Rising junior trying to raise ACT score

[Lindagaf]

My first thought is that you are repeatedly making the same types of mistakes over and over again. You don’t know what you are doing wrong, over and over. I know you don’t want a tutor, but maybe just a couple of sessions will help make a difference. A tutor can help you see where you are going wrong.

I suggest you look at this thread:

Common sense tips to help raise your SAT/ACT score

I’m a test prep tutor. One aspect of what I do is watching students during practice drills. I cover the verbal sections of the test, but much of this can apply to math on the SAT, or math and science on the ACT. Elimination is important. Get rid of two wrong answers. Think about why a remaining answer is wrong, rather than why it’s right. If you can’t think of why an answer is wrong, you’ve probably got the right answer. On both tests in all sections, questions generally progress from easy to medium to hard. An easy point is worth as much as a hard point. Don’t waste time on hard questions at the expense of easy ones. Don’t get hung up on questions that you are struggling with. For Reading, does a student spend too much time reading a passage? That’s a waste of time, because he has to go back and read a lot of the passage again anyway when he’s answering questions. Set a steady reading pace, using your pencil to force your eyes along, and aim to read a passage in under three m…

A LOT of a student’s test score is that a kid simply isn’t utilizing basic test skills.

I suggest you adjust your expectations for your eventual score. It’s going to be very difficult to raise all the other sub scores by enough points to give you a composite of 34. Also, spend time brushing up on your punctuation skills.