<p>ACT 2009</p>
<p>ACT 36</p>
<p>ACT English, Reading, and Writing</p>
<p>Which one is the book that everyone recommends? I'm guessing its the first one, but just making sure what the difference was between 2009 and 36.</p>
<p>I have read purchased and read all three of these books, cover to cover.</p>
<p>ACT 2009 is your classic Barron’s. It gives you tons of small, precise facts that will each have quite a low chance of being on the actual test. Reading the entire book, however, will pretty much guarantee that you are ready for anything.</p>
<p>The problem with Barron’s, however, is its big problem of irrelevancy. It just does not accurately provide you with accurate information about what will really be on the test. If you take a Barron’s test and get a 26, you will have really no idea what your actual test score will be. I recommend supplementing this book with the Real ACT Prep Guide, along with as many officially released ACT tests you can get your hands on.</p>
<p>ACT 36 is an interesting book. It has some great tips that really helped me out. A problem I had with this book was A) that is is very brief and doesn’t go near as in depth as ACT 2009 goes; and B) that it was not as well written in my opinion. Just turning the book to the title page shows the brilliant authors: college professors, each covering their own area of study. ACT 36 was written by a few high school teachers, so this book doesn’t give you the same impression that you are being taught by the very test. Also, I found some of the explained answers debatable, making this book also have unrealistic questions. It’s still worth buying, though.</p>
<p>ACT English, Reading, and Writing is probably the most realistic Barron’s book I have ever read. It still has some of those debatable answers, but it isn’t too much of a problem with this book. The English section is kind of iffy. I mean, it doesn’t cover that many subjects, and the ones it does bring up are a little obscure and will probably not appear on the actual test . However, one obscure topic helped me on June’s test (IE Hyphen question - Praise God!). This is definitely the best reading section of any book I have ever read. When you read them, you get this weird feeling that you are actually taking an ACT reading test, unlike some books (Princeton, Kaplan <-Horrible reading section, even ACT 2009<-Too in-depth). It has a great, basic, universal strategy that will work on any reading test you can find, except maybe Kaplan’s. The writing isn’t that great. It has a decent idea, but it makes the test seem more than what it is. But honestly, who wouldn’t expect this from Barron’s?</p>
<p>I thought that I would go ahead and mention the fourth new Barron’s book: ACT Math and Science. The math is very nice. It will give you questions that are harder than the actual test, but unlike most Barron’s books knowing how to do it the hard way will help on the test. It covers some topics that aren’t even included in ACT 2009, but are very useful and realistic. It really is quite nice. This book would be great without the science section. In my opinion, the science section is total crap. It will tell you to work out problems in ways that are time consuming and unrewarding. I would just not even look at it. After you have read the math section, toss this book aside if you do not want to be very disappointed.</p>
<p>I hope this answers your question. :)</p>
<p>Thanks alot! So would you recommend getting the ACT 2009 as opposed to getting the two divided books? (English, Reading, and Writing/Math and Science) I have the Real ACT book already.</p>
<p>I’d probably get ACT 2009.</p>