<p>Well the ACT Prep Courses just regurgitate the material from the books, so the cheapest way is to just buy The Real ACT Prep Guide and Barron’s and study from there. But, first take the free practice test from SparkNotes.com and see how you do. Then you will know what area you have to focus on to improve your score. </p>
<p>Then again, it’s up to you if you think you really need a prep course like Kaplan. They are pretty expensive though.</p>
<p>i took the act in april just to see the level that i was at, and was planning on doing a prep course over the summer and taking the acts in fall. and then i ended up getting a 33+ score on the april test, so i won’t be retaking it after all and therefore won’t have to do the summer course.
so um yeah. defn take a practice test and buy a prepbook first.</p>