I finally looked at it yesterday. I scored a 29, with subscores of 29 in English, 31 in reading, 31 in math, 26 and science, and 24 in writing. I know many people would say “that’s a good score,” but I’m still heavily disappointed. I know I should of done better. I remember the math section. There were two problems I didn’t know the answer to/didn’t know how to do. Two questions doesn’t make my math subscore a 31. So I obviously made some stupid mental mistake there. I knew science was bad when I took it, but I know I should be better at those graphs/charts. English also should’ve been better, seeing as almost all of it is rules and replacing words, all of which I’m good at it. Reading has to be the only one I’m content with. I have some questions.
How could I improve my ACT and not make the stupid mental mistakes if I were to retake it?
Should I retake it?
Would taking the SAT be better? Someone else mentioned that and my PSAT score was 1360, a far better percentile than 29 is. 1360 is 98th Percentile for PSAT while 29 ACT composite is 92nd percentile.
I believe the best way it improve in general is to take as many practice tests as time allows and go over answers you miss. Keep the printed out test pages with wrong answers and on each really explain what you did wrong so you can know what next time and the errors will stick with you: "I didn't REALLY find evidence in the text and I should never select an answer unless I see the evidence in the text." For little errors I think you might improve too by taking more tests. I think that underlining what's asked for and writing something in the answer space in case there are intermediate answers you don't want to accidentally give. (If a problem asks you to find the area of a square but also requires as an intermediate step to find the length, I would write AREA in the answer space so before I select my answer I'd make sure that's what I got).
I would definitely retake. EVERYBODY improves w/ practice.
I think, though I'm definitely no expert on any of the things I've written about in this post including this, some people are for whatever reason better with ACT or SAT. Perhaps it lies in the ways the tests are designed. I took a pACT and got a 29. My pSAT score was 1430, a higher percentile too. I've been taking the practice tests for the pSAT and I've gotten up to 1490 on my most recent by taking just 3 practice tests and following the strategy of #1. I think I wouldn't perform as well on the ACT since I'm just not as well made for the test. So, I would recommend you take the SAT. To judge whether you would perform better, google and take one of the 4 practice new sats they've released and grade it.
I agree with @nameiwantistaken, but I took a different approach to it. Personally, I hated taking practice tests. By the time I was done, I didn’t want to go over the questions all again and analyzed which ones I missed. Instead, I took the ACT 5 times. It kind of sucks in a way, but it doesn’t because you can at least get an official score each time. My scores were 27,28,29,29, and 31 all in order. I didn’t really prepare my 2nd 3rd and 4th time. My 5th time, I used a trick that my cross country coach taught me. I went through the entire day in my head from when I woke up to when I walked out the door of the testing room. The goal of this is to mentally prepare yourself for everything expected and unexpected. Come the fifth time taking the test, I was much more focused. This mental preparation seems like it should take 10 minutes, but 30 minutes is more realistic. I did this mental prep twice on the Friday before the test. Also, get in a habit of doing things. You can become extremely familiar with this test if you commit to it. I sat in the same seat every single time because I arrived early. The less uncertainty, the better. You will need all of your focus for your test. I always read a little bit before taking the test (to get my mind sharp for the test), and I also ate peppermint (it may work or it may just be placebo). The last time, I took two caffeine pills before the test. These are not against any rules or anything. I’d just get extremely familiar with the test. Oh yeah, a 24 on writing is actually pretty good. You shouldn’t expect your writing scores to be as high as your other multiple choice section scores. You can go to the website and check which percentile you are in for writing to get a better comparison.
Thanks for the replies. I probably will go retake. I can try to make myself study and do practice tests, but like adamfromiowa, I just can’t get myself into the practice tests. Which I know is the key to doing good, so I may have to clamp down and force myself to take a couple more of those. And if I were to sign up for the SAT, is the best way to prepare still practice tests, albeit the ones for SAT? The sting has worn off some, but I’m still mightily disappointed. I guess I just hope the retake goes better. I’m hoping for at least a 30, preferably a 32 or above because I believe that’s where a bunch of scholarships start.
Take practice sections, over and over. For example, do the science section once a week for 5 weeks…time yourself strickly! Check EVERY SINGLE wrong answer and figure out why you got it wrong. Mark the guesses and figure out why you didn’t know. You will start to get the tricks. This should only take an hour a week. Take the test again in a few months.
Taking the real test 5 times is a waste of money and Saturday mornings. Take it when you “get” the test. You will get it, with practice.
I’ll be honest. If you look at the first post, I got a 29 comp, with 29 english, 31 math, 31 reading, and 26 science.
The only thing I actually studied was the science for round 2. I knew I was already as good as I would get at the reading, english, and math. I just bet that I would relax and focus more on my second time through on those. The science, I probably did about 3-4 practice tests on http://www.varsitytutors.com/act_science-practice-tests Especially with me, and maybe with your kids, the graphs/charts just need to be done a couple of times to understand them better. They’re not that hard, but we (or at least me) don’t do anything like this in school. I’ll have some basic graphs in math, but in no class I take are you given charts of this level and asked to say what they indicate.
Sorry if that wasn’t too deep, but this is just what I did.
On my son’s first timed “practice” he got a 29. Hoping to get the real thing up to a 32. But he’s not a good test taker. He has until September to work on it.
