<p>So I am studying for the october ACT with my last score being a 33. I thought, since I am somewhat close, why not try to get the highest score possible.</p>
<p>So does anyone have any tips to get a 36, either in specific sections, or just the composite as a whole?</p>
<p>Get all the questions right.</p>
<p>whoa…I never thought of doing that!</p>
<p>I am sure I’ll get it now!</p>
<p>I bet you could make a lot of money as a tutor.</p>
<p>It’s extremely difficult to get a 36. If you are at a 33, then getting a 36 means getting a few more questions per section right. There is very little advice to be given here except to maintain your concentration and train of thought constant throughout the entire test.</p>
<p>A 33 isn’t very close to a 36. A 34 or 35 is plausible though.</p>
<p>^ at which point a 36 would be within reach…</p>
<p>Here is a few ideas that seemed to work for me:
Get an actual grammer book (grammer for dummies), rather than relying on the grammer sections of prep books. It not only improved my english score, but fixed my relatively poor grammer as well.
Program your calculator. Rather than spend time doing mundane, time-consuming tasks such as the distance formula, let your calculator do it for you. That way you can spend more time on the difficult and mentally challenging questions. Also review older concepts. I often found myself tripping on the simple geometry, while excelling at the trig.
I found the 5-6-7 method of Barron’s 36 very helpful for the science section. Do the sections with 5 questions first, then the sections with 6 questions, then the 7 question section. And keep your head in the game for this section, its at the end of the test when your brain tends to turn into mush.
There is really no quick fix for reading, but I would recommend doing the section you feel most comfortable with first. (Sometimes a really hard section will throw you off at the beginning.)
Practice tests!!! But be efficient. If you have a 36 or a 35 in one section, don’t devote time to it.
Usually your school library or the public library will have a nice selection of books to choose from.
Most importantly get sleep the night before, eat breakfast, bring snacks (something sugary and something with protein). Sometimes thats all its takes (in my case thats what did it.)</p>
<p>I got a 33 the first time I took the ACTs but then got a 36 the second time. I would say that the first thing to do is to buy their own book. Take all the tests and the major thing to keep in mind is that all the questions are in the text. Also, focus on the tests that you are weaker on! They aren’t out to trick you or make things confusing, unlike the SATs. You just have to train yourself to have superb time management and have good skimming picking-out info skills.</p>
<p>The math should be just like what you learn in school. Just memorize the equations that you have used till PreCalc.</p>
<p>Reading is extremely straight forward, the answers are always in the text so just practice skimming. Just watch out for time constraints. </p>
<p>For the writing, use a grammar textbook or even an SAT prep book. They work fine and just memorize the most important rules such as comma splicing, parallelism etc.</p>
<p>Science is also completely straightforward. Just know how to read graphs and interpret data.</p>
<p>And lastly, don’t stress! Keep calm so that your brain can work more efficiently.</p>
<p>@tvremote: I’m trying to get from a 33 to a 36 too. What books did you use?</p>
<p>Trying this to… I am bombing the science though. Any good books for the science section?</p>
<p>Well I used a lot of SAT books for the SATS (PR and Barron’s). They helped me a lot with the grammar section. Sparknotes does a decent job with the grammar too (for a quick review). </p>
<p>Other than that, I used the Official ACT book and the Barron’s. The ACT book gives tons of practice tests and the Barron’s does a good job in teaching you overall strategies.</p>