Best First Practice Test For ACT And SAT

I’m trying to get my daughter started on ACT/SAT prep. She’ll be a junior next year.

We’re just starting, so we don’t have any books yet. I’d like to start with the ACT.

I’m planning on getting the latest edition of the Red book, but I was wondering if
anyone thinks there’s a particular practice test for the ACT that would be best as a
first practice test.

A few other questions:
1)Should she take her first practice test cold or do some prep?

2)Is there a best first practice test for SAT?

3)Could anyone point me to some good threads on overall prep strategy for ACT and SAT.
I’ll search around, but if anyone has any favorite threads they’d like to share, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks.

I would suggest taking the tests that are given online. There are four practice SATs that I have seen that are released on Collegeboard’s website, and I’ve seen tons of actual ACTs also. These all include answers and scoring. In my opinion, these would be the most accurate.

I would have her do a little prep first. Do some of the questions in the ACT book and learn how long each section is. We had our son take a practice test at a local Kaplan and it was kind of a waste without prep because geometry was two years ago for him and he’s forgotten some of it. His score on the math section didn’t reflect at all how strong he is in math. The following week, he spent a little time reviewing and was able to go from a 26 to a 34 just by reviewing briefly.

There are also tips for reading and science that are VERY helpful before taking a first practice test. I’ve talked to a few tutors and read tips online that involve NOT reading the whole reading section first. Go to the questions and find the answers. Same with science. Our son didn’t know these tips and ran out of time. Only answered 75% of the questions on both of those sections. Got almost all of the questions correct that he did answer, but his scores were low because his timing was off and he read the sections thoroughly before going to the questions.

Thanks @forevertired. I’ll check out the tests on the College Board’s site.

@homerdog, I’m going to take your advice and get her to go through a review book.

Since posting this question, I’ve read more about the ACT, and I think I’m going to have her
try the SAT first. I think the more severe time pressure of the ACT might freak her out.

Are there any SAT Math review books you would recommend? I saw a big thread on prep books.
I’ll post there too, but it seems like most people are looking for prep/test strategy rather than review
books there.

I think we are leaning towards the SAT as well. Our son is a strong reader and, while the passages are harder than the ACT passages, he can handle them…and with time left! Still needs to review SAT math. We are using the blue SAT book from College Board. Since the test was just changed, it’s the only book with current real questions. Be careful, though, there are only four real tests available for practice. They are both in this book and online via College Board. Our S19 is just using the practice questions (not the tests) to practice since we don’t want to waste the practice tests and will wait to use them until he wants to practice a full length test.

Kahn Academy also has practice questions that are directly from College Board. Some people don’t like using Kahn exclusively, though, because the website shows you how to do the questions but doesn’t share any timing tips or shortcuts. Our son has used it to take diagnostic tests and that has helped him see where he needs to spend his time studying.

Thanks for the information @homerdog. I’m going to pick up the College Board’s book, but my daughter liked the sound of Steve Warner’s book, so I bought that one first.

The practice questions from the College Board and the ones at Khan Academy are not from real tests, are they? I agree about saving the 4 practice tests.

My daughter is afraid of the Reading section, so we’re starting with Math.

I’m going to check out the Khan Academy practice tools. I just want to be sure about something - the diagnostic tests at Khan Academy are not the practice tests from the College Board, are they??

Thanks again and good luck.

No. I have all four practice tests and the questions on Kahn’s practice tools are different (but still written by College Board). The four practice TESTS on Kahn, though, ARE the four practice tests in College Board’s book. The diagnostic tests on Kahn are terrific with very helpful explanations of the answers. Good luck!

Sorry @homerdog, I never thanked you for this. So let me see if I have this right - the DIAGNOSTIC tests on Kahn Academy are not the same as the College Board’s tests, but the PRACTICE tests are?

I haven’t had much success in getting my daughter going.

We have the Steve Warner book and the Dr. Jang’s book. The Steve Warner book is good, but short. We haven’t cracked the other one yet. I’m trying to get her to pick one type of problem, and do all the examples we can find of that type of problem. So far, no movement at all, but I keep trying.

How is your son’s progress coming along? Is he motivated, or do you have to push him?

There’s some disagreement on this–in my (careful) review, the KA material diverges widely from the material on the 4 official practice tests and in some cases is clearly impermissible. In R (the subject I’ve examined most closely), for example, none of the four practice tests include EXCEPT questions or Analogy questions (“which of the following most closely resembles the situation in lines x-xx?”) but the KA material features these question types quite frequently.

There’s also a long thread here somewhere about problems in the KA math material. Major problems, in fact.

@marvin100, thanks for pointing this out. Do you recall the name of that thread? I just did a search and couldn’t find any threads on that topic.

Sorry, no time to search, but I’ve mentioned it in a few threads started by others. Sorry I can’t help, @WalkOnEggShells

@WalkonEggShells not sure if you meant your D was a rising sophomore or junior this coming September but don’t forget about the PSAT or PSAT 10 practice tests.

There were a bunch of great books for SAT prep. The new test has a lot of problems, one of which is that no really good books have been written for it yet.