How to Improve my ACT composite of 27 to 32!

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

<p>Hi guys,</p>

<p>I got my ACT scores today. </p>

<p>The score break down is:</p>

<p>Composite Score: 27
English 25
Mathematics 33
Reading 24
Science 26</p>

<p>MY GOAL:</p>

<p>Composite Score: 33
English 33
Mathematics 35
Reading 29
Science 33</p>

<p>My next and last attempt is Dec 11, 2010.</p>

<p>If I get this, I will be in the IVY League ZONE !!! MY DREAM! This is the primary thing that is restricting me of reaching my goal.</p>

<p>Please tell/guide me what to do. I have 32 days left.
Please give me a plan. Any crazy strategies, how to practice, what to study for my 32 day training. I NEED THIS. </p>

<p>THANKS IN ADVANCE !</p>

2

<p>haaha dude, i got the same situation as you. i got the score when i first started reviewing for ACT’s back in July…i thought i was gonna get a 33, cuz from the best of every subject, i was around a 33 range. however…</p>

<p>comp: 26
Math: 31 (34-35 range for practice test)
reading: 21 (25-30 range for practice test)
Eng: 25 (30ish range)
Science: 26 (THE ONLY SCORE THAT WAS CLOSE TO PRACTICE TEST!!)</p>

<p>my goal is a 33
math 36
eng 33
read 30
science 31</p>

<p>you know, its not that hard if you think about it. The question i asked myself today was : jimmy, seriously, this is not you, your practice test was better and you can do better. Give youself a mental boost. That is the most important factor. </p>

<p>Second, get all the testing material you can get. I am thinking about getting the online prep, i don’t know much about it, but i know its by the ACT makers and contains two real ACT tests, which are very valuable to this point. I dont know about you, but i have used up all the good material. So now im going for barron and kaplan or even doing some of the old stuff i did before.
Get these books if you have no already:</p>

<p>Kaplan 2010 (contains 4 practice testsin the book i believe)
Sparknotes 5 practice tests - very good resource
Mcgraw hill (a bit easier, but come on, its great practice)
Barron for ACT (its practice dude, even though its harder)Barron Math&Sci work book (really helps with math and sci)
Barron Eng & Reading (good practice)
and some online resources listed here:
<a href=“http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/preparing.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/preparing.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://services.vsac.org/wps/wcm/connect/09f3d2004a1f9f31930dfb71caf9b70b/preparingForTheAct_PracticeTest_09_10.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=09f3d2004a1f9f31930dfb71caf9b70b[/url]”>http://services.vsac.org/wps/wcm/connect/09f3d2004a1f9f31930dfb71caf9b70b/preparingForTheAct_PracticeTest_09_10.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=09f3d2004a1f9f31930dfb71caf9b70b&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.unioto.k12.oh.us/ACTpreparing.pdf[/url]”>http://www.unioto.k12.oh.us/ACTpreparing.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
<a href=“http://www.sdcoe.net/lret/avid/act/PreparingforACT.pdf[/url]”>http://www.sdcoe.net/lret/avid/act/PreparingforACT.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
[ACT</a> Practice Tests](<a href=“http://www.educationplanner.org/education_planner/preparing_article.asp?sponsor=2859&articleName=ACT_Practice_Tests]ACT”>http://www.educationplanner.org/education_planner/preparing_article.asp?sponsor=2859&articleName=ACT_Practice_Tests)</p>

<p>what i recommend doing for the next month, is to </p>

<p>English: its whether you screwed up, or you don’t know the basics of the english test, no matter what, give yourself a mental boost, review the english mechanics. I would suggest that everyweek, review and maybe do a section or two, and know your weakness</p>

<p>Math: are you asian? (hahaha) aim for a 36 man. constantly do practice tests, you probabaly have stupid mistakes, so just do like a load of them</p>

<p>Science: looks like your science is the same as mine, was your feeling like you knew alotta em but didnt know like 6-7, well that was me, and i guessed em, didnt get lucky. for science, you have to read fast, and do the easy ones first, and BRING A WATCH!!! my testing center did not let me use a timer so i kept looking at the big clock which was quite far away.</p>

<p>Reading: looks like this is your weakest. My advice is to practice speed reading. read two words at the same time. For me, im in AP WH so i do a lotta reading, i practice it a lot. So read whatever you can find, like times magazine, forbes, new york times, hard boring economics books, cuz that where they get all those sick reading articles from.</p>

<p>in general, every week, do two practice tests form the websites i gave you (those are the official practice test booklets for each year since like 5 years ago, they make a new one every two years.</p>

<p>MENTAL BOOST + PRACTICE + FAITH = GOAL!!</p>

<p>if you have any questions, just PM me. good luck my friend.</p>

3

<p>I need to boost mine from 24 to around 28-30</p>

<p>I’m a junior, hope i have enough time lol</p>

4

<p>jimyjim YOU ARE A NICE MOTIVATOR! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I WILL FOLLOW YOU STEP BY STEP! IF i do get a 33 :S i don’t know where you live but your going to get online props from me :blush: . haha :)</p>

5

<p>will start on the practice tests right away :)</p>

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<p>btw i south asian :wink: ahaha. i guess indians are okay in math to! def will aim for 36 :)</p>

