<p>Took my first ever practice ACT test for fun from the official 2011-2012 booklet I found online yesterday, good news is I got 32 composite (30E, 31M, 31R, 35S) without the slightest idea of the ACT testing format, bad news is I did it while being embarrassingly overtime for the Reading and Science section (had 10 questions left unanswered for each when the time expired). I plan on taking the ACT come September which gives me 2 months to prepare, do you think that is sufficient time to help improve my time? I know with practice, I will naturally improve but to what extent is the real question. It would be increeeddibblly helpful if someone else who was/is in the same boat as me could share his/her experience. Thanks!</p>
<p>bumppppppp</p>
<p>As someone who also struggled with the reading and science timing, all I can say is practice doing the sections under even stricter time constraints. For the Reading section, skim through the passages in around 3 minutes while still understanding the main idea and picking up details along the way, then work the questions. Do not focus on the passage too much, and read constantly outside of practice. For science, try not even reading the intro paragraphs for the passages and skip right to the questions and immediately looking for the info the question asks for in the tables and graphs. You may want to read the conflicting viewpoints passage though as it seems to be necessary. Again, just practice over and over again and try to make practicing almost like a game rather than a labor. Challenge yourself to get higher scores each time. And get used to the types of questions they tend to ask.</p>
<p>@gjstewart14: that’s great advice, thanks! If I may, how “bad” were you time-wise before sanctioning this type of practice regime on yourself? Anywayz, should I abide by your suggestions right away and assault the reading and science sections under strict time restraints knowing that I will fail miserably the first few times I try? Or do you think I should ease into it since I have plenty of time (2 months) to prepare? eg start with 9 minutes, get comfortable, then 8, 7 etc?</p>
<p>start at 9, go down at intervals of 30 seconds all the way to 7 mins. do a couple of sections for each interval</p>
<p>Yeah sorry I was kinda being vague because I’m really tired right now, but no you are absolutely right, ease your way into it. start off reducing the time limits by the minute. start from wherever you are now.
And in my experience my first reading score on practice was a 31 but I noticed I was pushing the time by about 3 minutes or more sometimes. The questions weren’t hard really, i would just get flustered by the time crunch. I scored a 33 reading on my actual tests in Feb and April and I am now hoping for a 34+ on this June test.
Science was worse. On my Feb and April test I scored a 30 and 31 respectively because I would try to read the passage intros in depth before I went to the questions, and then ended up guessing on a few at the end and being unsure about a few. Only on this June test did I not read the intros and I am expecting a 33+ on the Science. I did about 5 practice science sections before this June test and scored a 35/36 on all of them which gave me hope haha</p>