<p>How does a busy high school student find the time to properly prepare for the ACT test? My daughter is very busy, and between her honors/AP classes, extracurricular activities, and normal life, time is very limited. She is going to take a prep class that will meet around 7 hours per week starting about 8 weeks before the test. Part of the reason she wants to take such an intensive course is that she feels it will literally force her to spend the time on the prep. She also wants to do some prep on her own and purchase some of the prep books out there to help her do so. What would be the best way for her to handle the prep on her own? Should she start now and devote an X number of hours a week to her own prep? Or should she wait until it gets closer to the test, and then focus any and all free time she has to the prep? Is the ACT test something that you can prepare for too early and then forget some of the material you learned in preparation to taking the test? Is it best to pace yourself and devote a few extra hours a week to ACT prep, or is it best to wait until a few weeks before the test and then really go over the material to make sure that it is fresh in your mind when taking the test? What is the best strategy to use when trying to prepare for this test? What are some of the strategies that have worked for you? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>It takes about 1 hour a day for about one week to get prepared for ACT. There is no need to do any more. there is nothing there to do for longer time. it makes sense to do focused prep, in section where prep. will make a difference. it is not possible to improve in reading section beyond getting familiar with format. the way one reads will not change in few weeks. So, use similar logic for other section to see what could be done to improve overall score. D. ended up preparing only for math - her strongest. The idea was to compensate for weak Reading section. it has worked. She got score that she needed on a first try and was accepted where she wanted to go.
And HS’ers are not that busy even the ones who do sports for few hours on a daily basis music, other EC’s. Not anyhow close to what waits for them in college where they still have to do tons of EC’s and taking care of themselves without mommy. Best wishes!</p>
<p>My D is taking the ACT Saturday. She has spent time taking practice tests to familiarize herself with the format/time issues. She has reviewed her grammar rules, it seems there is more of that type of question than on the SAT. The science portion is more about interpreting charts and data than science knowledge. My S ran out of time on his ACT science section, so practice with the clock will help. I wouldn’t advise starting too early, but my D has found she wished she did more before this week! She still needs some math review before Saturday. She spent time this summer prepping on her own for the SAT/PSAT with practice tests, so she has been doing some review all along. (Hoping to be one-and-done)</p>
<p>Feel compelled to add - sometimes those sports take more like 6 hours a day, with travel to away games, sitting through JV and Varsity games, and travel back to the school. No one HAS to do tons of ECs in college, both my older kids had much more free time in college than HS.</p>
<p>^6 hours every day is excessive, but my D. was dealing very well with 3 hrs on a daily basis including Saturday. However, her meets were taking more than 6 sometime and they were several day deals. If she had to study, then she would take stuff with her, but it was mostly for hotel stay, not during meet. they like socialize when they could. She could not do her sport at college, because then it would be about 5 - 6 hours with 2/day practices. She had too many various interests and had to maintain very high college GPA to be committed to sport. She used it for workouts though. In regard to “No one HAS to do tons of ECs in college” - if they paln to apply to grad. school, med. school and even go on in some business fields, good luck without EC’s. I know about only Med. School - no acceptance without EC’s, they do much more than at HS, not even close to HS.</p>
<p>Why do people refer to their sons and daughters as S and D? It seems so impersonal, I don’t like it, I don’t refer to my parents as M and D.</p>
<p>Anyways…</p>
<p>It all depends on how much your daughter (not D) wants to work. I do either a full practice test or half practice test every weekend. This is on top of AP/honors classes and playing tennis at least 4 times of week, and other activities. It certainly can be done, but it is a huge pain. Prep classes aren’t a bad idea, but I don’t know too much about them myself. If you seriously want to improve your scores, I would recommend starting a few weeks/months in advance, like your daughter is. My very first practice test I took I got a 31. I took the ACT a few weeks later after a bit of practice and got a 32. After working a ton since them, I am looking towards getting a 34(ish) on the upcoming test. I hope I helped!</p>