First off- I’m a high school senior who recently visited the college of my choice. I really enjoyed it and pretty much came to the conclusion I would like to go here. Here is my dilemma- they offered me 7,000 dollars a year for a merit based scholarship for my 29 ACT Score. I thought- hey that’s great. Until they told me that if I got a 33 I would receive a full ride- tuition, room & board, books, fees, etc.
Now when I got a 29 it was my first & only time taking the test. I didn’t study for it, didn’t take the prep course for it, nothing. I decided to just take a swing at it and see what I got. I was satisfied with my score & didn’t see the need to take it again. Yet now with a full ride on the line I’m questioning if it would be possible for me to get a 33. I’ve read online its very possible to go up 3-5 points, but the examples I’ve seen is with quite a bit lower scores. I’m willing to study, take a course, buy the practice materials,whatever it takes because honestly- a full ride is a life changing amount of money. The thought of my parents not carrying the burden of all that money makes me want to give it a shot.
What I am asking for is if anyone has any insight if gaining 4 points on the ACT is possible at this point. (My lowest subscores were in Math and English, which both I hadn’t taken in a year when I’d taken the test) I figured if I relearn math concepts and rules for english I could POSSIBLY get a 33. And if this were possible to increase this much, what would you recommend to use for studying purposes?
If anyone has any helpful advice on this that would be greatly appreciated. I’m not trying to get my hopes up, just considering giving it my very best shot.
My son is in a similar situation as you in that he needs 2 more points on his ACT to get a sizeable merit increase and opportunities for additional scholarships. He has taken an ACT prep course and learned some valuable strategies. 1. Answer all of the questions. Unlike the SAT , there are not penalties for getting an answer wrong, and by answering all the questions you have a 25% chance of getting it right. 2. Take lots of practice tests and make sure you time yourself . The time restriction is what causes a lot of problems for test takers. 3. Focus on the areas that you scored lowest on while studying. I hope that this helps. There are lots of study tests on line which would be a great place to start.
@julia161 Yes, you can move that score from a 29 to a 33! You must dedicate time everyday to study.
I want you to practice with REAL ACT tests. The 3rd edition of the Real ACT Book (Red Book) has 5 tests to get you started. They are old, but you will get a feel for most of the concepts. Then move on to released tests from 2013/2014/2015.
TIME each practice session to simulate the real test. Go someplace quiet, like the library.
English 75 questions in 45 min.
Math 60 questions in 60 min.
Reading 40 questions in 35 min.
Science 40 questions in 35 min
Score your test, and then review only what you got WRONG after each practice session.
I suggest the following schedule:
Take 1 section each week night/with review for 5 nights/week.
On Saturday and Sunday take a full ACT test/with review.
Hi! What school are you referencing? Is that scholarship guaranteed?
I’m sure you already know this but just taking the test again without any practice usually raises your score up by itself just by being familiar with it (even more so because you note that you didn’t practice). Not saying to completely ignore studying but if you try it again, you may find a dramatic increase in your score. In 9th grade, I took a practice ACT and got a 27. At the end of 10th grade, just by knowing the format and time issues, no studying, jumped to a 34 on the real ACT. Taking it one more time again without studying gave me a 35. I don’t mean to sound pretentious or anything but not just me but multiple people that I know have gotten big jumps doing nothing. Good luck and hope you get that full ride!
It is definitely possible!! Since math is one of your lower subscores, I recommend reviewing the math concepts most frequently tested. It’s been a few months since I took it, so my mind is kinda foggy on the specific concepts, but if you ask, I can try to remember by looking through my study stuff.
BTW for the English section, here’s my advice. One thing that was constantly keeping my score from being the best it could be was COMMAS. I would always overthink the comma questions-whether the sentence really needed a comma, or if they were just adding it there to test me. GAHH it annoyed me so much when I would second guess myself and get it wrong. So, what I did was I went on to PrepScholar and read their list of comma rules-when to add one, when not to add one, etc. It really helped me. I read their list the night before my test, took a practice test that night (might not be the best idea to take a practice test the night before, but worked for me lol), and using the info from prepscholar, I got a 36 in the English section. It also helped on the real test the next day. Got a 36 on that English too.
If you need any other tips just let me know and I’d be happy to help!
Here’s the link to the PrepScholar comma article.
http://blog.prepscholar.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-commas-for-the-act