<p>As I am reading through these threads, I see a lot of nervous students about the up and coming ACT in September/October. So to ease some nerves, I am calling previous test takers. Give us some feedback as how your scores turned out compare to your study plans. What books did you use? Share your scores before and after. THANKS A BUNCH!</p>
<p>bump!
I know I’d definitely appreciate that! I found myself in tears yesterday after seeing that I was using the wrong conversion chart for one of the tests in the red book and actually got a point lower than I thought. A general consensus on how real scores compared to practice scores would be helpful!</p>
<p>Alright, well I used the Princeton Review Cracking the ACT 2013 Edition. I read through some of their tips and took the online practice ACT. I received a 27. I did a few more practice problems. I did not spend a lot of time practicing. My mother kept nagging me on how I did not study enough. However, on the actual ACT I recieved a 33. What really helped me was that the practice test showed me the format of the ACT. Knowing the format made the actual test so much easier. I knew how many passages to expect, how many problems to expect, etc.</p>
<p>I used the PR 1296 book and another one I can’t remember. I just did a test section each day after school. It took less than an hour. I did that for about 2 weeks before the test. </p>
<p>I scored a 33 on the April test. My previous attempt in February with basically no prep was a 30. Knowing the format after the first test was helpful.</p>
<p>I found just doing a section test each day worked for me.</p>
<p>Anyone else? Your scores can really help us here :)</p>
<p>bump! (again =p)</p>
<p>My D used almost all prep books available (Barron, Kaplan, PR, Real, ACT36, McGraw Hills, etc) and did 20-30 practice tests. In the last 5 practice or so, she reached a very consistent composite score (within 1-2 point fluctuations in sections). Then she took the real test and scored the same composite score (with 1-2 point deviations in sections from practice).</p>
<p>when i took the practice tests in the official red book, i got 31’s-33’s. i never really tried, and wasn’t quite focused. but that heightened sense of alertness helps you perform carefully on the reat act test, and i got a 35 because of that!</p>
<p>Congrats Tiger. Hope everyone is the same :)</p>
<p>To billcsho- did your D take another ACT after that? If so, what else did she do? Sounded like she has exhausted all the prep materials.</p>
<p>@realchk:
No. She got 35 at her first (and only) attempt. She did most of the prep over the summer and then just one full practice (SAT or ACT) per week after school resumed. The whole preparation boosted her practice score by 4 points. You should treat the real test as your only attempt. Don’t waste money and time. You would find out if you are ready from the practice tests.</p>
<p>Good to hear that. My S is doing about the same thing. So far he scores 30-34 on the practice exams, quite a spread. He wants to get 34 when he takes it in September (hopefully first and only attempt :)) He has done PR and Kaplan. Barron’s is too depressing and McGraw Hill is too easy. He has a few more practice exams on hand. I am sure he will have done them all by Sept. if he doesn’t get what he wants, I don’t know what else he can do…</p>
<p>I hope I can get my practice test scores on the actual. I’d get a 31+, extremely nervous about the upcoming september test.</p>
<p>@realchk
There are a few more prep books available. There are also online practice too but I do not recommend those for timed practice. It would be fine for regular review/practice though. My D did not finish all the prep books but a few practice tests from each one. We got all those books from public library. Here is the list of books she used:</p>
<p>Gruber’s complete ACT guide
Barron’s ACT 36
Barron’s ACT
PR Cracking the ACT
The Real ACT
PR 1296 ACT questions
Kaplan ACT
McGraw Hills</p>
<p>I am not sure if I missed any one. There are at least 40-50 practice tests from these books and my D only did around half of them. If possible, don’t rely on just one or 2 books. They all have different strength and weakness. Barrons, Real, and PR would be the top choices though.</p>
<p>Gruber is ridiculously huge and redundant</p>
<p>Great, thanks for the tip. Gruber is sitting on the floor untouched! Since school band starts full time next Monday, we’ll see how far he can go. My S thinks he is ready but still wants more practice. Oh, did I mention PSAT? That’s another can of worms :)</p>
<p>I got the real act book a few days before (had to order from amazon, didn’t know the test date was so soon) so I just did one of the tests and then a section or two from the other tests and generally got in the low 35/high 34 range.</p>
<p>Come the actual act I got a 36 first time and high 35 (one away from another 36) the second time (had to take it for PSAE in Illinois)</p>
<p>If there’s one thing I recommend it’s to only do tests from the Real ACT/other past real tests. Otherwise, especially for reading, you won’t be able to pick up on what the ACT is looking for on the more subjective questions (though they do a fairly good job of having only concrete answers)</p>
<p>For PSAT, you just need to prep for SAT and then do a few PSAT practice to work on the timing. My D prepared for the SAT and ACT in parallel over the summer. PSAT is practically the same as SAT but shorter. You just need to adjust for the timing.</p>
<p>I got a 28,29 and 32 on the Real ACT practice tests, respectively to the order of the tests out of 5. I hope they are accurate.</p>
<p>^ If your practice score has not reached a consistent level yet, you should do more practice before taking the real test. There is probably still room for improvement.</p>
<p>Thanks billcsho. I agree. LOL that my son said this morning that he has done so many practice tests that they start to look the same now. </p>
<p>AznSkyDragon: my son’s scores go up too with each practice exam in the red book. I hope they are accurate too!</p>