<p>I'm making this because I offered people to PM me asking for advice on how to raise their score, and I didn't expect so many messages. So I'll just thoroughly explain everything I did to raise my score 6 points in 8 months. Feel free to add on your methods as well!</p>
<p>September 2012: I was an entering Junior, and I decided to take my first-ever ACT (also this was my first standardized test in general - I had never taken an SAT either at this time). I went into this test as an academically-immature student. Let me explain; As a freshman and sophomore in highschool, I was an okay student, mostly A's, couple B's. I didn't really try though. I ended sophomore year with a 3.72 GPA. However, last summer I read this book which changed my perspective on everything in my life, and in a nutshell, I was determined to change who I was academically my Junior year. (I ended Junior year with a 3.93 GPA, btw). </p>
<p>So there's some context for the situation. So I took the September 2012 ACT and here's what I got -
28 Composite
English -29
(17),(13)
Math - 24
(14),(12),(12)
Reading - 32
(18),(15)
Science - 25
Essay - 8</p>
<p>Pretty ok/average scores. So now to raise them....
In June 2013 I got</p>
<p>34 Composite
36 English
(18),(18)
31 Math :(
(15),(16),(16)
34 Reading
(18),(16)
35 Science
Essay - 12</p>
<p>What did I do?
First of all, the main thing was my attention in school. I tried so hard every day my junior year; I took hard classes but made sure I would get the best grades I could possibly get. I learned so much this Junior year from just having a desire to succeed and learn. Just put in the work everyday in school and you WILL get better. Trust me, this was what MOST helped me in raising my score. But I did do some specific ACT and SAT practice and that's what I'll talk about next:</p>
<p>English: Buy an ACT book. Buy an SAT book. And start studying. There's only so much a person can ask you about grammar, and after taking so many practice tests and after a LOT of studying, you'll be able to know what to look for and you'll be able to much more easily identify sentence errors. If you're stuck on something, read it aloud. Usually if something doesn't sound right, it probably ISN'T right. The ACT is much more straightforward than the SAT. You have to train your mind to catch the repeated errors present on every single test, all of them just slightly nuanced and altered. But don't forget to work quickly - you have 75 questions on this section in a pretty short amount of time. Don't linger on a question because you're having some internal conflict about whether it's "the boy's ran" or "the boys ran". Go with what you know, and move on quickly.
Also, when you're studying and taking practice tests and you get something wrong on this section, look up WHY it's wrong (and I don't just mean the explanation in the back of your study book). I mean look up on Google the grammar rule for what you didn't understand. If you don't know where an apostrophe is placed in a word showing possession, look it up. This is KEY. Make up your own examples, challenge yourself. This method really helped me actually learn why it was wrong instead of merely hoping that I'll just 'catch it next time'. </p>
<p>Math - This was the hardest for me, partly due to my lack of interest in Algebra II, so I had to really make up for that by a lot of self-study. Make sure you take Pre-Cal!! A lot of people will disagree, but without that class I would have been completely dead on ACT math. Pay attention in your math class in school. There's trig, logs, and some funky functions on the ACT, so be sure you know all your properties and manipulations. Know how to distribute factors, condense logs, and comfortably use the law of Sines/Cosines. Stuff like that. Also, the ACT loves to disguise really easy problems by wording them in around 5 line-long word problems that just make you think "Crap. This is going to be a hard problem." Most of the time, 90% of it is extraneous information and it could easily be solved by drawing a picture or by simple intuition. For me, the hardest part was the time. I would have like 15 minutes left and be on question 40. The best way to fix this is simply to just practice a lot beforehand with the math - get as familiar and CONFIDENT as possible with the subject, and you'll be able to work much quicker. I studied for countless hours on SAT math, and I know this also helped out a lot with ACT. (I was able to raise my SAT math from 580 to 740. Maybe I'll make a post on that too!) You have to work efficiently on the Math section. If you're stuck on #14, you're over thinking it. Remember, they go up in difficulty, so if you're stuck on an early problem, you're probably missing something right in front of your face. This happened to me once on a test - I was stumped on around #25. I stared at it for maybe 3 minutes. So I marked it, came back 10 minutes later, and it was clear as day to me. Sometimes that's all you need: just to look at it again at a different time and the answer will be obvious to you.
