GoldenMonkeySAT's 36 ACT Plan and Journal.

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

<p>Childhood:</p>

<p>As I young child my dad severly beat me up starting from 2 years old. He whipped me with belts and hit my head and body with sticks. I have emotional scars as well as physical scars on my head. </p>

<p>Background:</p>

<p>Guys I am becoming a senior this year and my goal is to get a 36 on the ACT on September 8 2012. For the past two ACT I took I got a composite score of 25 and then within a month a score of 27. I told my parents that I got a 27 and they look at my face and they laughed at me. They called me a failure. They also say that I am not good at any sport (which is true). They think that no one will give me scholrships or snything, not also that but also beleive that I wont be accepted into any good college. They think I'll end up as my dad's brother who lives in India who is litterally a man who struggles for his life. They also think that I am stupid and retarted. They told me tht if I do not get a 30+ on the September ACT, they will send me to India where I will have to make a living, or they wont support me for college ant stuff. Not only that but they have given up literally all hope of my success. I really want a 36 not only to satisfy my parents but also achieve satisfaction. On my SAT I took I got a 1770. </p>

<p>Many of you people on here get perfect scores or near to perfect scores on these tests. I am inspired by that and am planning on studying and making a Journal on how I am preparing for it. </p>

<p>But I can't do this alone! I need your guy's tips and tricks on how you guys are getting such high scores on each section. Please be a part of making my dream come true. I need all the help I can get.</p>

<p>*I know that scores are not the only thing that counts.</p>

<p>School: (I am probably not the brightest kid. Nor do I have much of a social life. I am super passionate about Space and ask very critical thinking questions. My parents tell me that I am wasting my time on thing like this which are useless in being successful)</p>

<p>I take a plethora of AP Classes.
Top third of my class.</p>

<p>Extracirricular Activities:</p>

<p>Leo Club (Club-Community Service)
NHS (Club-Community Service)
Robotics (Club)
DECA (Club)
Children Mercy Hospital (Volunteer)
Menorah Medical Center Hospital (Volunteer)
National Science Bowl (Club)
Track
National Hot Air Balloon Fetival (Volunteering)
Indian Youth Group
Active Volunteer at my Temple</p>

<p>My Community Serviece Projects:</p>

<p>Elementary School Service Learning Project
School Building Project (In India)
Agricultural Farming (India)</p>

<p>Please help out guys and give your tips and support. I have 44 days. I want to get into an Ivy League school and want my occupation to be in the medicine field.</p>

<p>Please!</p>

<p>ACT April 2012: </p>

<p>English: 23<br>
Mathematics: 25<br>
Reading: 23<br>
Science: 29<br>
Writing: 8 </p>

<p>ACT June 2012: </p>

<p>English: 27<br>
Mathematics: 31<br>
Reading: 22 (Time issue)<br>
Science: 26<br>
Writing: 9 </p>

<p>ACT June 2012: Goal: ACT September 2012</p>

<p>English: 35-36
Mathematics: 36
Reading: 33-36
Science: 35-36
Writing: 12</p>

2

<p>If your story is true then i truly wish you the best of luck! Im curious on how you got your English up from April to June. Can you enlighten me? :smiley: my English score was not good at all along with my others and i just need some ideas on where to start.</p>

3

<p>@SpitPhire Too be honest, I just took a lot of practice English ACT test, and at the end I went over every single question even if I got it right. This way I learned what type of mistakes I was making and tried to not do it on the last one. Try to know why an answer is right and wrong and that should help you.</p>

4

<p>Thank you!! And what about your math? That was also a great improvement :D</p>

5

<p>For math I just took a lot of practice tests and it improved over time. For me its not about understanding the concept its about do I understand what the question is asking. It might be different for you. Just practice and it should improve. I make a ton of stupid mistakes which costs me points. I need help with Science, English and Reading. I don’t read a lot which makes it harder.</p>

6

<p>I’m sorry about what happened to you as a child and even now. I’d like to help you out, so here we go:
English: Silverturtle’s SAT Grammar guide. Yes I know it’s an SAT grammar guide, but grammar is grammar. If you study and take notes, you’ll get 35+, no problem at all.
Math: [ACT</a> SparkNotes Test Prep: The Content of the Math Test](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)
Use the internet to your advantage and study each of the topics thoroughly.<br>
Reading: To be honest, there are no tricks of the trade or strategies except to simply read. Quickly and efficiently read through the passage and then answer the questions.
Science: Same as reading. Read through the information presented thoroughly then head to the questions.<br>
Essay: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/645763-how-write-12-essay-just-10-days.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here’s something else you need for this test: Mentality. Walk into the room thinking you are a boss and you will breeze through the test like it’s nbd. </p>

<p>I hope you do get that 36 and get into the college of your choice. Best of luck.</p>

7

<p>Thanks @injectmagic just curious what did you get on your ACT and were these your study materials?</p>

