<p>A friend gave it to me, and I did it without paying attention to time or anything and I got a 33 composite, but I've heard that the time constraints make it much more difficult. </p>
<p>My SAT is 2030 and I've been struggling to raise it recently, so should I just work with the ACT for now?</p>
<p>And how accurate would this practice test be? It was a booklet called "Preparing for the ACT" and was green and was from 2009-2010.</p>
<p>Lastly, my friend also gave me an ACT book by Mcgraw-Hills called 10 ACT practice tests second edition. Should I just do these tests and time myself in order to prepare?</p>
<p>Thanks for any advice you can give me!</p>
<p>In my opinion, the time constraint is the ultimate score indicator. As you didn’t time yourself, there’s no way to postulate a score with any legitimate accuracy. Your score of 33 proves you know most of the material necessary to achieve a great score. Yet the ACT, at least for those of us who are relatively familiar with the material, isn’t just about what you know, but also about how fast you can apply it. In other words, once you’ve the knowledge, you must develop the speed and endurance.</p>
<p>As for McGraw-Hills, I’ve known a few people who’ve practiced with them and have received good scores. As a disclaimer, though, they’re notorious for the large difficulty disparity vis-a-vis the ACT (they’re hella easier). If you have to choose a book for a relatively little amount of time, I suggest you go with the RealACT prep book (redbook).</p>
<p>I second the recommendation for the Real ACT Prep book. It’s the only one that contains real ACT’s that were administered in previous years. macve is also correct about the time. You have no idea what your real score will be like if you didn’t time yourself. On the ACT, the time constraints are, for a lot of test takers, the limiting factor, not the actual content knowledge.</p>
<p>So go pick up that book and take another practice test. The newest version has 5 complete practice tests, so you should have plenty of material to practice with.</p>