I’ve been getting around 32-33 on the ACT English practice tests and after I analyzed my mistakes, I immediately knew how to solve some of them by my own. The answers are so obvious because I often misread/overlook some of them while I’m taking the tests. Any helpful strategies to raise my English score to a 36?
@Luigi66 I’ve been having the same problem. The past few English practice tests I’ve taken I miss exactly 5 questions. When I look over what I missed, I made the dumbest mistakes.
@luigi66 @TheFutureDoc16
It depends. How much time do you have left after you finish the questions? I mark the ones I overthought and go back to them later. Then I can usually force myself to find the most basic solution possible (the one with the least assumptions). Always pick the answer that’s most directly supported by the text. If they don’t mention just one part of one of the answers you think is right, don’t pick it. Also never change your answers unless you’re absolutely certain you have a good reason to. This strategy works for me, anyway.
@pineappledragon Thanks for the advice!
I am taking this next week. I heard the timing on this test is a bit harsh. Is this true? I feel like ACT should be reasonable with time lol. Any tips on Reading? Any skills I need to brush up extra on for Math/Science?
I took the April 2015 crack ACT test online and got a 32 (35 E, 32 M, 33 R, 27 S). Do you guys think I could get up to a 34 by this Saturday on real test?
this is my first time taking it. I’m a rising junior (just finished sophomore year)
@markj4994 you probably could if you fix your science score. I have the same problem too. If you improve your science by 6 points or so and improve 1 of your other sections by a point, you should be able to get a 34.
Does anyone have a good prep book they recommend for practice tests? It seems to be that for a lot of the books I buy, I’ve already done the test at some point.
@doctorgirl28 I reccomend only using Real ACT tests ^^ Because often tests that are not made by the ACT company are not accurate
@AllyssXx Yeah I got that book but I’ve read reviews online that most of the tests in there were tests in the older version of the book 
@markj4994 I second what another user said above, work on your science score. If I remember correctly, that particular test (April 2015) had a pretty difficult science section, so try another test just to see if that was a fluke score. Science scores are kind of tricky though; mine regularly fluctuates between a 25 and 32 lol.
Thanks for the advice. Today I took the 2013-2014 official ACT practice test and I got a 33 on english (down) and a 34 on math (up).
tomorrow I will do the reading and science and try to get 35 on reading and 33 on science to get 34 for this test. Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll do the crack ACT decemeber 2015 test. All of these are timed by section but not straight though.
do you guys think this is a good plan? what is a good way to boost science?
It seems like to boost science, you’d have to boost your speed if that’s an issue, comprehension, or recognition. You can boost recognition of the questions by practice tests so it seems like a solid plan.
@markj4994 Yeah, that seems like a solid plan. The more science sections you do, the easier it will seem and will then up your score. A lot of scoring high on the ACT is just getting comfortable with the format, timing, and question types. The April 2016 TIR is also floating around if you wanted to check that science section out.
Practice test experts: how many points should I deflate my composite from a practice test I took six months ago? I took 73C the week before the December 2015 test and scored the lowest I’ve ever scored (26C). I was so disappointed in that score that I never even looked back through the test. Today I decided to retest and scored the highest I ever have: 34C with 35E, 31M, 35R, 34S. I didn’t remember anything from math, faintly remembered some of the science passages, recognized some of the English passages, and remembered parts of the narrative and humanities passages. The only section I think it really helped me on was reading as I finished it with 3 minutes left, and I usually finish bubbling the last answer as the timer goes off. I remembered where the plot went with the two passages I mentioned so it might have been a little easier for me to follow. Should I actually feel good about this 34C or deflate it 2-3 points? I’ve made 31C on the past 3 practice tests I’ve taken (they were never taken previously though). The last of the 31C scores was a 31.25, so I was right on the verge of a 32.
I didn’t take this ACT, but I just wanted to know what you guys thought of the writing section. I heard that it got changed for this year, and I wanted to know how it was formatted and how easy/difficult it was. Thanks!
@jwn9917 I do the same thing and it just depends on how familiar it was to you like you were explaining. If you think you could’ve gotten a 34 if you’ve never seen any of the problems before then you could go with that. If not then you could go with 32-33 because that seems where your upward progression is going anyways. Awesome work!! 
@doctorgirl28 I believe the only differences are the Writing section, and that now one of the passages on the reading section is different. Still, I think that these tests most accurately reflect your strenghts and weakenesses. For example, on princeton review math tests I score a 29/30, while on Real ACT test I score 32/33.
@AllyssXx okay that makes sense, thanks!
Do you guys actually practice writing the essay? I’m having difficulty mustering up the discipline to do so…
So today I finished the 2013-2014 official ACT practice test. Science is still killing me from a 34!
Composite: 33
English: 33
Math: 34
Reading: 35
Science: 28 (up 1 from last time)
If I could just get science up to a 32-33 I would be good.