<p>I took the ACT in June and only scored a 23 overall.
My sub-scores were:
26 in English
23 in Math
23 in Science
21 in Reading </p>
<p>I know these are bad scores. I want to improve them. I have the Real ACT book, but it seems like those tests are much easier than the actual ACT.
Can anyone give advice for science/math/reading sections? I believe I can score a 30+ on English, but not on the other three sections.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>This will be very tough to improve. I am a above average student and with 150+ hours of studying and test taking i got my score of a 23 to a 28. I come from a terrible school where all my teachers are burnt out and cant seem to teach very well. I have to re learn everything</p>
<p>I think it’s possible to improve on English, science, and reading. Math seems to be the hardest to improve.</p>
<p>Possible to improve on english just use barron 36. As for science its hard because u need to know how to interpret graphs fast! and reading can only improve by reading alot. Math is straight forward, once u gone through alot of practice tests and books the questions tend to repeat themselves in diff formats</p>
<p>Any more ideas?</p>
<p>I’d argue that math and English can be most improved if you are willing to study. English especially: learn all the grammatical rules and the types of questions ACT asks, which are actually surprisingly limited. Trust me.</p>
<p>As for math, get Barrons ACT math prep book for an extensive/comprehensive concept review and you can easily master the first 45/60 question-type of the ACT math test. Numbers 46-60/60 are the “challenge questions” and can be mastered up to a point, and at that point, it boils down more so to luck than anything else. Also, use the Real ACT Prep Guide with 5 practice tests to test yourself while you use Barrons to actually learn content. Feel free to use Barrons’ practice tests, but be wary of the fact that Barrons is much more challenging and will force you to run out of time on its tests. So it’s inaccurate in that sense.</p>
<p>In summary for the ACT math:
ACT always finds ways - and I mean always - to trip you up on the real thing. It will be slightly tougher than practice tests, but with enough practice you’ll handle it with ease.<p>EDIT: Also know math formulas (area, distance, midpoint, circumference, etc.)</p>
<p>Not sure you’ll want my advice as I ended up with a 29 on my first one. Probably brought it to mid 30’s this time though.</p>
<p>English: The most helpful things to learn (in my opinion) are rules regarding commas, and when a sentence is redundant or wordy. There are several other things which would be nice to know (such as then/than, who/whom, when to use colons/semicolons etc), but those are the two that I’ve seen the most. Make sure you understand what a comma splice is and what an appositive is; they pop up a lot in the errors.</p>
<p>Math: Not sure how much I can help here; I never had to improve a ton on math. Make sure you know the distance formula, the circumference, special right triangles, and the shapes of the basic polynomial graphs I guess. Having a solid foundation on trig should help a lot too.</p>
<p>Reading: What works for me on reading (and science for that matter) may not work for you, but it wouldn’t hurt to try. I managed to get a 25 on my first reading mainly because I just didn’t have enough time when I tried to mark in the line number questions and then go to the others. Basically I just skim the whole passage (in about 3 or 4 minutes) and circle everything that seems like it could be important; be careful not to circle everything, but every time the story introduces a new character, or identifies their characteristics, circle it. After you’ve skimmed through, go straight to the questions, and make sure you’re time conscious. DO NOT allow yourself more than 9 minutes or so per passage; you don’t want to run out of time, and if you pace yourself well enough you should have time to change answers you sort of rushed through. It’s better to make educated guesses here and there than to have to bubble in 5 or 6 randomly at the end. That being said, you should be able to get through it with no problems if you practice. I tried this strategy for the first time about a week ago, but from the answers I’ve seen on the threads, I only missed 2-4 questions on Saturday.</p>
<p>Science: This is going to sound weird but I always read the science passages (when I say read, I mean skim. Literally read it over in less than 30 seconds). I find that it makes me a lot more comfortable answering the questions, and it usually allows me to go faster. Circle important stuff (in this case laws or formulas) but there shouldn’t be a ton there. I would try to get through each passage in just under 5 minutes if you can, because the conflicting student one usually takes a little bit longer. Sounds like a weird method but I’m fairly confident I brought my 26 from last year up to a 31-34 depending on the curve.</p>
<p>Almost forgot. It helps me to do the main idea questions on the reading last. The other questions generally bring the whole thing together. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I feel like you have the potential to vastly improve on the science and reading sections. Give this book a read: [The</a> ACT for Bad Test Takers: Moshe Ohayon: 9780988760905: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/0988760908/ref=as_li_tf_til?%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20tag=wwwbadtesttak-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0988760908&%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20adid=1WE54113WYWEKMFDS1XP&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.badtesttakers.com%2Fwpbtt%2F%3Fpage_id%3D748]The”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0988760908/ref=as_li_tf_til?%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20tag=wwwbadtesttak-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0988760908&%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20adid=1WE54113WYWEKMFDS1XP&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.badtesttakers.com%2Fwpbtt%2F%3Fpage_id%3D748)</p>
<p>It focuses on how to strategize for each section and i think you are exactly the type of person who would benefit most from it. The red book is the best because those are actual ACT tests. It may seem easier because you are more comfortable/calm when you take the practice ones. Do you time your practice exams?</p>
<p>^ spam spam</p>
<p>^spam witch hunter</p>
<p>How is that spam? If he is getting average scores, the biggest thing holding him back is effective time management. Especially considering the fact that both the science and the reading sections are non-content based as well as the most unfairly timed. He asked a questions, and i gave him what i think is my best advice.</p>
<p>@btt2013t - All you do is promote some book on Amazon. Every post. That is called spam.</p>
<p>I thought it was solicited in the question my bad…no more amazon links then. I thought adding the links was being helpful, but i see what you mean. I was just excited to answer questions.</p>