I’ve been studying for the ACT for the past month. I purchased GreenTestPrep and I’ve been following the advice given there as well as on PrepScholar and the Princeton Review workbook.
My first practice test ever about a month ago was a 29 composite and having completed about 5 practice tests and having followed just about all the studying tips online my score hasn’t improved (in fact my most recent test was a 27).
Looking online it seems that everyone is making huge improvements (apparently going up like 6-10 points) but seems like no one is in my situation where my mark is actually declining or staying similar.
Really interested in knowing if anyone has any advice or has been in a similar situation. Am I missing something??
Try the ACT Prep Book (Red) i took a practice test and my score improved from 27-29 and I’m taking another one tomorrow looking to get a 32. The explanations are detailed for the test and it gives you specific Stragies on how to improve each section with overall Stragies for the entire test.
It’s the best book out there directly from the makers of the ACT test
You know, studying does not always work for improving scores. It did not work in my D’s case. People posting on cc are not a randomized sample and if you google it, you’ll find there is no documented evidence that test prep works.
Have you tried the SAT? There are differences between SAT & ACT and sometimes students do better with one or the other, which was true for my D.
FWIW, her ACT score was 29 (not sure if she even reported it to colleges since her SAT score was better) and she got some good admissions and unexpected, generous merit aid.
Well if you keep getting the same score, (obviously) you are getting the same amount of questions wrong. For me, more than 90% of the time, they happen to be the same type of question. So figure out what question types you are getting wrong, then figure out why you get them wrong. For example, in writing, do you always get the questions that involves punctuation wrong? Or in math does the trigonometry bother you? Do you normally screw up on the triple chart questions in science? These are all just for reference but as said before, I would think that if you got a 29, you must understand most of the concepts so there are just a few that you don’t get (or don’t realize it). If you just get random questions wrong every time, than it seems that would amount more to carelessness as you have demonstrated in the past that you could get that question right. Hope that helps and good luck on cracking the 30s
How do you define studying? If you define studying as “reading/watching the correct solutions” and/or “doing the drills from a generic online ACT course,” then it’s understandable why you are not improving.
Effective test-prep studying involves repetition and continuous review of official materials, with a focus on execution, technique and strategy, instead of just a surface understanding of the correct answer. It’s hard to get that kind of discipline from a video or online lesson.
Some people can manage to handle all of this themselves, but others need a tutor to really push them along. If you’re in the latter category, then you’re probably like 80% of people on here. Everyone loves to say that they did it all themselves, but let’s face it…a lot of them have a tutor, even the highest-scoring students.
Tutors are not that expensive and can be found online, or in most areas starting at around $30/hr. With the amount that you have already spent on the various online prep programs you mentioned, it’s worth buying an hour of private instruction with a real, live expert and giving it a try.
After I took a practice ACT in the morning, I would spend the evening reviewing each and every single problem–even the ones I got right! Make sure you understand whether the ones you got wrong are silly mistakes or conceptual errors, and if they are the latter, definitely read up on the topics. If you got a problem right but was vacillating between the correct answer and another one, figure out why you chose the right answer and why you though the wrong answer could have been a viable answer.