<p>I got a 36 on the ACT and did no specific prep for it other than one practice test the night before. My theory was "you either know it or you don't," but understandably few people live by this rule. My point is, how common is it to get a top score without studying? What scores did y'all get and how much did you study? </p>
<p>I'm also kind of curious to know how people's higher test scores correspond to their favorite subjects? I'm a no-nonsense, math and science kind of girl and I did better on the ACT; my SATs were in the 1900s.</p>
<p>Well, I did not get a 36 (congrats to you!) but I did do pretty well on the ACT without any prep. I took it twice, first sitting (barely even knew the format/how the test worked) I got a 29, second time (with absolutely NO prep in between), I got a 31, and together they superscored to a 32. Needless to say I am DONE testing :)</p>
<p>My SAT score was lower too. I got an 1800 even after taking the PSAT (191).</p>
<p>My kid got a 35 with the same amount of prep you did (she did one of each type of section just to see what it was like). One of her friends did the same. So not perfect, but pretty close. She took the SAT twice and ended up with a superscore of 2380. She is good at everything except foreign languages. :)</p>
<p>I got a 32 when I took it in April and I planned on studying but ended up not because my junior year courses were just doling out homework like it was no ones business. I’m going to retake it after I actually learn grammar rules my English score was a 29 </p>
<p>I never understood why you would take it without studying in the first place - I’d imagine practicing would help with the timing and format, along with little quirks of the ACT.</p>
<p>For the second question, I’ve always been a STEM person, but I only got a 35 on Math and a 36 on the other three sections. Worse yet, the subsection I lost a point on was Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra. Funny how the easiest section is the only one I lost points on.</p>
<p>I took a practice ACT for the first time and got a 35 (36 E/W, 35 M, 32 R, 36 S). My SATs have been hovering around the 2000s to 2100s, so I was quite surprised when I got this score. I found SAT math to be way easier, though, and the ACT test overall is so much more tedious than the SAT. But hey, I’ll take a better score!</p>
<p>I honestly cannot tell you why exactly I did not study. It was part laziness; part genuine belief that if I knew the grammar rules, mathematical concepts, how to read scientific language, etc there wasn’t much else that extensive studying beyond a test or two would do; and part taking a stand on the practice of studying specifically for tests that are supposed to test our natural aptitude and not how much money and time we devoted to prep materials.</p>
<p>The one practice test I did take did help tremendously as far as formatting goes. I went at least thirty minutes over on the science section so I learned to go fast on that section, and I figured out what the other sections were asking for.</p>
<p>I’m still not entirely clear on what you mean by “study.” If you mean study the topics, then yeah, assuming you have the knowledge in place, that’s unnecessary. But I did take some free practice tests that my school provided just to get the format and timing down.</p>
<p>I took the ACT with a relaxed mindset since I already decided on taking the SAT and our school offered the ACT for free. I got above a 30, but I did take some tests in the red book if that counts as studying. How people read long passages in 2-3 minutes while picking out fine details is beyond me. </p>
<p>@humbugs A tip that helped me a lot on the reading section was to read the first paragraph, the first sentence of every body paragraph, and the last paragraph. This will give you the mood and the main concepts. You can always go back and look for the specifics once you are on the questions. My reading score went from a 26 to a 35</p>
<p>It depends on how your mind works. My mind condenses the main ideas of any passage or conversation (I can usually summarize things in a sentence or two) and it’s hard for me to understand how some people CAN’T do this. On the other hand, this makes it really hard for me to write introductions and conclusions and sometimes to reach word minimums because I cannot fluff things out.</p>
<p>My sister is the opposite. When she takes five minutes to convey a simple message I am screaming on the inside. I would assume that most people are somewhere in the middle of the spectrum though.</p>
I got a 36 without studying at all (not smart, I know). I was so unprepared, I found out the night before that the ACT had a science section! That week I was horribly tired and busy, classes were drowning me with homework, I was finishing the last ends of my eagle project, I was doing some training for my summer job, etc. So to why somebody would go without studying, I had alot I had to do and because of that studying was not a priority and got passed over.
After taking the PSAT and getting a 1440, then taking the SAT in March (I think I did worse, but I KNEW I could do better) I was totally betting on the SAT. I struggled with the No Calculator math section but I trusted that, with more preparation, I could retest and do really well senior year.
I only took the ACT cause my school forces juniors to take both. Just rolled out of bed and showed up without studying. Scored a 36 composite.