<p>hey guys,</p>
<p>I took the act for the first time in april...</p>
<p>got 36 on the math section, 34 english, and 22 on the FREAKEN science section.</p>
<p>I know that the science portion really tests your analytical skills...
but don't know how to improve my score.</p>
<p>I was half way through the science section when the proctor said "5 minutes" and kinda guessed on everything else.</p>
<p>help from experts please! what should I do to improve my score?</p>
<p>I totally agree with you. I've been taking practice tests, and while my other scores are all 30+, I get like 21-24 on the science section :( There's just too many questions and passages to read in 35 min! </p>
<p>So idk how to help you, but maybe you can take lots of practice science tests from the Real ACTs book and the Kaplan Quiz Bank here: <a href="http://www.kaptest.com/Kaplan/Article/College/ACT/Kaplan-Programs/Online-Programs/act-quizbank.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.kaptest.com/Kaplan/Article/College/ACT/Kaplan-Programs/Online-Programs/act-quizbank.html</a></p>
<p>i took my first ACT today and got 2 wrong on the science section. i followed the advice some other people gave me on here and just read the questions and looked at the tables/graphs. there's really no need to look at the passage.</p>
<p>What about the "2 points of view" ones? Isn't the whole thing like a reading passage??</p>
<p>my score on the act science was a 23- all my science practice tests were around there too-uhh. My tutor really did not help at all with the section telling me that i was on my own for that section-so i got the Princeton Review book and read through it like 5 times
i have taken 4 science practice tests after that and my score shot up to 27-29-try that out it is a really helpful book. i hope saturday's act goes well for me..</p>
<p>The two points of view shouldn't necessarily take long to read/skim since they're usually fairly short. The only thing I can suggest for that section is to try truly digest what each student is saying. Most of the questions ask you whether who would agree/disagree with what so if you truly can understand the main differences between the two people you should be good for that part.</p>
<p>Just do the questions... It's like critical reading without any vocab... </p>
<p>If you don't have enough time, practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>thank you guys for your replies. </p>
<p>but anyone with more specific advice and tips?</p>
<p>I'm working on that right now. I have it this saturday, and my highest science was an ugly 27.</p>
<p>I'll second that "practice, practice, practice"...and here is the strategy I would use to try to get a top score.</p>
<p>OK, you've got 40 questions to answer in 35 minutes, so that's 52.5 seconds per question. Throw in the time required to read/skim the material for each section (I think there are around seven) and you are down to approximately 30 seconds or so to spend on each individual question. </p>
<p>Try to work the problems that you find the easiest first - if graphs are your favorite then start there, if you like experiments, work those first, etc.</p>
<p>The challenge here is time management - if you spend 45 seconds on a specific question, just mark the best choice on the answer sheet and circle the question in the booklet. And then you move right on the next question - keep moving! Be sure that you have access to a watch, clock, etc. If you have enought time, review the circled questions and see if you can find the correct answer. And when you have one minute left, you need to be absolutely sure that you have bubbled in an answer for each question.</p>
<p>This strategy will give you a shot at each question. Hopefully you will have time to prepare sufficiently and develop your personal plan of attack, and the way to do that is "practice, practice, practice". Do that and you'll no longer fear this section.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Although I am practicing a lot, my scores are not going up. Are the Barrons tests harder than the real thing?</p>
<p>Barron's prep material is typically much more difficult than the actual exam.</p>
<p>a tip for scoring well on the science section would be to, at least for the experiments, not read the experiments, but go the questions directly. i know this sounds wierd, but the passages with experiments waste precious time and more than half of the questions do not involve answering questoins about the experiment. instead, they invovle understanding graphys, charts, and applying those learnings to new situatoins. for the oppossing view points, treat like a reading passage, but skim through it really fast. other than that, practice, pracitce, practice</p>
<p>P.S.- before i used this strategy, i was getting 26 and 27s, but now i am getting 29s on average and my highest (on a practice test) has been a 34.</p>
<p>You're right LAGator. I took a Barron's practice science test yesterday and got like a 21. Then today I took a "Real ACT" practice test and got a 33!! I also tried not reading the paragraphs, and looking at the questions first, which helps a lot. :)</p>
<p>There is always one section that has no graphs and charts. Do this section last. If you run out of time guess on this section. This will give you more time to answer the easy questions that involve looking up graphs and tables.</p>