8

<p>I got a 35 on the ACT. Math: 36, the rest 35. The essay guide and the grammar guide were my study materials. As for math, to be honest, that section came pretty naturally to me. I’ve been a math nerd/competitor since I was in middle school.</p>

9

<p>@injectmagic Math comes in naturally for me as well, but I tend to make stupid mistakes or I don’t understand what the question is asking (Reading issue).</p>

10

<p>@injectmagic For the english section, did you just read through Silverturtle’s guide or read and take notes and stuff?</p>

11

<p>I read and took notes on concepts that I thought would appear on the test. Don’t try to swallow the whole guide in one read. You must take thorough notes. Then study your notes. This whole process took me 3-4 days.</p>

12

<p>Can someone please explain to me verb forms? By that I mean Simple Present, Present Continuous and the other ones like these? I always find these confusing.</p>

13

<p>-6/25/2012-</p>

<p>Dear Diary,</p>

<p>I wanted to get a head start to my preparation for the upcoming ACT. I went straight to the Red Book 3rd edition to start studying for the English section. I went through all the examples as well as the grammar rules. After reviewing there seems to be only a couple concepts which I do not understand completely: Verb Forms, Idioms, Transitional Phrases.</p>

<p>I went to this page: [ENGLISH</a> PAGE - Simple Present](<a href=“http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepresent.html]ENGLISH”>Simple Present Tense | ENGLISH PAGE) to start taking notes and review.</p>

<p>I am already tired, but I am going to finish learning about Past Perfect and then call it a night.</p>

14

<p>They (want) wanted me to include references, but I didn’t want to list my previous landlord because I (have) had had some problems with him in the past and I knew he wouldn’t recommend me. </p>

<p>Why couldn’t the sentence be …I have had some problems with him in the past and I knew he wouldn’t recommend me.</p>

15

<p>Holy crap man I feel bad for you and your parents are jerks a 27 is good… I bet they can’t get a 27 themselves if they took it they would probably fail so hard and get like a 22 or something… Anyway… I think you can do it man a 30 ain’t far off especially if you’re time constrained on reading. I only got a 28… But i could have easily gotten a 30 or higher but I didn’t practice as much as i could have. In the end, I got better on my timing on Reading and Science but for each of them there was always about 5 to 6 questions I didn’t have time to answer and just had to guess on. That saying my score could have been higher. But what I did was… I got the Red Book. The real ACT prep guide, and a couple of barrons 36s books. I read the tips and info from the barrons 36 and applied that to the practice tests in the red book since they are accurate. The first time I took this test I got a 23 and not even using the full extent of the greatness of these few books I managed to raise my score 5 points… Just do this man and you’ll get a 30 no problem. Show those parents they are wrong! Man… Oh and for reading the strategy the barrons gave me is to spend 4 minutes reading the passage, and 4 minutes answering the questions. Under about each paragraph write 2-3 words that remind you of the paragraph. If you do this you should be able to lessen the time constraint within enough practice. Good luck brah and I believe in you. P.S. The barrons book is amazing for English… brought me up from a 24 to a 30.</p>

16

<p>Oh and Science… That’s the one I raised the most idk how I did it really but i guess I did it. First time got a 20 in science, 2nd time got a 29… Hah… Well, the answers are all basically there in the graphs. Just understand those and you’re good to go. Know how to find values on the graph and the X and Y axis and Independent and Dependent variables, how to tell if something is increasing or decreasing over time… Pretty simple stuff! Seeing that you got a 26 though I guess you pretty much know what I mean. I really should have practiced more so I wouldnt run out of time lol I guessed on like 6 Science this time and I’m pretty sure I got almost every other question right it was so easyyy.</p>

17

<p>@Sy2850 Thanks I will definitely get the Barrons ACT book! Just wondering their are some people who actually go straight to the question and try to find some of the words in the question in the passage. Has anyone tried that? I was thinking about doing passages 2, 3, 4 first since I find those much easier and then going back to 1. For science I did not really take that many tests, I will and go over the answers as well. I noticed many of those graphs in those questions were similar to those in the Red Book. To be honest after taking the science section I did not review over the ones I got wrong.</p>

18

<p>Wow, I feel really bad about your parental situation. I could never imagine what I would feel like if my parents beat me and didn’t believe in me. I truly do hope that it gets better and you show them what’s up. But remember, you’re doing this for your own success. I got a 29 on my last ACT (composite score) and I mainly used the Red Book to study since the tests in there are pretty much the best around. Also, take plenty of practice tests, especially in the sections you need to improve on. Good luck to you man, me and plenty of others at CC are right behind you.</p>

19

<p>Do I need to know any Present (Perf.) Continuous, Past Perf. Continuous or Future Perf. Continuous verb tense rules? Or do we need to know only the basics: Past, Present and Future perfect tenses?</p>

20

<p>I have a better understand of the tenses of different words, I am able to get them right if I have answer options so I feel pretty confident but I need to continue studying this material.</p>