Hey all,
I just got back my September ACT score and I scored a composite of 30. My sub scores were: English 28 Math 33 Reading 28 Science 29. I felt like that I did the worst on the math but the scores came out the otherwise. I’m not sure how to approach my studying now. This was my first time taking the test and frankly, I was expecting a score of 32-34. I guess I was full of myself and I now need to study to attain that magical score of 34 this coming December! Please I need any help, any advisory. Thanks!
For English, make sure you study punctuation rules and purpose questions (usually the harder questions). For reading and science, make sure you finish and you should break 30. The latter two often involve much strategy, so read up on that and find which methods work for you.
@Hermit9 Thx for the reply. I usually score low 30s on my English practice tests. I guess the fact that English is my second language makes it bit more difficult. As for Reading and Science, I finished both right on time and I felt that I had gotten everything correct. But obviously that was not the case. I’m not really sure where I messed up, because I was confident that I got at lease 32+ on those two sections…
@clichescreenname Take a practice test in reading and science, timed. Your score may very well increase to 33+ in both. If it does not, go back and review which questions you were missing and correct those mistakes. You should be able to improve these sections with ease.
For English, you may have to study content more. Math is great, but study if you think there’s something to improve.
Oh, and you’re welcome!
I’m quite surprised that you thought you would score a 32-34 but then scored a 30. For me, pretty much all OFFICIAL ACT TESTS came in just as my September ACT scores did. The variance was extremely small. So to me, that seems like a red flag. I would try to understand why this discrepancy occurred. You went from missing a couple of questions per section to missing >5.
Let me add to @Hermit9’s great advice.
For English, I recommend Erica Meltzer’s ACT English Book (this is the only non-official ACT prep book I recommend). It covers everything you need to know to get a 33+ consistently. You can’t expect On the September ACT, I got a 35 English, and I credit that book for a lot of that score. As mentioned above, you need to know the advanced grammar rules (dashes, transitions, apostrophes, etc). The rhetorical questions are hard at first, but the book I mentioned has a great strategy for them.
The simple answer to math is to take challenging math classes at school. And use a TI84 Plus Silver Edition on the test-day.
Reading and science are subjective as to what the best approach is, so I cannot offer any real tips.
@golfcashoahu Thx for the reply. I would like to add that the day before the ACT, I took a practice one from the red ACT book and scored a 33 on it. After I saw my practice test score, I felt confident and thought that I was going to do well. Now I can see that the red ACT book is easier than the real ACT and that I probably shouldn’t use that to prep?