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<p>James1G: of course you have enough time, just start doing it now!! do not wait until you are a senior like me!!!</p>

<p>Americanschools: haha thanks, good luck to you, im in China near hong kong.
well don’t follow me step by step :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: create your own ways too! find what kind of ways works for you to boost your scores.
but thanks for the comments again!</p>

8

<p>What do you think will be the most help? If I take a bunch of practice tests will that be sufficient? I feel like I need to know what I’m doing wrong, and a bunch of practice tests will just show me my score, not teach me how to do stuff haha</p>

<p>just kinda stressin, my 24 ****ed me off</p>

9

<p>come on man, i was aiming for a 33, thought i’d get a 29+ and saw a 26, and almost got into a Coma. I studied so hard for the last few month and this. BUt i know that i have the ability.
One: Ask yourself, do you have the ability, or do you need more knowledge. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. if you know you have the ability, u need to add faith and confidence. if you think u don’t, just read more of those books that teach you about like grammer, and math skills. For science and reading, its more of a practice practice practice thing. Math and english, just remember the formulas/rules. </p>

<p>Most help will be: do not get ****ed off after a practice test and u did bad, and just keep on doing the practice tests. I recommend you get out all the tests you’ve done and just look at your mistakes. ANd when you do a test, u see those questions you did wrong, just own it. (I like to write FU by the question :D) </p>

<p>Also, check out those books i listed up there, those are very helpful. Since ACT has not as many resources, get whatever you can get because it will help you no matter if its easier or harder!</p>

<p>Chill out, you have a year, look at my situation, i have a month! GOOD LUCK!</p>

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<p>Jimmy,</p>

<p>your plan will definetly be successful and I think its practical too. I wish us both luck :)</p>

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<p>Get the red book and do the practices. What helped me the most, I think, was not using time constraints when I practiced, especially for science. That way, I familiarized myself with the types of questions, and realized they weren’t that hard after all.</p>

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<p>I did the book once. I should do it again ? this time instead of doing time testing i should do quality testing ? like look deep into questions take time and then answer them : ?</p>

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<p>I don’t understand what you mean by “deep testing” that’s what it should be in the first place. You should be testing yourself, not glancing at the questions. That means, get a timer out and pretend it’s the real deal.</p>

<p>The ACT is (mostly) about the time crunch, so work quickly and accurately. The best way to work quickly and accurately is to be familiar with the types of questions they ask. The ACT is predictable. You only need to memorize a few English rules. You know how many trig questions you’ll get. You know what kind of passages are in reading, and what questions they ask. Science (while many say it is least predictable) has the same types of questions, and most of them are reading comp.</p>

<p>A book like Kaplan will give you a few good strategies.</p>

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<p>thnx man. i will get more resources. start today and should hopefully increase score by dec 11</p>

15

<p>great book…crash course for ACT in 10 days…really practical tips for taking the test, ds read 1 each day for 2 weeks then did practice problems in book day before…still waiting for scores from 10/23 date</p>

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<p>its all about confidence…</p>

<p>ive prolly done over 30 practice test and scored 30-32 on them then i took the real one and got a 26…then a 27… then i just said f this and relaxed and had confidence and got a 30.25 its really all about confidence</p>

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<p>Yea mindset and environment is really important… it helped raise my score by 3 pts lol. Anyway this September I got a 30 and I was shocked because during the summer I had been consistently getting 32+ on practice tests. Well when I look back on it, my testing environment pretty much sucked… there were like 20+ people in my room and I was also OVERconfident and way too nervous. Then this October, I had an extremely calm and cool mindset, knowing that I atleast had a 30 to land on. Additionally, my testing center was phenomenal as there were only like 10 kids in a fairly large room. For the first time ever I felt like a beast at reading(worst section) and ended up with ~3 minutes left. </p>

<p>So yea cliffs: don’t be OVERconfident but be calm, get a good night’s rest and make sure you have a comfortable testing site.</p>

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<p>ok so i got a 25 my frist time. then i spent about a solid month taking more than 3 complete practice tests… test day i was sure i was gonna get a 33+ turned out to be a 28… another month of preparing and killing myself…30… another month of killing myself… 30 again. at this time i was about to cry i was so ****ed off… i decided to give up on the act and say ■■■ it idc. luckilly my mom signed me up for another one without my knowledge i was so mad i said im not going to study at all. i went into test day without a care did all sections nonchalantly and boom 32! i was effing ecstatic. maybe its just the mindset that has to do w/testing all the times i tried i was all stressed out maybe the mindset is the most important thing. granted i did get up from a 25-30 by all test preparation. i guess that you should do the same. i suggest buying the real act guide form the act website. and the pearson success book its titled like 1000 act problems or something. that really helped boost my score. started 25 eng–31 eng, 28 math–35 math, 22 reading–31 reading, 26 science–31 science( i also got a 33 on it one time) so i guess i gotta say keep trying and itll help =D</p>

19

<p>An improvement from a 27 to a 32 in a month’s time span seems unlikely, but could be possible with studying. Maybe. Try the Official ACT book.</p>

<p>

Sleep and mindset are two of the most important things beyond what you know.</p>

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<p>actually i seemed to do better with like 5 hours of sleepp…i got home at 1 oclock the night before ( i guess the morning of) and i was tired so i didnt stress myself out</p>