speed, such as the suggested skimming for main ideas. And to coltsfan, most third party books like Barrons, Princeton, Kaplan, etc. aren’t necessarily bad, but their questions are just another company’s approximation of the formula for constructing sample questions, and not released tests from the horse’s mouth. And IMHO, that makes a world of difference.</p>
<p>@ArkansasDad Thanks! I already got Mike Barrett’s book. Hope his strategies work… I also got PR’s 1296 ACT book for extra practice because I finished the red book. I heard reading part is quite similar to the real one</p>
@Aguileon Could you give some feedback on how you felt on the book? I too am looking for books to buy.
I don’t know if you still need help but I found a website with real old act tests 40 of them. pm me for more info