<p>All month I've been anticipating on receiving my ACT score. I felt quite confident on the exam (although it was my first time) I was hoping for at least a 27 and this morning I simply woke up to a score report of a 20. In all honesty, a 20 is much lower than I've ever seen on CC or any where and I don't recall others scoring that low. I took an SAT course last year hoping to improve my score in May and I only received a 1480 :( Many people recommended that I try the ACT as a better alternative. As much as I would've like to prep for the ACT, I had a lot of stress on me as a student from New York with regents exams; there was almost no time to review. I know that I have a couple of chances to take the ACT again, but I feel that I will fail once again even with prep. I currently own the a Gruber's ACT and SAT review books which I find extremely helpful. In the fall I'm going to be a senior and I'm very worried about colleges now in terms of how my standardized test score will look. I plan on applying to schools like Penn State and Michigan State. Currently I have a GPA of 3.8 and some good extracurriculars, but my SAT or ACT scores are currently not in the ballpark for those schools. I also had my scores sent to a few of my desired schools and I very embarrassed. At this point I cannot cancel them. For the past 20 minutes I've been feeling very stressed and disappointed with myself. I don't know what to do, can someone help me, I strongly seek advice.</p>
<p>It’s okay just take the exam senior year with prep and do better. I suggest getting Barrons ACT and Princeton Review ACT. Then get the red book to practice. Good Luck!</p>
<p>I appreciate your advice, do you think that I can increase my score from a 20 to a 28 in a few months? Is it likely?</p>
<p>I hoped for a 28, but got a 22 :(</p>
<p>Sent from my HTC Glacier using CC App</p>
<p>
Yes, it’s harder to increase your score when you near 36 but easier at lower scores.</p>
<p>What’s the breakdown?</p>
<p>English: 21
Reading: 19
Math: 19
Science: 19</p>
<p>You could check out test option schools. Also, MSU is my safety, if you get up by like 3 points you could probably still get in.</p>
<p>Do a lot of practices for math. It’s really down to practice.</p>
<p>Reading is about how fast you read. </p>
<p>Science is where you need to practice reading from graphs and tables.</p>
<p>Thanks, I need all of the advice I can get.</p>
<p>I feel the exact same way. I don’t know how I did that poorly. I feel terrible.</p>
<p>I took a practice test and I got a 30. I got a 20 on the real thing. I can’t believe it. I just finished my sophomore year, so there’s still time for me to improve, right? Any advice?</p>
<p>Sorry to hear that you were disappointed. Of course you can improve! Being that you will be junior this fall, you’ll have more time than I will to review. Take advantage of your extra time by reviewing anywhere from 20 minutes to even an hour here and there. Don’t stress it too much though. You’ll reach your goal just like I plan on reaching mine!</p>
<p>MindonMars12: Thanks! I used Barron’s 36. Which prep book do you use?</p>
<p>Barron’s 36 is so hard but you scored so much lower on the actual thing? Did you find the actual test very hard?</p>
<p>@helloimchelsea, no problem 
</p>
<p>I use the Gruber’s Complete ACT Guide 2011. From what I’ve noticed not too many people use it or have heard of it. I never heard of it either, but after checking it out at barnes and nobles I thought that it was an excellent choice. I only skimmed through it these past few weeks, but now that my exams are over and summer is here, I’ll have way more time to look through it and actually review.</p>
<p>You shouldn’t have worried about the regents, the regents are a joke lol</p>
<p>I was never worried about the regents…The DOE decided to push one of our regents a year early so we had to learn 30 years of history in 15 days instead of 6 months. My teacher gave us almost 2 hours of extra homework a night as review; this took a lot of my ACT review away. Now that I will be a senior, I won’t have to take anymore regents exams and I will have more time to focus.</p>
<p>Some great schools allow you to omit your tests and submit an alternative material to back up your academics. Some schools include Worcester Polytechnic, Columbia, Lewis and Clark, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, Wheaton, and many others. Get the full list here:[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>Thanks for the list. I’m really gunning towards the schools I have compiled on my list so far such as:</p>
<p>Penn State University Park
Penn State Hazleton
Michigan State University
Purdue University </p>
<p>To meet the SAT requirements I would have to boost my score by about 300 points.</p>
<p>To meet the ACT requirements I would have to boost by score by about 7 points.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m from new York too it was still a joke of a test .</p>
<p>Good luck with the college search though</p>
<p>Thanks, yeah regents are a joke.</p>