<p>Hi I recently took a practice ACT (from an official ACT test packet) and received the following scores: 35 English, 36 Math, 33 Reading, and 30 science.</p>
<p>My target scores are: 36 English, 36 Math, 36 Reading, and 34 science, or 36E, 36M, 35R,35 sci.
I really want a 36. I'm willing to spend my summer prepping. I'm going to be a senior so I'm somewhat limited on time. I know there's a lot of people on CC who are are veterans at standardized test taking. Please help me out.</p>
<p>If anyone could give me any advice, I'd REALLY appreciate it. Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi. Congrats on your success so far with the 34, because that’s already a great place to be (even if it’s on a practice test). I was actually in an extremely similar situation! I got a 34 on the February ACT (35 English, 35 Math, 36 Reading, and 30 Science) and recently raised my score to a 36 on June (36 English, 35 Math, 36 Reading, and 36 Science). The best advice I can give you is focus on raising that science score by looking at what kind of errors you’re making, and, if you have one consistent kind of mistake, change your science strategy a bit. In looking at my science mistakes on practice tests, I discovered that my biggest problem was over thinking problems and trying to analyze too much instead of focusing on what was right in front of me on the graphs and charts. Once I realized this, I was able to stop myself on problems where I felt like I was reading into the question too much and trust my gut more. For me, this small change (and some more practice) gained me 6 points. Your errors may not be as consistent or may be harder to fix, but that’s the best advice I have there. As for raising that reading score, I believe the key to the reading section is timing and confirming every answer, when possible, with textual evidence. If you’re getting a 33, you’re obviously already doing a fantastic job at that. One thing that might help: whenever I find myself stuck between two possible answers on a question, I ask myself how I would go about “proving” each answer to someone using the text and then, obviously, I put the answer that feels the simplest and most natural to prove. Hope that helps a bit! GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>Great advice. Yeah I took a science practice test yesterday and received a 33. Hopefully it’ll continue to go up. Thank you for giving me hope!<br>
One Question: when you prep by taking practice tests, do you focus on an individual section or do you take the whole test? Does it make a difference?</p>
<p>That’s great! I usually prep by focusing on individual sections, but then supplementing that with a few full practice tests spread out along the way. For example, maybe do just science sections for a few weeks, then do a full practice test, then do just reading, then another practice, etc., adjusting according to how you’re doing along the way.</p>
<p>extremelyfat, to answer your question it depends on the person. If you are a person who is not phased by the lengthy exam and can stay focused at the same level throughout the whole exam then it is perfectly fine for you to take sections at a time. However, if you are a person who tends to drop off as the test goes on then no, do not. The way I figured this out for me was by my SAT performances. My individual section questions right were all over the board so I concluded that the length of the exam was not a factor for me (for CR).</p>