<p>How much did you increase using that book? Please include previous and current composite score. Subscores would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Most people who use the Red book use it for practicing, not for strategies, since it the practice that is most similar to the actual test.</p>
<p>The Red Book is an excellent indicator of what you’ll get on the actual test, but there are only 3 tests. Save them until the very, very end, and start your practice elsewhere. The reason is that the questions on other practice tests have not been rigorously tested against a large group; my son found those others to contain occasional typos and other errors which made it impossible to correctly answer a couple questions. Sometimes those faked tests can be too hard or too easy or not balanced in the number of questions asked in each area, and the scoring curve is largely guesswork.</p>
<p>Of course these fake tests are fine for practice and for identifying weak areas to focus on, just consider the “error band” of those practice score results to be fairly large, as compared to the real test.</p>
<p>The Red Book tests, on the other hand, were spot on: my son took the 3 real former tests in the 2 weeks before his exam: 2 perfect 36’s and a rounded 36 (35.75 with a 35 in Reading). He got a perfect 36 on the actual exam (no flames, please!).</p>
<p>The ACT is an achievement test (unlike the tricky SAT) which is why hard work can take you farther in the ACT. However, the problem seems to be there are relatively few places to receive accurate ACT tests to practice with. For example, the College Board released the Official SAT Guide- which has 10 practice tests compared to the mere 3 practice tests ACT provides.</p>
<p>First test in FEB - 32 (36 E, 33 M, 29 R, 28 S). I took it cold, without any kind of prep whatsoever. </p>
<p>I did some moderate (but casual) preparation with the Red book and took the test again…</p>
<p>Second test in JUN - 35 (35 E, 35 M, 35 R, 36 S).</p>