<p>I'm currently a sophomore and I recently took a practice ACT (w/o writing) test through my school. They said the test was a previously administered ACT test that was released by the people at ACT. I got my score back and was pretty disappointed to see my composite score to be only 25. I'm considered top 5% of my class and was at least expecting a 28 on my first try at a legitimate test. How can I get this score up significantly? and by how much do you think I can get it up?</p>
<p>Peterson’s The Real ACT, 3rd edition
Princeton Review’s Cracking the ACT, 2005
Barron’s ACT Math and Science Workbook, 2009
Barron’s ACT English, Reading, and Writing Workbook, 2008</p>
<p>what are your experiences with all of these?</p>
<p>I believe my strongest problem is the time and getting faster, and I would assume that with practice comes speed.</p>
<p>It’s certainly true that with practice comes speed, but only if you TIME YOURSELF AS PART OF YOUR PRACTICE. Seriously. Make sure you have a timer and keep track of how quickly you’re completing the questions so you can adjust your pace accordingly. That way your practice will prepare you for the pace of the test.</p>
<p>Reading is the big thing we need to worry about for you. </p>
<p>Reading it quite frankly the easiest section to gain major increases in. </p>
<p>And i suppose that because you’re a sophomore you’ve spent the last two years in english analyzing literature? </p>
<p>ACT reading is so much more straightforward than that and if you keep that in mind, never assume on the reading exam you should raise that considerably. ------</p>
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<p>Science will come with that, (never assume) always prove your answer before you circle, prove to yourself the answer of a question</p>
<p>Okay, so it seems that you lack a single strong suit.
This can be good, however. If you were to improve your scores, chances are that you would improve all of the areas and become a more well rounded student. Since you’re–sorry to break it to you–probably lacking in the area of innate intelligence that is necessary for a score in the 33-36 range, you are going to need to work hard to learn and understand the rules of the english language along with mathematics up to calculus (not including calculus). Truthfully, there is no reason anyone shouldn’t be able to score perfectly on the english and math sections. It takes practice. Just go to a math tutor or look online and just learn an practice everything you need to know. For english and/or reading improvement, simply read! However, you may find it useful to buy an english grammar/usage bookas well. (Be sure to read novels and books: you will never be able to get the rhetorical usage questions correct if you don’t.) Myself, I am very good at the science section. When I was younger all I would ever do was read up on and analyze sports’ statistics. I became very good at reading graphs and interpereting numbers presented to me in a formal fasion. Thus the best way to inprove your science section score, just like the others, is practice. (It doesn’t hurt to take interest into what you’re reading about as well.)</p>
<p>Personally I don’t think work will necessarily equal 36. It’s going to be hard to ask people for a method to increase your score by several points. Typically (not for all though), people will only improve a couple points at most on another test date. </p>
<p>But the thing about scores below 30 is that you may have gotten answers wrong because you didn’t know how to find the answers like in English or Math. If you do learn how to find them, there is a alrger potential for improvement.</p>
<p>I started with a 28 (No studying) at the end of sophomore year. My current highest is a 33 but I think I 36’d the most recent act. Work=36, as long as you’re motivated enough and have some intellectual prowess, then you can do it.</p>
<p>I took a practice one for the first time halfway through my sophomore year and got a 26 (first time seeing the test). I got a 32 on the April test and am expecting a 33+ this time around… with sufficient practice, you can definitely improve.</p>
<p>Excluding the diagnostic test, I do not recommend timing yourself at the beginning in order to get the accuracy down. </p>
<p>Once you have that down, then you can time yourself to get the speed down. Also, the more familiar you become with the test and its format, the faster that you will naturally get. </p>
<p>However, if you start timing yourself at the beginning, you can become so focused on time that you don’t get to familiarize yourself with the test and its content.</p>