<p>I have taken ACT 4 times now. The highest I made was a 24. My scores go like this in order: 23,21,22,24. I don't know what I am doing wrong! I am studying my butt off for it and I am not getting the score I want. I have a straight A's in my high school and I took 3 AP classes this year and 3 Pre-AP classes. My GPA is like 4.72 and almost everyone in my class are getting an ACT score close to 30's except me. :( I feel bad whenever my friends talk about their scores.
I don't know if this is the problem but I am a complete bilingual. I can read or write in 2 or more languages.
My lowest subscore is in reading. It is the hardest! I don't know how else to try and study for it. I am getting tired of it. I need to make atleast a 30 to get some scholarships I want! and at atleast a 27 to get into the Honors College. How would I study for it and improve my score? Please help me!! :(</p>
<p>Another victim of runaway grade inflation :(.</p>
<p>Have you ever been tested for a learning disability? Dislexia maybe?</p>
<p>If you took it 4 times and have around the same scores, you’re not gonna get it much higher even with lots of studying.</p>
<p>Simple-- try the SAT!!!</p>
<p>wow sylvan8798, I don’t have dislexia! I do great on all my other tests at school!
If i had dislexia, I probably wouldn’t even be able to get that 24. </p>
<p>Yeh, I will try to take the SAT may be. But it is more expensive than the ACT isn’t it?</p>
<p>Not necessarily. I have dislexia and I got a 34. Just try the SAT.</p>
<p>Try the SAT… if it increases your chances of getting into a good school then it
s worth paying for. Don’t take it blindly though-- take some practice tests first.</p>
<p>Also, aren’t you allowed to combine section scores on the ACT as well? Doesn’t that give you a bit of a boost?</p>
<p>A school can choose to combine section scores, but very few do so.
Have you been taking practice tests on the ACT and are those scores in line with the results you mention above?
In any case, take the SAT. The cost is nothing compared to what you’ll be spending over the next few years.</p>
<p>Worst case, check out [The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org%5DThe”>http://www.fairtest.org) </p>
<p>They have a list of over 800 schools that either don’t use the SAT/ACT or make it optional.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>What is a good preparation book for the SAT?
(I’ve tried Kaplan for the ACT and the result was not good)</p>
<p>No, when I took the practice test I made about a 26 or a 27. But I always end up with the lower 20s when I actually take it at the test center.</p>
<p>I’m sure you can pinpoint why that is. Surely someone with a 4.7 GPA can do that. Easy practice test? Nervous? What is it?</p>
<p>Just relax, don’t worry about it. Don’t even think about the ACT till the day you walk in. I didn’t study a wink and I got a 34.</p>
<p>Taking it 4 times does not look too good…especially if there’s no rise in scores. And there’s no need to say OP has a learning disability, every smart student has standardized testing issues. I find the dearth of time on the ACT very difficult to cope with, and so I took SAT. Try SAT, if it doesn’t work out, there are still colleges that will be happy to have someone with a high GPA and that ACT score.</p>
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<p>Wow haha no support whatsoever.</p>
<p>Anyways, I think the problem is that you probably aren’t focusing on studying the ACT as well as you think you are, or you aren’t concentrating on the right material. How do you do on the practice tests? If you really think you can’t do any better, you should try the SAT like everyone else says.</p>
<p>You might be nervous. I know some really smart people that freaked out the night before the test and got so nervous that they couldn’t do well. You’re obviously smart because you have a 4.72, you just need to break the mental block against the tests. Don’t think of them as such a big deal. The night before I took the ACT, I went out with my friends, didn’t even think about it, and scored just fine. If nerves aren’t the problem, you need to learn some test taking strategies.</p>
<p>Get some hard liquor and get trashed before the test.</p>
<p>Worked for a friend of mine.</p>
<p>Try the SAT and for goodness sakes, order your score report from ACT so you can see what you are doing wrong. Do you think it is just a time issue? If so, do your practice tests with 5 minutes less time. </p>
<p>There are some great colleges out there that are “test optional” - Like Dickinson in Carlisle, PA. Google test optional schools and you should get a list.</p>
<p>Oh thank you all for the support!
I don’t know about the SAT. The university I want to go to doesn’t accept the SAT and I obviously don’t want to go out of state. I am wanting to go to a university in Oklahoma.</p>
<p>ALL schools accept both the SAT and ACT. For instance from the OU website:
[Freshman</a> Admissions Requirements - Admissions - The University of Oklahoma](<a href=“Freshman Admission”>Freshman Admission)</p>
<p>An SAT score of at least 1090
and
An unweighted cumulative grade point average of at least a 3.00 (on a 4.00 scale)
OR
An SAT score of at least 1090
and
Rank in the top 50% of your high school graduating class</p>
<p>If you stress out about the test (or overstudy for that matter) you’re opening yourself up to mental blockage when you actually DO take the test. Also, it’s strongly recommended not to study the night before the test. Instead, do something fun like hanging out with your friends or just relaxing. </p>
<p>I know someone who took Kaplan classes to prepare himself for the ACT. In the end, it barely boosted his score.</p>
<p>If the ACT isn’t working out for you, you might want to try the SAT. If you happen to get a good score on the SAT you can choose not to send in any of your ACT scores. On another note, taking practice tests can help but only to an extent. If your school offers practice ACT or SAT tests I would strongly recommend taking them. Scoring high on the PSAT not only looks impressive, but it can qualify you for some national merit scholarships if you do well on the SAT as well.</p>