I’m good on my reading and English scores, but had a little trouble with the science portion specifically (22 on it… ouch). There’s so much on a page to read at one time and it becomes overwhelming. How can I pick out information to figure out what I need to answer the questions?
Also, what are some tips for doing very well on the math section? I got a 24 last time on it (went into the test blind- it was more a practice run), and I would ideally want a 27-29 or maybe more. I am pretty good at math in general but for some reason I just think I had a hard time. I’ll be going into engineering, and that’s why I want to get it up.
I am going to start a plan that I found online (it was a 10 day strategy to getting a 32 on your ACT). It’s a 3-5 hour a day, 10 day plan, and luckily I have 20 days until my test. I’ve heard to just practice, practice, practice- especially with the time constraint. What things consistently pop up on the ACT math and science that I should make sure I know?
The thing about the math, to me at least, is that it is more of opening your mind. Honestly the best thing that you should do is, along with a lot of practice problems, take another full test but record everything. The test answers should tell what subsections certain questions belong to. From here, determine which areas need the most work and slowly knock them out. Since you only have 20 days, still plenty of time tho don’t worry, i would suggest going after the biggest areas first and then getting the smaller details. Same goes for other sections like english, reading, science…
On the science you say reading takes too much time. Practice on this as well. Take each question one by one and read the figures carefully- ESPECIALLY THE QUESTION AND THE LABELS ON THE FIGURES. Of course, you will have to be faster on the real test so don’t give yourself a false sense of security in practice. Not only will this help you get your answers, it will also prevent you from making simple mistakes (like me). Many science questions are simple: read the question, read the graph, answer the question. However, there are some that require you to read the entire passage and go back and forth between figures before you finally get your answer. One good thing is that each set of science questions belongs to a certain passage, so you can skip between different sets and come back.
You also don’t need to read everything for about 60% of the science questions.
Math:
Study basic trig, cos &sin, as well as Law of Sin and Law of Cosine. you’ll have at least 2-3 questions about the laws and a few more for the others. Still, that is enough to add a point or two.
Work on some probability and odds. at least 4 questions.
Basic functions; linear, quadratic, factoring, simplifying. -pretty good amount.
coordinate geometry- shapes and lines in coordinate planes.
Lines and angles- this is where it starts to separate between easy and hard. This is probably a major one but also a little harder to get.
Logs and exponents: just know the formula for logs to exponents and a few basic log functions. You probably only see about 2 but really all you have to do is use the formula. You could probably just put it in you calculator for reference. Yes there is not much but it is easy to get and you say engineering so i would assume that you have some previous experience with them before. also a free point.
Geometry- shapes and figures that will appear different that what you probably see at school. same as lines and angles
Complex numbers- only 1 question most likely. Should be easy though.
RATIOS: killed me. Still not the best at them. you will see a good few of these.
Circles- know basic formulas as you will see plenty of these. there will also be some hard ones…
inequalities.
You should be able to bump your score at least 3 by doing and understanding some of the simple ones. The best thing you could do is exposure (practice). I suggest you try to take a test every week and UNDERSTAND where you went wrong and STUDY that area. This will help a lot.
Good Luck… I can try to help you out on anything else.I’ll be taking mine again soon as well.
@NpHighTeK it’s okay! I think I did a lot better on my math portion specifically. I studied a lot and it all seemed to be easy on the test (which is both good yet terrifying… what if it was easy because I did poorly :)) ) I was consistently getting 29’s (and even got a 31) on the practice math tests so that was all okay. I think that the science portion is just a huge hit or miss at this point for me. It wasn’t even a timing thing… some of the graphs I just had a really hard time interpreting (especially the last one I had to do). The grammar/English portion has never been an issue for me, so, not too worried about that. With reading, sometimes the more abstract questions are harder for me because I think it’s all about interpretation, but I don’t think I did too badly at all. The writing portion, I think I structured it better than I did last time as per what people recommend for the ACT (i.e state my point, reference another argument, prove my point). I ran out of time and couldn’t write the conclusion that I would have liked but I got a sentence in. We’ll see I guess [-O<
@iwslontsat I ended up getting a 27 which wasn’t as high as I wanted but it’s good enough (esp for the college I’m trying to get into)
My scores were:
C:27
M:26
R:29
E:30
S:23 (this is what killed my score lol)
Hopefully they’ll be released soon