I got a 32 in the September session which isn’t amazing but isn’t horrible either. Here are the techniques I utilized:
BTW if you want a 30+ and are scoring in the 20s the golden number of practice tests to accomplish that for you is 15. Of course, you may need more or less but that is roughly a solid number.
English: read the all the grammar rules from websites like spark notes. The main things that people are confused about are the comma rules. BTW a secret that will earn you at least a point on every ACT you take: whenever you see dashes on the act, know that they always occur in pairs. For example, John Cena – the guy who thinks he is invisible – is an internet meme. Also, remember that with the ACT English, the goal of any change is to make the passage more concise. Know that even if longer, more elaborate words add more meaning to the sentence, the ACT wants you to give the shortest way of saying it that makes sense. Also, a tip that is helpful know the difference between would of (incorrect) and would have (correct). In short, the only way to really improve after you have read all the material is to drill yourself and CHECK MISTAKES.
Math: I struggle in Math as well. For math, understand the basics and focus on applying your base knowledge in creative ways (similar to how the act would ask them). Read and memorize all the equations of geometric shapes, conic sections, and etc. For math your prep should go two ways: one, learn the content. If you are scoring below a 30, you have lots of content gaps that need to be filled. That I think is kind of hard as it requires learning stuff from an outside source (tutor, books, teacher, friend). Second, you need to learn how to do the logic and application problems. These take a basic thing like Pythagorean theorem and turn it into a complicated multi-step mess. These kinds of problems can only be mastered by lots of practice and exposure to ACT math questions.
Reading: for reading there are two issues that can be resolved the same way: comprehension and speed. For both the answer is lots of practice. Before that, the first thing to realize is that on the ACT, you must NEVER make inferences. The answers are ALWAYS in the passage. And finally, there should always be a specific line or word in the text that leads you to your answer. Okay, back to practice. You need to drill yourself with unhealthy amounts of reading practice if you want to do well. The more you practice and CHECK YOUR ANSWERS, the more you start to understand the way the test makers think. Soon, you will start to know the right answer almost instantly. This brings us to speed. Practice will solve for speed issues. The more you practice, the better you get at skimming the passage and the faster you end up.
Science: for this you should mainly practice. That is really all there is to it. The more you practice, the better you get at reading trends and the faster you are able to comprehend and respond to tough questions.
General Takeaways:
- PRACTICE: I cannot stress this enough. The more you practice the higher your score goes up. Don’t use prep book questions, instead use legitimate ACT resources. The best website is c r a c k a c t . c o m. I put spaces cause I am not allowed to say that website name for some reason. The site has about 40 real ACT exams that have been released. You need to really finish as much as possible.
- Learn Math and English content. This is doable if you have a prep book, just read all the content review. There is a website called Magoosh.com that has a good math formula study guide.
- Learn strategies: the best website for that is prepscholar.com
