I got a 1740 on the first SAT that I took. Then I decided to take the ACT and had a tutor who helped me study a lot. I received a 32 on that ACT (April 2015). Then I took it again in June with more focused studying on Math and I received a 34! I want to hear about this theory you have??
I expected a 34 and got a 34 in December, I expected a 35 and got a 36 in March. I had taken a practice test the week before (in March) and got 36-36-36 before stopping at science because of laziness lol. Right after I took the test in March, I thought I’d get a 36 as long as I didn’t make any mistakes (obviously that’s still a very likely circumstance).
To me, both tests seemed pretty comparable to the few practice tests I’d taken from the Red Book.
EDIT: I should also say that I got a 2250 on the SAT I took in November but didn’t take it any more times.
Yep!
PSAT: 215
SAT: 2190
ACT: 34.75
yes. i went into the ACT completely blind. i had no idea what to expect- i asked my friends what the test was like but that was really the only preparation i had. i really only took it to see what i would get. and i got a 31. no idea how that happened- i guess i had a good test taking day?
english- 35
math- 29
reading- 36 (no idea how i did that honestly)
science- 24
My D got 31 the 1st time & a 36 in April. Neither with much study. She got 216 on PSAT & 2200 on SAT.
I was very surprised by the score of my first ACT— I wasn’t expecting such a score after the not so great score of my first SAT. I received a 34C on the June ACT versus a 1970 on the March SAT. I’ll admit that it might be due to the fact that I spent less than three hours the night before studying for the SAT and a little over double that the night before for the ACT, haha.
I used the red ACT practice book, and never got higher than 26 on a practice test. Took the actual ACT once and got a 33!
I agree something is up with the ACT scores, everyone is coming in with really high scores compared to previous years, would love to see the national breakdown for the last two tests.
I was surprised. I wanted a 32 and could settle for a 31. The first time I took it I got a 30. The second time, I finally got a 31 but the thing is my scores in math and science (28 and 26 respectively) stayed the same and I instead did better on only reading and language, getting 35s on those. I’m happy that my score went up, but the thing is I had spent all of my time in between the two exams only working on math and science and yet those scores did not move.
mine was higher than expected. i expected a 30 but ended up with a 32
I practiced with the Red Book for about a day and got a 32 on the ACT, getting a 31 on the practice. Somewhat higher than expected. My SAT was a 1900 so my ACT conversion is significantly higher.
After taking around 14 practice tests before the date, my average was around a 35.5. When I took the real one, I got a 34.75 (35). However without taking any practice tests at all, I got a 33 on an official test before this.
27 dry run… next ACT (literally 0 prep AGAIN), got a 30. was shocked! but the second one i took was much easier
You do realize that the students on College Confidential are generally going to do better than worse because these students are high achieving types, right?
And students reporting a better score on the 2nd Official test compared to the 1st is not necessarily giving an accurate picture because most will score higher from familiarity alone.
I really don’t think the ACT is handing out higher grades on purpose. If anything, the tests are getting harder, (Double Passages, New Essay, harder Math concepts, etc.)
First ACT (Dec 2014): 32
Second ACT (June 2015): 35
was scoring around a 33 on all practice tests, so yes, this definitely surprised me.
Also, the curve was definitely better in june b/c i got the same number of questions wrong on English and Math and my english went from a 35 to 36 and math from 34 to 35.
I was getting 28’s on practice tests, then got a 31 on the Nat’l June ACT.
Is Kaplan harder or easier? Barron’s?
My first time taking the ACT was a 29. 34 Reading, 31 English, 25 Science, 26 Math. I was pretty happy with my scores considering I got an 1870 on the SATs, which converts lower on the ACT scale.Definitely sending in my act scores to college as of right now. Taking the ACT again in September to improve hopefully to 31, I really need to practice science and math the most! Debating on if I should take subject tests for the first time and the SAT a second time? Thoughts/comments appreciated!
@mmk2015 The harder the tests are, generally, the more generous the curve. Everything works out at the end!
DTheMei, you’re totally right! The tests are getting harder, but the scales are more generous. Excellent observation!