<p>I just finished my soph. year in h.s. and I have been starting to use these practice tests. I took the act in the middle of my soph year and made a 22. I was SO nervous. I bought the McGraw Hill prep book. I took the english section four times and got a 29, 26, 29, and 29. I took the math section twice and made a 29, then 30. I thought that these could not be accurate. I saw on here that people said the McGraw Hill book was too easy. Immediately, I thought, "well, I knew it was too good to be true". The people on here said that the Real ACT book was accurate too the real thing. Therefore, I went out and bought this book. To confuse me even more, all my scores in the Real ACT were around the same as on McGraw Hill. If these are accurate, why did I make a 22 a few months ago??? Could I really have been that nervous? But then again, when I took the real thing, nothing in my head was clicking and i didn't even finish the english section. With the practice tests in both these books, I have at least 10 min left after every english section. So i guess my main question is, am I being "teased" by these practice tests???<br>
P.S. Before I took the one that I got a 22 on, I took a practice one at school that said my range would be a 27-31. Basically, everyones was accurate. But then again, on that one I didn't really give a care how i did.
Sorry that was so long.</p>
<p>the practice tests are a lot easier, same thing happened to me with practice tests. I took all the subjects at once for my practice tests and was estimated to get about a 27 or 28.</p>
<p>i ended up getting a 23</p>
<p>I scored 31 sophomore winter and 35 junior winter. I went into soph ACT blind, and did not finish most of the reading. Sorry, but it's a wonderful wake-up-call on how smart you really are compared to the rest of the nation.</p>
<p>PLAN is way off and practice tests are too. You can't gauge your score on them, they are just for practice</p>
<p>So you guys are saying that pretty much every practice test out there will show your score to be higher than what your gonna get?</p>
<p>you see, this is odd, because these tests are accurate for my friends.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think it was your nervousness, not the accuracy of the tests lol. Because if your saying that you were really really really nervous and you couldnt think and you didnt finish the section, but you had minutes to spare on the practice tests, then you were obv. nervous. That plays a big role, since thats what happened to me on my SATs lol</p>
<p>But i really dont know since my first time taking the acts are gonna be in september</p>
<p>I think one of the secrets to mastering the ACT is to be...arrogant. I know lots of students who have said "I don't need any prep for that, I'll just take it cold turkey," and they've done amazingly well, like 32. Granted, that's usually after a second time, but it really helps to go in thinking that you're better than a test. It also helps if you put the harsh curve out of your mind.</p>
<p>What you need to do is remember the advice above, and also look at each question you missed and analyze it carefully. I found that I missed certain types of questions a lot, and I also found that certain types of questions took me a long time to answer (BAAAAAAD on the ACT). As you're going through the practice tests, circle any questions that give you trouble, even if you can answer them correctly.</p>
<p>And about the practice tests. Every test is different, and I've found some practice tests impossibly difficult and others a breeze. This just goes back to what you know and how you can apply it. Everyone has weaknesses, and you just have to hope that your real ACT test doesn't find them. It would be most accurate if you took maybe 10 tests from different sources and averaged the scores, maybe placing a little more weight on the Real ACT Book practices.</p>
<p>Whoa...I didn't know I had all that profound knowlege! I might have to keep a copy of this post.</p>
<p>I'll agree that your main problem was nerves. take as many practice tests as you can, and plan on taking a couple test dates this year. the nice thing about the ACT is that schools don't need to see every score, so you can take as many times as you like. the best way to get over nerves is to get used to taking the test.</p>
<p>I got owned on the PLAN test but ended up getting a 34...</p>
<p>ya exactly, nothing counts but the real deal.
go into there thinking how easy it is (it really is the easiest test you will every take) and score high</p>