<p>Hey I just pulled a 36 in science on this September test. It was significantly easier than most science sections I have taken in the past, but nonetheless, a few strategies seem to work. </p>
<ol>
<li>DO NOT read the intros. its just a waste of your time.</li>
<li>Answer the questions in order as quickly as possible (goes by ascending difficulty)</li>
<li>Save the hardest passage for last (usually the arguing scientists)</li>
<li>Avoid stupid mistakes like misreading graphs throughout the section.</li>
</ol>
<p>Its not bad at all as long as you have time under control...so do what you can to improve on your time and you're set.</p>
<p>Well I didn't get a 36 but a did perform a 10 point jump from a 23 to a 33, the 23 came from the end of my sophomore year and the 33 came from the beginning of my junior year.
The absolute most important thing on the science is to not panic. In order to do this, i usually start with all the graph passages then the expirements and then the conflicting views. However, you just can't panic.</p>
<p>before you look at the answer choices, try to formulate your own answer first. that way, you can single out the "right" answer and weed out the wrong ones. this works 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the time</p>
<p>i totally agree with chet2006's advice on #4! i took a sample ACT and got a 26 in science (33/40 - super harsh curve). anyways, most - if not all - the qurestions i got wrong wre becasue i had misread the graphs. (eg i though the representation on a graph of large volcanic plumes was the small plume representation and vv).</p>
<p>I also got a 36 on science and I agree with all the advice from above. Don't read the passages unless you really need to. When you do read, skim like you would in the reading section. Best of luck to all!</p>
<p>I did the same thing as meow, I got a 29 the first time b/c I took too long reading the passages and the second time I tried the not reading strategy and got a 35. On practice tests before each time I took it I was getting all the science questions right, it was just the first time I took it I ran out of time because I took too long with it. Not reading the passages really works. And you also don't have to know physics really, just know what you learned in 8th grade with whatever physical science you may have covered.</p>
<p>I will be taking the ACT for the first time this month and recently I have been doing some of the practice tests online and in review books. On the practice tests I usually get all the questions right in the science section even though I don't really have a science background. It seems to me that you don't really need to know anything about science at all to answer these questions. It really is testing your comprehension of graphs and charts. Is that still correct for the actual test or are the practice tests generally easier than the actual test?</p>
<p>Sweetny, what you say you observed about the practice tests is quite true of the actual tests as well. Whether they are easier depends on the practice tests. If you are looking at the Real ACT Prep Guide, Preparing for the ACT, or a practice test on the ACT website, those are real, recently retired tests, so they are the same difficulty as the real tests. Practice tests from other companies are probably not real retired tests, and I've heard that some of them are easier but most of them are harder (for science, at least).</p>
<p>I like my strategy: after the test, whine about how the science is messed up and how you think you screwed it up but still have a shot at 36s in other sections. Then get test results, and see 35s in other topics, and the 36 in Science. Scratch head.</p>
<p>For charts/graphs section we should not read the passage, but what about for experiment sections/argument sections? What should we do for those?</p>
<p>I always found the argumentation ones the easiest by far. I did read those, then do the questions. Sometimes the questions were pretty specific, so it was worth the time getting all the details first. Although some people might browse the questions before they read. I think it's a matter of how much time you have and personal preference.</p>
<p>so i tried this method or whatever (dont read it)</p>
<p>not on the ACT though
It was in the Real ACT Prep BOOK (the really good one with a supposed 3 actual, OLD ACT's)</p>
<p>and i got a 35
I couldnt belive it.</p>
<p>I didnt even understand quite a bit of it(what i tried reading when looking for an answer) but all i had to do was feed back the answers
and i got a freakin 35</p>
<p>i havent even taken ACT or SAT yet, but im kinda stoked now that i got a 35</p>
<p>i suck at science...particularly labs....just copy them from friends.... but for some reason on the science i got a 34 ..didn't read the passages at all only like 1-2 because there was a question that you had to read the intro for to answer it.... so yeah</p>
<p>I think it DOES help to know the actual science concepts they are talking about. But not near as much as you would think. My math teacher always complains about the ACT is biased against people who are good at math, because in reality, science is just another reading section, only with a few graphs and other things in addition to plain text. So on the ACT, math is 1/4 of your score rather than 1/2 or now 1/3 on the SAT. That's his biased perspective, at least.</p>
<p>The science section is more about figuring stuff out rather than the science itself. I remember when I played around with the ACT my first time in 7th grade and got a 31 on the Science section without knowing what's going on behind it.</p>
<p>It tests your skills in reasoning. The idea is - look at it, and try to make a conclusion on the information. The science section is probably the easiest part on the ACTs as it's basically a test of logic.</p>