Hi there so i recently took the act as a junior in the fall and i did okay. I got a 26 overall but spent some time studying not a lot. This was my first time taking it, im taking another one in FEB and one provided by the school in april. I want to improve my score, are there any tips to help out. Heres my breakdown scores
Math: 30
English: 21
Science:24
Reading:28
I don’t know where and how to start and how much i should spend time. I take 6 AP classes and don’t really know how to balance everything. Please give me some advice. Thanks
First of all, what is your goal score? Which colleges are you aiming for?
I’d say a foolproof method is to buy the Barron’s ACT prep book along with Princeton Review’s “Math and Science Workout for the ACT” series. More specific tips below:
English: as this is your lowest section score, spend the most time on this. There’s really no way to crack it except memorizing all the rules of grammar. The advantage is that this is the most straightforward section to prep for. Just study any ACT English prep book (or Strunk and White’s Elements of Style) and you should be fine.
Reading: An open secret about the ACT Reading is that most of the answers to the questions are there word-for-word in the actual passage. There’s little to no actual deduction or comprehension involved. The strategy that worked for me was reading the questions first and then scanning the passage for key words.
Math: Practice, practice, practice. You seem to be doing better on this section than on the others, so taking a bunch of practice sections should improve your score even more. One specific tip I can give is to go as fast as possible on the first half of the section, as those questions are much easier than the second half.
Science: By far the most difficult to crack. However, it is possible; I started with a 31 on this section and worked my way up to a 36. What worked for me was doing practice science sections in the Barron’s book, but with only half the recommended time. This helped condition my brain to work the problems faster.
Thanks so much, it really has helped my science score go up from a 24 to a 29 and my reading also boosted too! It’s just the english grammar portion. Thanks for the advice!!
There are good books; the ACT Black book- it works with the ACT Red Book- he goes through every question, explaining why the correct answer is correct. I will also say that a lot of times the shortest grammatically correct one is the correct answer. If you have already taken some of the practice tests in the Red Book, you can use the Black Book to figure out what grammar you are weak on and review it.
I think my son used the Princeton Review book. He improved his English/Reading scores by reviewing the chapter in the front of the book geared toward those sections. He printed off old tests and would practice a couple of sections a week (to get the timing down). He wound up with 33’s in both Reading and English. Superscored a 30.
Erica Meltzer’s English/reading books are highly regarded too. If you order, just make sure you get her ACT books, as she also published SAT guides as well.
I used the generic official ACT prep book, working through all the test questions in the book. I found it especially helpful for the English section.