<p>I've been taking a ton of practice tests. </p>
<p>First one:
E- 28
M-32
S-28
R-35</p>
<p>After practicing out of Barrons, I've now been getting on average
E-33
M-36
S-36
R-36</p>
<p>Practice makes perfect! I would reccomend using Barrons and McGraw Hill. Barrons is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. But if you master that, you can conquer anything!</p>
<p>Let us know how the real thing goes.</p>
<p>I hated Barrons... The book I used had tons of mistakes.</p>
<p>how is barrons extremely difficult?</p>
<p>Wait has anybody used "Barron's Pass Key for the ACT"? I've been doing their practice tests and I thnk they're real easy....but I'm not sure since I havne't taken the real thing or looked at the Real ACT book...</p>
<p>According to my D and her friends the ACT has become harder the last couple of years and the practice tests on the ACT web site and in the ACT prep book (all older retired tests) are easier than the real thing. The science especially seems to have become much harder according to many poster here. The science practice test on the web site is a bit of a joke in comparison.</p>
<p>She easily scored 35s and 36s on all the subjects on the practice tests but got a 32 on the June ACT with science being the only score not in the 30s - 29 I think. (her final one - yay). And she is good in science in real academic life!</p>
<p>Ok so glycerine19,
how long did it take you to make that much of an improvement in your scores and what prep. materials did you use?</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, so you mean that 2005 books (such as the Kaplan ones) are useless?</p>
<p>No they certainly help. My daughter used PR and the practice tests from the real ACT and did increase her scores. But she felt the practice tests were much easier than the real tests especially for science. (a lot of posters have commented on how hard the last few sciences have been). </p>
<p>Also, if you use PR, she did not like their 'tactics' for the reading section and got her lowest reading score ever following them. This last time she went back to her original way (reading the passages instead of trying to answer them by referring to the line numbers without reading the passages) and scored a 35.</p>
<p>no the real act prep book idk if it was easier (i no the online practice one was too easy)...but i used just the first test in the real act book and did awesome on the real one (when usually i didnt)</p>
<p>LuckMc, I used the first practice in the REAL ACT book too! And I got a 34 on it. Is that first practice test an accurate predictor of your score? Did you think it was easier or harder than the actual ACT??</p>
<p>well i think i did worse on the real act first practice test..idr what i got on it...maybe like 2-3 points under my actual score (well if its rounded then 2-3 points lower than on the actual test)</p>
<p>i wasnt really looking to see if it was accurate i just wanted to do a previous test by ACT...now i thought the actual act was harder..but it could've just been the curve which is what made my actual score like 2-3 points higher than what the first practice test in there told me</p>
<p>im sure if u got a 34..u should do amazing on the actual test lol (i got a 32 on the actual test)</p>