<p>This is for all the people who have earned a comp. score of 35/36. I currently have a 29, and I will be retaking it on Jun. 6. What is the best way to prepare during this time period? Best ways to prepare? Any other tips will be appreciated also!!</p>
<p>Study until you have no idea what to stuyd. Many people here are lazy when they ask these types of qestions. IF you’re willing to study, be my guest. As a freshman, i studied every day for a month and got a 32. If you’re motivated, you can bring it up. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>books (Princeton Review 1296 is probably the best. PR tests are hard, so don’t get discouraged.)</p>
<p>I am VERY willing to study. My only reason for starting this thread was to get advice that is not usually heard often. Sorry if I irked anybody.</p>
<p>I got a 34 so I’m not sure if I’m qualified to answer your question based on your criteria, but anyway, do the math section over and over again until you memorize how to do specific types of problems. If you internalize the formulas and techniques unique to these problems, you will save yourself time and grief on the actual math portion of the exam.</p>
<p>@Tsuchiya Your advice really helps, thanks! Math is my weak point, and I always seem to be runnIng out of time at the end. Hopefully this practice will do the trick :)</p>
<p>Last year, I had a situation similar to yours. I improved from a 29 to a 35 in about 4 months (February to June), so I assume I’m qualified to respond. I can’t truly tell you how to prepare, since individual strengths and weaknesses vary, but I can recommend a few general things. Practice tests can help greatly if you use them properly; try to understand exactly what you miss and keep your mistakes in mind on future tests. I lacked on Rhetorical Skills and thematic Reading questions, and I could only improve after determining how ACT wanted responses; you should pick up on misunderstandings and trends after a few tests. If your sections are balanced, you could probably benefit most from practice tests in all areas for timing and then build from your “mastered” results. If you’re weak in a certain area (i.e., math), you could probably ask your teachers for an older textbook or try to find a copy online (classzone.com is a good resource). You may even need to find a tutor (professionals often receive and take more practice tests than any student can access or any corporation can produce). Try need to keep a strong sleep schedule the week of the test, and try to plan to maximize sleep (I got 12 hours). Also, remember that schoolwork is a great way to prepare in itself, and you can easily improve from deriving a few more formulas or doing a few more labs. And finally, confidence is a major factor: being nervous is good (keeps you focused), but being scared could either benefit or detriment your results (depending on how well you test under pressure). </p>
<p>As a side note, don’t absolutely follow every suggestion I’ve presented. You may find a few study styles that help you (for example, skimming a reading passage and answering questions in eight minutes versus avidly reading the passage and answering questions in eight minutes); again, only you can determine your best options. You should, however, dabble in a few methods (some require more adjustment than others) before locking in a style, and shouldn’t overwhelm yourself with perfecting the test: if you fall a few questions short on test day, remember that there’s always next year.</p>
<p>I only got a 34 (34.25 technically, but a superscored 36)… but here’s my advice to improve every section anyways:</p>
<p>English: practice and catch on to trends. I dunno how easy this section is to improve b/c i got a 36 the first time.
Math: also relatively easy to improve. Barrons ACT 36 is really helpful for math (and somewhat for english). Learn the formulas and load them into your calculator to have in case you space out. practice, practice, practice, and when you get sick of it, practice some more. I did the 5 old Real ACT tests, 2 “preparing for the act booklets”, pr 1296, & the pr m/s wb. and then went back and did the math sections in all of them again. Brought a 31 to a 36. boom. just like that. also the kaplan m/s wbk is nice for concept review. they have a list at the end which is just about all you need to know.
reading: timing is key. timing comes from practice. thus, practice is key. this is the one section that can be most improved with practice!! do every practice test you can get your hands on. Did well the first time on this so I can’t really comment on ease of improvement, but the first practice test I took was like a … 28? but after 5 or so practice tests I was consistently scoring 34-36s.
science: Don’t read the passages. Practice old tests to get a gauge on timing. Also, find your personalized order of difficulty. For me, I leave the fighting scientists passage for last every single time. Even though I think it’s often harder over all, it’s a lot easier for me to get through under time pressure than data tables, experiments, and charts are…</p>
<p>good luck! If you put your mind to it, you can definitely score 33+. Anything above that is honestly just standard deviation of your luck (and careless errors), as I’ve found :)</p>
<p>Hope I helped!</p>
<p>Honestly, when people say that the ACT tests what you have learned as opposed to the SAT which tests your general critical thinking skills, they are right. I know this is not very helpful, but the best way is to just pay attention in school (if you have 2 months you should find a different strategy).</p>
<p>What I mean is for English, grammar is something you should know from school. For math, every problem is something you could do at some point in your life because you have learned all the concepts. Just be able to remember them beyond the final exam. Same for science, just remember (even vaguely) what things like pH, precipitates… are. Reading may be the one you can practice for.</p>
<p>In terms of how i prepared, I just took 3 practice tests to get used to the ACT’s format/what they tend to ask, because they follow patterns (i.e. 99% of times when there is a question in English about whether to omit the underline portion because of redundancy, the answer is always “omit the underlined portion”).</p>
<p>You don’t need to know any science for the science section. It’s a reading section with graphs and numbers. Knowing too much science might actually cause you to over think it.</p>
<p>In my opinion, practicing the timing is the most important thing you can do. You should have enough time to quickly consider each problem and never guess because of time pressure.</p>
<p>Nice strategies and tips. Do you know any tips for the Science section other than just not reading the passages? Thanks =D</p>
<p>You really only need to study for 3 sections: English and Math and (maybe essay?). The other 2 require innate ability.</p>
<p>Well so since this thread got bumped, might as well asked. </p>
<p>Hey OP what did you end up getting on your ACT?</p>
<p>you also need a bit of luck to get a 36 </p>
<p>i did so much practice and on the last two practice tests i got 36s but then i got sick right before the test and the math section was way harder than i thought it would be and i ended up with a 35</p>
<p>bumped again it seems. OP, what did you end up getting?</p>