<p>I finished my Barron's practice tests and did one from The Red Book. I had heard that Barrons is tougher, but The Red Book seemed significantly easier. Almost too easy. I still generally sucked on science, but I went from the mid 20s in Barrons on reading to a 36 in The Red Book. I know these are actual ACT tests from the past, so I assume they are a good representation of what I will see on the real test?</p>
<p>Barron’s is much harder and the Red Book is nearly the same thing as what would be on an actual ACT test. I studied the red book for a week b4 the test and it helped a ton because of how similar the types of questions were.</p>
<p>What about difficulty of the PR book(s)? I’ve been going through it and I’ve been getting horribly frustrated and discouraged on some of the math. Literally gave up the last 10 questions and guessed them all. They say they include everything we need to know in their cracking act thing but literally half the stuff was not covered… how does PR compare to the other ones in terms of difficulty?</p>
<p>Because the ACT test has been so consistent over the years, it is best to prepare with the official ACT tests. On average the easy and medium level questions are more or less repeats of previous tests, or they are slight variations of past tests. </p>
<p>For example, here is an easy ACT math question that pretty much shows up on many real tests:</p>
<p>Q23(ACT 2005 December 63C): What is the midpoint of the line segment with end points (3, 5) and (-1, 3) in the standard (x, y) coordinate plane? </p>
<p>Q44(ACT 2005 June 61D): What is the midpoint of the line segment with end-points (3, 6) and (10, -24) in the standard (x, y) coordinate plane?</p>
<p>Q17(ACT 2013 December 71E): In the standard (x, y) coordinate plane, the point (2, -6) is the midpoint of the line segment with endpoints (-8, 8) and:</p>
<p>Q16(ACT 2012 June 70C): In the standard (x, y) coordinate plane, the coordinates of the endpoints of DM are (11, 3) and (17, 15). What is the y-coordinate of the midpoint of DM? </p>
<p>These four questions span the years from 2005 to 2013, there are other years too that this similar type of question was asked. But my main point is that at least for the easy/medium questions, most of them are repackaged old questions. Therefore, it makes sense to practice only with official ACT tests. For the harder questions, there are still overlaps from past tests, but the subtleties and changes are greater, but it is still advisable to practice and become familiar with past ACT tests. Plus when you take the real exam you will be a lot more comfortable with the language and style of the exam, and that helps in reducing stress. </p>
<p>Cheers.</p>
<p>We found the red book to be the best predictor of test results. Barron’s was tougher, and pr slightly tougher. I agree with the above. If you take 5 different past act tests you’ll see many of the concepts in math that you will need. Midpoint, Pythagorean theory, combinations, areas, etc. etc. for science and reading, it seems best to learn how to pace yourself. Most people run out of time on those sections. Personally, on the science, I would not read the passage but first go to the questions and then go back skimming the material to find the answer. Good luck!</p>
<p>The red book will most likely give you the most accurate prediction of your scores since it was created by ACT themselves.</p>
<p>As posted above, real ACT tests are the best predictor. I used PR to help me increase speed, especially in reading. I found the passages were longer than the test, so i had to read faster to finish.</p>