Feeling Stressed

Test Preparation
1

This is kind of a vent.

I’m feeling really stressed while waiting for my September ACT scores to come back. This is my second attempt, and my goal was to go from a 28 (April) to a 30. I really don’t think it’s going to happen. That would mean I’d have to improve 8 individual points spread across the subject sections, and that feels really overwhelming.

I definitely felt thousands of times better about the Science than last time (I got a 26), as I had done almost 200 Science practice problems just to get a feel for how to find the information you need. The book I used was McGraw Hill’s 500 Science Questions You Need to Know by Test Day. Doing this really helped me to recognize what I needed to look for in the graphs and labs, but I’m kind of afraid that this is false confidence and that I just THOUGHT it was easier for me.

Then, the math.

Oh, the math…

I’m absolutely awful at math. Okay, let me rephrase that: I’m awful at remembering math. Sure, I’ve had straight As in math for years, but I cannot for the life of me remember a formula for longer than I need to know it, which is exactly what the ACT wants you to be able to do. I scored an absolutely dreadful 23 on the math the first time, and despite my practice, I did not feel at all better about it this time. To make things worse, my friend who is an absolute GENIUS at math only got a 27 this time around (she got her scores before me). Realistically I’m hoping to at least go up to a 25 on the math just for personal satisfaction, but I’m really not feeling it. I’m in the lowest math class available for seniors at my school (CP Math Analysis), and most people I know are in AP Calculus and have been on the Honors math track since 8th grade, so I’m generally going to be less prepared, imo.

The English and Reading are a cakewalk for me. 29 and 32 respectively, I don’t think there’s any way I could’ve gotten worse- if anything I probably improved, but the paranoia is gnawing at me and telling me that I suck. That’s one way to put it, at least.

The writing I have to have aced. I got an awful 6 last time and barely even filled two pages, but this time I used every single page and felt pretty great about what I had to say.

Sorry, I know this might not be the place (feel free to tell me and I’ll move the post), but I needed an outlet.

2

For me at least, most of the formulas that I can’t remember are ones that I don’t fully understand in the first place. For example, I can recite the quadratic formula or the formulae for sin(a+b), cos(a+b), tan(a+b) in my sleep because I’ve done probably dozens to hundreds of problems using them, derived them, even taught them to others (this is not 100% true; I still have a hard time remembering Stewart’s theorem even though it’s pretty easy to derive).

Generally, if you have trouble remembering a theorem or formula, try solving lots of problems using that theorem. Try deriving it. Explain it to others. Maybe play around with it (e.g. what happens if b=2a in the formula for sin(a+b)?).

3

@MITer94 has just given you the truth, @wesaytigers.

4

I know it’s been a while since this was posted, but I just got my scores back and I got the 30 I needed, and my math score improved by five points. Thank you for your response!