<p>First time I took it without any practice or preparation, I got a 24. This time I want to actually study and get used to the time, which was my biggest weakness for the reading. I got all 24's on each subject and for math my highest subscore was Trig; for English my highest subscore was rhetoric. I was wondering if I study this time, will my score go up to a 27-28, which is the composite score I need.</p>
<p>I’ve improved about 10 in English/Math/science.</p>
<p>You can easily go up that amount I’d think… reading might be hard to improve in a short period of time though, I’ve been trying to get it past high 20’s and I just can’t</p>
<p>I’d recommend buying Princeton Review; read that and it should be easy</p>
<p>I think you can definitely increase your ACT score with the right preparation. </p>
<p>It looks like you are already doing well on some of the difficult topics from the English and Math section, so I suggest buying Princeton Review’s Cracking the ACT so that you can brush up on the simpler grammar and algebra/geometry topics (PR, in my opinion, is the best for study material). If you do this and continue to take tests with The Real ACT under normal conditions, then I think you’ll see a lot of improvement.</p>
<p>As for the reading, could you tell us how you go about answering the questions to this section? I normally start with the science passage (since the questions are generally easier for me) and work my way backwards; before I begin reading, though, I quickly glance at the questions and see if there are any line references, and then (if there are) I mark the lines in my book, so when I’m reading I make sure to pay close attention to those particular sentences. Afterwards it’s just a matter of reading quickly and answering the questions. It may help if you force yourself to be interested in the subject matter- you will probably retain a lot more information that way.</p>
<p>Oh, and I’d really recommend using Barron’s perfect 36 for the english section, I really liked how it was setup, it would be like only use a comma if: it separates introductory words from the rest of the sentence, etc. </p>
<p>As far as reading, I would right down 5 word summaries next to each paragraph, so you can find what section you need to reread for a question easily, I usually don’t read the question’s first though - if I do I’ll run out of time.</p>
<p>I just go through the articles by the order they have them. I don’t skip to another passage then go back to another, etc… I thought it was kind of weird how my Trig was higher than anything else, but only by a point or two. I think I got a 14 subscore on Trig?? And a 13/14 on Rhetorics.</p>
<p>If you just brush up on your elementary algebra/geometry you can easily get a 30 in math I bet, wouldn’t take much work either.</p>
<p>I just think that I had a hard time with the timing, too. The English I finished with about 20 minutes left to spare. I just thought too hard on each question for English, though. English is one of my best subjects but I kept second guessing myself and changing answers–dumb idea. The Science I thought was easy but yet I got a 24 on it too…</p>
<p>For English you can raise your score by a couple of points if you just remember: less is more, remove redundant words, and when there’s a question like “what word fits best here” pretend to remove the underlined word, reread the sentence and put a simple word that you think makes sense then look for a word that means the same thing.</p>
<p>For science, just read the graphs and ignore the intro text, they add a lot of information that’s unnecessary in the science section I’ve noticed, they just try to confuse you.</p>
<p>That’s what I usually do. See the only one I did study for was the English, I took an English practice test and got a 29. I just think when the test came around, I got a little nervous. Especially since English is the first section, it usually takes some time for me to really start paying attention.</p>
<p>yea, I have the polar opposite of that kind of, when it gets to reading i’m sick of sitting down for an hour and an half filling out answers.</p>
<p>I was pretty much in your same situation, but I managed to raise my score a LOT this past month, I was studying 3~ hours a day though (since I take calls at my store, have a lot of free time where I can work on studying) </p>
<p>You might want to try taking some practice test and timing them so you don’t get as nervous, that could help!</p>
<p>The thing with me, though, is that I HATE studying with a passion. I’m the type of person who rarely studies yet still gets high test scores in school. But when it comes to these standardized tests, they just freak me out because I know they’re so important… So this time I’m going to make sure I study… Or at least try; I need better studying skills.</p>
<p>haha yeah, I don’t think I studied at all last year of high school ( I was a freshmen ) What I Did was slowly start to study for like 30mins a day, i started by going to the study of my house, turn your phone off and just start reading/doing practice tests, I completely dreaded it the first week, but after that it became an habit, and now it isn’t even that bad… </p>
<p>Not sure what grade you’re going in to, but if you’re gonna be a junior you might be able to improve 4 points over the school year.</p>
<p>I took the exam in June now I’m going to be a senior so I have like 3 more tests left.</p>
<p>eh yea, you’re gonna want to study probably then.</p>
<p>at least you’re gonna graduate soon! 2 more years for me =/ </p>
<p>what colleges you want to attend?</p>
<p>American University, George Washington University, University of Richmond, Pepperdine, UC Santa Barbara, NYU.</p>
<p>ah gl getting your ACT up for those schools
NYU’s pretty cool, have been on campus a couple of times since i’ve got a friend there.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s the only thing that is bringing me down is my ACT score. I got the grades and the AP class and the EC’s just my 24 ACT… Which is why I want at least a 27-29.</p>
<p>went from 29 to 34… so not that difficult if u study</p>
<p>^You didn’t study when you got the 29, did you? I’m wondering because I got a 30 my first time without studying, and I really need to get it up to a 34. How exactly did you go about raising your score by that much?</p>
<p>I started around 30ish, now I’m around 33/34 after taking 9 practice tests. Not sure what to do now.</p>