<p>Hey guys!</p>
<p>I took the ACT for the first time in June. I'm a rising junior. </p>
<p>Let's just say I was not happy with my score. I was especially surprised by the science section. I prepped for it using Barron's 36 and I did the sample questions on the ACT website. I actually felt somewhat confident. Then I realized that the questions on the real test were totally different and I had no clue what to do!</p>
<p>Honestly, I had to guess on most of the questions because I didn't know what it was asking and the graphs were so confusing. </p>
<p>Please help me! I was hoping the science would be fairly easy and it turned out to be my lowest score.</p>
<p>Any advice? Thanks!</p>
<p>Also realize that science has the harshest curve so you may have gotten few answers wrong and got a low score. I remember that once someone got 1 wrong or something and got a 33. </p>
<p>The important thing is not to get overwhelmed by the scientific lingo and excessive details. I usually skim the passages/graphs and go straight tot eh questions. Once the question asks “based on Chart 1” or whatever, I go straight there and focus only on that. I definitely do not try to get a “big picture” understanding…that would take too much time.</p>
<p>Basically what the above poster said.</p>
<p>I got a 35 on the science section and this is what I did:
Don’t worry if you have NO IDEA what the passages are talking about. Just go with it and brace yourself. I typically jump to the questions and then, according to what they ask, look at the charts. I also read that tiny little pre-paragraph introduction to each experiment to familiarize myself with what exactly the “scientists” are doing. Also learn how to work quickly, so that you won’t be crunched for time at the end.</p>
<p>Thank you both! I’ll try to remember that next time. </p>
<p>Do you have any tips for the reading? Again, my score wasn’t as high as I had hoped and I’m normally good at comprehending what I read.</p>
<p>Reading is also about time. I found that reading the passage in its entirety and then answering the questions was the best method. There aren’t really any tricks, keep a watch because you have about 11 minutes for each section.</p>
<p>(I got 36 on science)
I don’t know if my strategies work for everyone, so you MUST try them on a practice test.</p>
<p>Science is NOT about knowledge, but your understandings of information, and abilities to analyze the data given.</p>
<p>Skip the intro/additional info of the experiments/ passage, unless you are not able to answer any of the questions.</p>
<p>Try to find the trend and relationships. To most of the people, including me, this skill does not come naturally, so practice, practice, PRACTICE!!! until you can find some sort of relationships once you see the passage/data charts. But if this costs you too much time, don’t do so. Doing this will lower the risk of answering questions without reading the passage. Sometimes one misunderstanding of the idea could cost you the whole set of questions (which I did before, it still hurts). </p>
<p>Similarly, for the opposite-opinion format, find whether each person is for/against the topic, as well as their main arguments. In this case, I suggest reading the full passage before answering the questions. Usually, each point of view would have ONE specific sentence that would against the other opinions. Underline it=]</p>
<p>Controlling the limited time is another important skill. The official guide suggests that you should equally divide the whole test by the number of sub-topics. However, not every sub-topic has equal amount of questions. Technically, the more questions it has, the more detailed they would be. Therefore, spend more time understanding the passage if there are a lot of questions, so that you won’t put a lot of questions at risk. If there’s only 1~3 questions on a sub-topic, the questions are more likely about general idea/ trend, so spend less time reading it.</p>
<p>CinDIK: Congratulations! I’ll definitely try that! I need a composite score of 30! I think the ACT is kinda funny. I know it depends on the curriculum your school offers, but my friend has a 4.0 and she got a 23 composite. I have a 3.9 and got about the same. Another girl has a 2.7 GPA and she got a 20. Is this weird or is it just me? I just expected that I would score higher. I felt so stupid when I got my score back. I think the SAT might suit me better, so I’m gonna maybe take it in December.</p>