<p>Yea, I know there are a bunch of threads about this already but I like some fresh input. I took the April ACT and scored a 31. I was expecting a 32 but I flopped on the science. I am looking at some relatively competitive but not ivy-caliber schools like UCD, Illinois-UC and Wisconsin-Madison. I'll be a 4.0 uw student assuming I don't get killed on finals next week. </p>
<p>My English and Reading were very high and I'm a little upset that the reading curve gave my -1 a 34. English was 33, Math was 29, and Science was an ugly 27. 9 on the writing.</p>
<p>I'm surprised I didn't do better on the English, all things considered. But Math and Science are the things I <em>need</em> to bring up. </p>
<p>So, let's say, I wanted to jump from 97th percentile to 99th--doable? (A 34 sounds delightful.) How much work should I be doing and what are the best strategies for someone once they reach a certain point that their score depends more on answering a question with an educated guess rather than a knowing the "rules"? </p>
<p>Once summer starts, I'm switching to raging, fanatical, boss-man mode. "I wanna know this test inside and out! I wanna be able to cogently define every word on the test, the rules sheet and the poster in the front of the room within seconds after reading it! I wanna get a 36 on every MC section with 10 minutes to spare and I want every scratch of my pencil on the writing portion to be a stroke of genius that could bring Milton, Dante and Virgil to tears!"</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for any help you can offer! So, lemme know, can I go from 31 to 34+ in a summer?</p>
<p>Lol, I could have written this thread. I am in exactly the same situation as you my friend. Exactly the same. We’ll do this together haha</p>
<p>Really? Same schools and everything? Well, good luck, man. Yea, I’m surprised, and a little worried, by the fact that no one else seems to have accomplished this. A 31 isn’t bad, but I <em>know</em> I can get 99th percentile. I have in the past. Oh well, I probably just wrote too much. Lol</p>
<p>Nah, I know what you mean. For math, I still haven’t found an effective study strategy. I studied for hours and hours for SAT math and dropped 20 points.
And for science, I’m just gonna do lots of practice questions. Really, what else is there to do?</p>
<p>Hmm, yea, for me, it seems like I have on and off days when it comes to math-- strange phenomenon, really. I’m talking math in general, not necessarily ACT/SAT problems. Some days if you put a problem in front of me, I’ll get it right away. Other times, I’ll have no idea. The only thing I’ve heard to do is work and rework problems for practice rather than just study relationships. Otherwise, people just say “practice” or whatever. For Science, I usually have no problem with it, I’ve broken 30 plenty of times on practice tests etc. I don’t really know what happened with the April one. I’ve heard to start on the last Science section first and work backwards to the easiest, so maybe I’ll try that next time. If any lurkers can offer further advice/comments, it would be appreciated!</p>
<p>I have the exact same composite score as you Wiscongene. It’s just that my Math was higher but my science was the same as yours.</p>
<p>I am simply doing all the studying I can. Getting the red book, 1297 ACT practice questions and the like.</p>
<p>Join the club, man! Haha. I dunno, I feel like a 31 will be ok at Illinois and Wisconsin for just getting in (i.e without scholarships) but I really want to make myself competitive at some of the lesser UCs that I dig. Are you both planning on taking the September one?</p>
<p>Yes, September date. And I have the same problem with math- it’s like Russian roulette when it comes to either SAT or ACT math sections.</p>
<p>Ohmygosh! Same exact situation. April score: Composite 31(Reading 34, English 34, Math 30, and science 27). Crazy. I have no idea how to prepare now.</p>
<p>Ahh, i got a 27 on the ACT in april, gonna do the same boss thing you said! Haha, I wanna know that test inside and out, i wanna make that test BLEED! Haha. I’m taking it again in september and I’m just gonna do practice test after practice test. I ordered mcgraw-hill’s 10 ACT practice tests, princeton reviews crash course for ACT I’m gonna also read the red book cover to cover over the summer. 15 practice tests total!!!</p>
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<p>There is a limit to how well one can improve within the top 1-3% simply by using brute force. Consider this a game: the ACT-Adversary wants you to rush and get sloppy or get bogged down and not finish. YOU want to think out of the box and find shortcuts wherever possible.</p>
<p>In the science section, you are given lots of stuff to read that you don’t really need, it’s just a distraction to slow you down. Read the questions first, find the appropriate graphs and only go back to the longer blocks of text when you absolutely have to.</p>