The most accurate reflection of what's on the exam is the Red Book. If you can do all of those math practice exams, you're set for a really high score. I wouldn't even do my practice tests with a time limit, I would just go through them with unlimited time, but I would completely refrain from looking at the answers in the back until I was DONE. If I was stuck on a question, I wouldn't give up, I would stare at it until I got it. I've been stuck on some questions for days, and it's so much more rewarding when you figure it out without looking at the back of the book. But the most important thing about doing this is that now you KNOW how to do the problem, all on your own. You didn't get help from the book - you figured it out. You now learned something new, and you'll have that in your toolbag to take to the ACT that Saturday morning. Find more problems similar to the ones that give you the most trouble, and make sure you understand what you did incorrectly on the questions your got wrong. I had a barron's book that went really in depth with the math rules and specific examples, so it'd be a good idea to check one of those books out. Even though this was my lowest section score, I feel like I did all I could, so I am satisfied with my score. </p>
<p>Reading - I don't have much specifics to say on this one. You're going to hear everyone say "Read books, magazines, etc." If you're like me, you're not a big reader. Don't get me wrong, I've read my fair share of books, but I would rather spend my time doing other things, so don't bother will filling your life with books unnecessarily (Unless you love reading of course!). Anyways, I got a 32 on reading my first time, and ended with a 34 on reading this last time. The most important thing I would say is to take AP English Language. I had an amazing teacher, and this prepared me pretty freaking well for the ACT. I would hate taking the practice ACT tests for Reading simply because I found this the most boring. But still, I did it, and I'm glad I did put in the effort to take these practice tests. Some advice - time is really hard to manage on this one. Luckily, like 85% (or even more) of the questions are simple line reference questions and/or very basic inference questions. Almost everything can be justified by the text itself. Unlike the SAT which requires much more inference of 'what the author believes', the ACT just wants to know whether you understand the passage or not. Take a look for any direct line-reference questions ("In lines 12-13...."). Mark these on the passage itself for very quick and easy access. Then, skim the passage, getting the jist of what it's talking about. Make sure you have a general idea of what it's saying when you're done skimming it. Then go on to the questions; usually you'll have to read a little around where the question is talking about since you only skimmed it earlier. This method will save you so much time. Save the 'general' questions for last (the ones that usually start with "As a whole, the passage..." or "In general, this entire passage..."). If you've narrowed down one question to 2 or 3 answers, and you REALLY can't figure it out, mark it and come back later. Sometimes when you read it over 7 minutes later the answer is clear as day (this has happened to me countless times).
Lastly for reading, try to be as interested as possible with the passages. I once read a post on CC about the SAT CR section saying to just try to enrapture yourself in the passage, and this method truly worked for me. Try to enjoy what you're reading, as odd as that sounds.</p>
<p>Science - This seems to be the most hated section. This was my most improved section: 25 to 35. Pretty big difference.............
I have a method not many people use or agree with, but it worked for me. So most people will say that it's all about the graphs, and that by merely understanding the graphs/charts it's an easy section. I disagree. I think if you understand the graphs completely you could maybe score a 29-31, which is great, but wouldn't you like a 34+?
I firmly believe that the way to get a high score in science is to take a good Honors Biology and Chemistry class in high school (If you can, do AP! This is what I did). Having a solid foundation in science will make the ACT science section a breeze. Why do I say this? Because most of the graphs/charts that you'll see are from pretty important topics in these science courses, thus helping you understand them MUCH, MUCH quicker, which thus gives you more time for the questions. Plus, the ACT is starting to add in more questions that you can't simply infer from the charts or info they give you.
For example, there was once a question on a past test that gave you a balanced chemical reaction. Later in that section, there was a question giving you a separate unbalanced reaction, and asked to predict (using the molar ratios) what the ideal emission of Fluorine would be produced. Hel-lo, that's stoichiometry, a topic discussed in any honors chem class. Without knowledge of chemistry, I would have most likely gotten 2/6 right on this section. To a person that's never seen anything like that before, it would seem very difficult and even arcane, but to me, it was like a couple free points handed to me.
If you don't have a year to take these courses, then start practicing out of review books ASAP. The red book is fantastic at preparing for science. I felt Barron's was OK, some of it was kind of sketchy though. Also, what I did for a couple practice tests was to not have a time limit (like I did with math), and just try to fully understand what I was reading in the science sections. Take your time reading, making sure to fully understand what's going on.
On the real test, however, don't read every little word that they give you. Read the intro, take a glance (keyword: GLANCE) at the charts, and move on to the questions. Too many people try to completely understand everything the data is saying before they even look for what the questions are asking. You'll find that most of the time, the questions are focused usually on only one part of the experiment, and that you just wasted 8 precious minutes trying to fully understand some unnecessary information which was only put there to scare you. </p>
<p>Essay - Idk. AP English Lang to the rescue here. That class taught me everything I needed to know.</p>
<p>This is what worked for ME. Everyone is different. Try to find your own idiosyncratic methods that most effectively teach you how to learn. I feel though if you're willing to put in the effort, you can raise your score by a lot. Most importantly pay attention in SCHOOL! If you try hard in school and get good grades, chances are you're on the right track for a good score on the ACT. Don't give yourself the excuse that you're just a 'bad test taker'. Come on! You can do this. Remember, if these scores were easy to get, then everyone would be getting them. </p>
<p>Best prep books -
The Real ACT Prep Guide (Colloquially 'The Red Book')
Barron's ACT 36
PR Cracking the ACT (2013 edition)</p>