List of the best ACT prep books

<p>I saw this in the SAT forum, and figured it'd be good to have one for the ACT too.</p>

<p>So, which books most resemble the ACT and are the best to improve your scores? From my experience, these are among the best:</p>

<p>ACT for Brainiacs: It offers the hardest types of questions that appear on the ACT.</p>

<p>The Real ACT Prep Guide: Its from the makers of the ACT and uses real previous ACT tests.</p>

<p>i felt the writing part for ACT brainiacs was hard..do others feel the same way?</p>

<p>I would recomend Getting into the ACT. It was the book before the Real Act and contains two real full test and almost another full test in practice questions. Cracking the ACT because the strategies and tips our pretty good along with two similar tests to the real ones.</p>

<p>GOOD
The Real ACT Prep Guide: real tests, explanations, and tips
Princeton Review's Cracking the ACT: gives good thorough info on every subject</p>

<p>MODERATE/BAD
Kaplan: info is basic and questions/tests too easy
Barrons: too comprehensive and harder than the real thing</p>

<p>Princeton Review and McGraw Hills. McGraw-Hills are a easier than the real thing, but the format is very similar to the ACTs.</p>

<p>jclay2, does Getting into the Real ACT have the same practice tests as the new ACT book? I'm thinking of buying it but only if there aren't any repeats.</p>

<p>Getting into the ACT is totally different test. Plus The Real ACT has test with writing so it must be different</p>

<p>is Crash Course for the Act: The Last-minute Guide to Scoring High good for ACT Prep</p>

<p>Has anyone used the Vocab Rock? It's supposed to be some thing to help you study but it is set to music. I was wondering if it helped anyone or it it was jsut a waste of money.</p>

<p>countrylovin, just go to [url=<a href="http://www.freerice.com%5DFreeRice%5B/url"&gt;http://www.freerice.com]FreeRice[/url&lt;/a&gt;] to practice vocab. kind of fun, very useful, and for a good cause.</p>

<p>jclay, i have Getting into the ACT, it has two full-length tests including writing sections. I also have the Real ACT, all of those tests are different from the Getting into the ACT tests. As far as strategies, I think the ones in the Real ACT are better (or at least better explained and updated). It also explains the answers to all the questions in the practice tests, very nice.</p>

<p>i want to bump this thread because im curious as to how accurate the Real ACT book will be.</p>

<p>I'm currently prepping and I've taken all 3 practice tests in it now, getting 27, 28, and 29 (one question away from 30) in that order over about 6 weeks. My goal score for the real thing is at least 30 and im taking it twice in april (one mandated by state).</p>

<p>so my question is, how can i do this? should i bother getting books not published by the ACT (princeton review and such)? all i really want is more practice tests. what are you guys doing when you run out of Real tests?</p>

<p>What are you talking about…the harder the act practice…the better…think of it this way…if you play against college basketball players in the sixth grade, you learn to play better…thus leading to beasting with your own peers…its the same with Barrons…if you try your best on barrons and you are good…your set…if you fail badly…you can always say that its a harder book…all im sayin…the harder…the better…</p>

<p>just find a book that has “real practice tests.” the prep stuff is meaningless, learn the tendencies of the test makers by doing the practice tests. I did 2 practice ones from the “Real ACT Book” and did great on my ACT.</p>

<p>sparknotes has a free act prep study guide…good for a quick review</p>

<p>I would recommend Dissecting the ACT 2.0.
It tells you where you can go to get free real ACT test.</p>

<p>Ok so my goal is to get a 33 on the ACT. If I get around a 30 now w/no studying, if i get Princeton review for it and The Real ACT prep guide do you think i could go up?</p>

<p>Me, my twin sister, and my friend are all getting different books so we can swap and practice. </p>

<p>Which three are the best?</p>

<p>Princeton’s review: cracking the ACT. Anyone who’s taken a standardized exam, will recognize its obvious usefulness.</p>

<p>Okay so I think we should have a list of best ACT prep books. I’ll start.</p>

<p>The Real ACT Prep Guide</p>

<p>A very reliable and thorough book. Only problem I see is that it only has 3 practice tests.</p>

<p>Preparing for the ACT booklets</p>

<p>Good stuff but lacks explanation for answers.</p>

<p>Write recommendations for the following and more!</p>

<p>1,296 ACT Practice Questions by The Princeton Review
Cracking the ACT by The Princeton Review
Barron’s ACT
Barron’s ACT 36</p>

<p>if you score 30+ on a practice/real test, then use the Barrons 36 to fine tune your study and get a higher score. Barrons is harder than the real test so it helps you really know the material, but if your score is lower than 30 then don’t do the higher level practice, it won’t help.</p>