<p>Math is a bit different. Of course you need to know how to solve each type of question; if you’re getting a lot of trig questions wrong, you’ll need to review trig first to ace the math section.</p>
<p>Beyond that, you need to remember that you don’t ever need to SOLVE a problem, you just need to FIND the solution from among the answers given. Sometimes you can estimate the answer by using rounded numbers and eliminating anything that falls outside the possible range. Sometimes you can plug an answer into the problem and see if it works. </p>
<p>Often you will find a series of answers with similar-looking numbers except for one variable like a square root sign or one is positive and the other is negative. These are provided to trap the person who uses brute force and makes a small calculation mistake. Often there are two pairs of similar answers – the one answer with the most elements in common is nearly always the correct answer. This is so close to a sure thing, I’d recommend that you just circle the answer with the mutually overlapping elements and skip to the next problem. Return to work it out manually if time permits, but otherwise just go with the odds-on favorite and invest your limited time elsewhere first.</p>
<p>Sometimes you will get a multiple variable problem where you think you need to solve for x to find y and then find the answer. But there’s usually a way to simply solve for x + y or xy without ever knowing the individual values. There may be a substitution method or try plugin in the answers.</p>
<p>Finally, if you think you need to use a calculator, you probably didn’t look for the back-door method. The test is DESIGNED to get you to waste time with your calculator. Yes, you can get a 36 in math without ever touching a calculator.</p>
<p>You can also try ACT Online Prep.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips, LoremIpsum! I think you’re right in that even a master mathematician or English buff will find that they got a couple wrong in those sections just because they worried more about memorizing the rules than on being a smart test taker. I figure now that school’s out (got all my finals back today, 4.0 uw career GPA going into applying for colleges this fall - “MAJOR LEAGUE!” :D), I’ll take a few practice tests trying different strategies, read the ones I get wrong and beat the formulas for Math and rules for English into my brain. Science is usually hit or miss so I wish I had a better way to study for it than to just do tests over and over but it could be a confidence thing. </p>
<p>It sucks that having a low 30, or even a high 20, is almost shameful by these forums’ standards. </p>
<p>Is it just me, or is the hardest part of getting motivated to study the fact that it’s kind of hard to improve on 97th percentile? Makes me wonder if it’ll be worth it. I have to remind myself that it will be.</p>
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<p>What sucks is how competitive college admission has become to the top-20 or 25 schools. It used to be – just 2-3 years back – when you could get into a school like Northwestern by being a stellar if not totally perfect student. Today NU’s acceptance rate has dropped from 27% to 18% and is apparently heading lower. ONE lone attribute, such as not being able to ace a standardized test, can now hold you back, despite perfect grades, EC leadership, and dedicate community service. On the other hand, you can ace the ACT or SAT and still not get accepted due to some other weak area.</p>
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<p>Don’t get hung up on the percentile! I don’t think it’s all that much harder to improve a 31 with practice than it is to improve anything else other than a 35, where it really comes down to the last 3 or so tough questions and a bit 'o luck that you’ll know them and won’t misread them or make some other sloppy mistake.</p>
<p>The ACT is not HARD; there is just a lot to remember all at once. Think of it like a final exam, except that the exam covers 4 subjects and 2-3 years of material. If you took the test and got 90%, then went home and practiced and took a re-test, why should it be that much harder to get a 92-93% the next time around? Your old skills haven’t suddenly left you and you added a few new skills or tricks.</p>
<p>Confidence is key! You need to be in that confident zen mindset called “the zone” when you retake the test. Remember, there’s NO DOWNSIDE! You’ve already banked a solid score, it can only get better.</p>
<p>I was thinking of ordering the Red Book, obviously, and Barrons 36 - does anyone know anything about the latter? Is it decent for chipping away at an already decent score?</p>
<p>Barrons 36 is harder than the real test. But if you can do the Barrons 36, then the real test will seem easy. However, if you can’t it makes you feel stupid.</p>