I just received my ACT scores from this month, and I received a composite score of 28. (34 E 21 M 32 R 24 S)
I struggle with the math section primarily because I am not in the accelerated math program in my high school, so I have not learned everything that’s covered on it yet. I also need to refresh my geometry skills and am mainly looking at my teacher’s online notes from last year. As for the science section, I simply did not understand two of the scenarios on it and spent a ridiculous time trying to comprehend what I was looking at, so I ended up guessing on half the questions. Overall, I am not gifted in mathematics nor the sciences.
I hope to score at least a composite score of 30 in February, and I am wondering if it possible for me to achieve my goal if I work on my math and science skills. I took the ACT for the first time in September and received a composite score of 25 (yikes). Other than being familiar with the structure of the ACT, I did not do any preparation for it and, as I previously mentioned, received a composite score of 28 this month.
If it is possible, I would love to know what are the best prep books/free resources out there for raising my overall score. I own both the ACT 36 and ACT Math and Science prep books and am wondering if anyone has raised their composite score as a result of using these, as well.
If anyone has been successful in significantly raising their composite score, I would also like to know how many hours you study (or studied) for the ACT as well as how many practice tests you take (or have taken).
Considering you didn’t study for content, and only went in to the test the first time familiar with the structure of the exam (also critical), any consistent studying you do at this point should help you to be more prepared. For a two point increase at the minimum, it should take at least a modicum of studying, which you will only now do.
I suggest a very focused strategy to maximize your return on study time invested:
Maximize your strengths. With minimal study and preparation, you may be able to raise your Reading score to the high 30’s. Taking English from 34 to 35/36 is more difficult since there’s little room for random mistakes. I’d concentrate on Reading. Also consider if you are using all the time allowed to review and catch mistakes in the English section…don’t rush…you excel in this area.
Don’t try to learn every topic covered in the Math and Science sections – be specific about where you believe you can gain proficiency before the Feb exam. For many “Math-challenged” students, Science is the place to make lots of improvement because they find it easier to learn the types of questions and not get intimidated by Geometry!
Don’t get overwhelmed…you really don’t need that much to get to a 30C. If you can gain +3 in English/Reading combined, and gain +4 in Math/Science combined, you’ll have a 30C.
Given you got 21 in M, to increase to 25 is manageable… here is what I learned from prep scholar …basically you are not aiming to do every problem and get them right, to get to 25, you need about 40 problems correct, focus on the them and make sure they are correct. One of my kids is weak in Math, I asked her to aim at getting about 30 problems correct and increase one at a time, and guess the rest. She told me it was manageable and even told me how she guessed the balance of the problems. She got 24 and 25 in her last two tests.
I think you definitely could, you should have to devote a lot of time to study and preparing for the test. I would hone in on your strengths (your english and reading which are outstanding) and work slowly on the science and math, trying to make little advancements.
For English, you can only refine your skills by taking practice tests and really analyzing your mistakes on each and every practice test (for more details on how to effectively do that, message me).
For Math, there’s two possible routes you can take: the easy way and the 36 way. It totally depends on what you want on your math. If you could care less about getting a 30+ on math alone go the easy way. If you want your overall composite to jump, aim for a 36. The easy way includes aiming your focus on the first 40/ first 50. Forget about the last ten because those are usually the hardest. This way you can maximize your time in the easy/medium difficulty questions and get them right consistently. The 36 way means intense memorization and content studying followed by slow and high volume practice tests, in which you critically analyze and learn from your mistakes as you make them. This would really making your score slowly increase. (for more tips, message me).
For Reading, your scores is awesome and I’d follow the same advice for English. Some specific prep books may be extremely helpful.
For Science, your score should be pretty easily brought up, I think you’re approaching it the wrong way. I went from a 25 to a 33 in my science by solely changing my approach. It really is nothing more than a reading test and I would strongly recommend not reading the passages first and instead just go straight to the questions. Read them slowly and underline what the question is asking. Also practice, practice, practice!
If you work hard and study as much as you can you’ll be completely fine.
It is possible indeed to raise your score two points. They say it is easier to bring a score from the 20’s up to a 30 than it is to bring a score (for example) from something like a 33 to a 34, because a question can make all the difference, but that’s not the case for you.
You do very well in English, so keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re not pressed for time, circle problems you’re unsure of and go back to them later - but a 34 means you’re only getting about 2 or 3 wrong, so that’s great.
Math is your weakest, obviously. Here are the facts about it. Problems 1-20 are the easiest, 20-40 are harder, 40-60 are the hardest. So if you’re struggling in math because you don’t do high level math, don’t even try to get to problems 50-60. Accept that you’re not going to even see those problems and instead work on getting 1-45 right. This will give you about a minute thirty per problem. Like someone else said, you only need about 40 right to get a 25 which is enough to bring up the composite.
Reading is good. The important thing to take from your reading score is that you’re fast, which means that science score is an anomaly.
All the science section really is is another reading test. You don’t need to know any kind of science except the most basic stuff. You need to know how to read and interpret information - that’s literally it. So for science, it may also be that you don’t get to the last passage and that’s okay. If you get all the other questions right then that will make your score high enough. Don’t do what others said and read the questions first. Science questions build off of each other so that the first question’s answer may be needed to answer the fifth question in the sequence. So spend about 2 minutes reading the passage, underlining important information. Don’t worry about understanding the content, just understand what the graphs are displaying. Then go to the questions and answer them in order.
Thank you all for the detailed replies. I really appreciate them.
I scored a 27 on the science section in September, so I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself ~that~ weak in it. The questions on the December ACT were just a lot harder this time.