I took the April ACT with hopes of getting a 33 but fell short of my goal my 3 points. I got a 34 in English, 33 in math, 29 in reading, and a 25 in science. I’ve recently started studying again for the September ACT test date and I hope to get my desired score before I apply to colleges in December. Does anyone have any tips for someone who finds it difficult to concentrate and understand the Reading and Science passages on the ACT? Also any other tips for (hopefully) making a 3 point jump? And I also forgot to mention I got an 18 in writing. I don’t consider myself a bad writer but do colleges really look closely at standardized test writing scores?
For the science, don’t read the passages. Just focus on the graphs and tables. The only time the answer wasn’t there for me was when there was a question testing your knowledge on pH. Only read the passage when they give opinions/hypotheses of multiple students/scientists/people. I used this strategy and went from a 27 to a 35 on science.
I’m really struggling with studying for the reading. I’ve done so many practice sections but can’t seem to get above a 28. Can anyone share any tips for the ACT reading?
I’m literally just going to copy and paste what I wrote on a different thread for reading 
Hopefully, you already saw it before you asked this question though.
Hi! Reading used to be my worst section. I would score around 25-26. Now it’s one of my best, I got a 33 on the June ACT in Reading and it could have been higher.
So here’s what worked for me:
- Take Reading practice tests! There is no other way. Every time you take one, go through your errors thoroughly. Then, take notes on not what you missed, but WHY you missed it. For example I wrote one time: “make sure ALL parts of answer are supported by the passage, don’t assume anything based on prior knowledge.” I have no idea what I missed but I know that it was because I assumed something without verifying it in the passage. Now, I always verify.
So, I’ve never had a problem finishing, but I definitely used to feel rushed. Here’s some super specific tips that worked for me, but PLEASE personalize your own based on your practice tests.
- Spend only 7 minutes per passage (that leaves 7 minutes at the end for going back to ones I skipped/guessed on). Usually I only have 5 minutes left though.
- Read the passage before looking at the questions. But read fast!!!! I only spent maybe 3 minutes reading the passage. To remain focused I "annotate" because that's what I did in English class. I didn't take notes or anything on the margins, but I underline and circle and box phrases and paragraphs. It helps me for some reason. Some people say you should pretend the passage is the most interesting thing in the world... I don't really do that, but hey whatever works.
- If the question asks something about a certain line(s), always go back to the passage and look at the line(s) again.
- You should be able to answer any questions about overall tone or idea immediately. That's the major goal from your initial reading of the passage. You need to get a sense of the author's message and feelings (particularly for the arts/literature/social science).
- Always have evidence from the passage to support your answer! If you can't find it, then circle the question and come back after answering the other questions in the passage.
- For the questions that require thinking, rather than choosing one answer try to eliminate 3. This really worked for me if I was struggling with getting an answer.
- Don't stretch an answer to be true in your head. It has to be clearly true, supported by the passage. I always tell myself that the answer is obvious, I just need to find it. An answer choice is always directly supported by the passage. Always.
A couple more things I did:
- I didn’t bubble an answer after I answered each question. I would answer all the questions in a passage and then bubble all ten afterwards before moving to the next passage. This helped me to remain focused on the passage and also it saved me time.
- I did two rounds of going over skipped questions. Meaning: if I skipped a question I would go back at the end of answering the other questions of the passage first. If I could find the answer, I’d answer it. If I still felt unsure or couldn’t find it, I’d skip it again. (However, you should probably just guess if you think you’ll run out of time). Then, come back at the very end of the test and look again with fresh eyes.
Woah that was long. This was good for me, I’m looking to improve my ACT in September and this was a good recap of what I learned for reading. Good luck!!! I’m a big believer that every person can score perfect with enough practice!
In short, take individual practice tests in both Reading and Science and personalize your own strageties! But remember to be engaged and to really think about the “why” when you review your mistakes or else it’s all pointless.
For writing, I just read the PrepScholar guide on the new ACT writing. I did it exactly the way they said, but I ended up thinking my essay was pretty terrible (not because of what they told me, but because I was having an off day). I still got a 30, which is actually in the 98th percentile. However, they are changing the scoring to a scale of 2-12 by averaging the 4 domains this September. I would aim to be in the range of 10-12 and you’ll probably be in the 99th percentile (that’s how it was for the old ACT writing). So, try the PrepScholar strageties out and hopefully they will work for you like they did for me.