<p>I took the ACT earlier this month ( having just finished my sophmore year ), and scored a 30. </p>
<p>Subsection scores were:</p>
<p>English- 30
Math- 30
Reading- 30
Sci Reasong- 28</p>
<p>Out of all those subjects, I consider my self to be best at math. Ive taken 2 practice tests and scored a 33 ( both times ) on the Math; so, I'm not really concerned about that subject. The other subjects, however, are a different story. My school has had me take a few standardized tests. On all of them, I found the reading to be very easy. This wasn't the case for the ACT reading. I often found myself debating two possible choices to a question. These questions were usually related to the theme or mood. Also, I had to guss on 3 or 4 questions at the end. The scientific reasoning basically came down to a lack of time. I had to quess on like 6 quesitons on the end. My rhetorical skills for the English were excellent. I feel I need to improve on usage/mechanics, though. I don't think that will be too
challenging. </p>
<p>What specific things should i look up for the ACT English? How about Reading and Sci Reasong( just general tips)? I'm hoping for a 33 on the next test, which I believe is in September. Help will be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Yeah I wanna know about this too…</p>
<p>I took the ACT my first time in February and–miraculously–got a 33.</p>
<p>For English and Reading, just being in a junior-level English class helps. I took AP and, even though my teachers (one quit in January and we got a perma-sub after that) were terrible, it still helped me with my reading and the like.</p>
<p>As for science… I legitimately had two-and-a-half experiments’ worth of questions that I hadn’t even read yet when the proctor gave us the one-minute warning. I wouldn’t have understood them anyway, so I just picked up the scantron and filled in random bubbles. I ended up with a 33 subsection score in science.</p>
<p>Considering the fact that you’re not even a junior yet and you’ve got a 30, you’ll likely end up with at least a 33 by early 2013 test dates from just being in higher level classes.</p>
<p>For reading, I underlined everything in the passages as I read. Not for reference later on in the test, but to increase my reading speed and keep my eyes focused instead of jumping around the intimidating block of text.</p>
<p>Princeton Review also has some fantastic tips that break down the Reading questions and show you how you can get the correct answer nearly every time by avoiding “traps” the ACT writers put in the test to really test comprehension. Good luck!</p>
<p>Source: 36 Reading on the ACT</p>
<p>Alrite reading on the reading section is definitely not like CR on the SAT and there aren’t too many, if any, theme or mood type of questions. It’s all reading comprehension and whether you remember what you read. On the SAT I do what you do- underline and crap- but for the ACT I found it best if I just tried to read the passages- with interest and enjoyment. ACT reading sections are basically stories and you don’t have to worry about any line references or anything. So just try your best to interest yourself in the crap, read quick, and you’ll do hella well. Don’t waste your time underlining.
For science, you just have to practice. For me what I found best was going to the questions first and then skimming the graphs for the answer (for a majority of the questions). For the scientists passages I would read through the passages first because answers are pretty hard to blindly fish out of them.
English is just practice, grammar, and recognizing the types of errors that pop up. You might have noticed that the ACT english has a LOT of no errors (or stays the same) kind of answers. Also, a lot of the type of errors that pop up in the practice tests for the ACT (red book) are the same as the real test. When you take practice tests make flashcards of the errors you make so you won’t next time. The ACT english is probably one of the most predictable sections.
Btw I got a 34 in reading 35 in English and 36 in science if that gives my word any more credibility. But try out a bunch of strategies with the RED book and just keep taking practice tests (if you haven’t taken them any/all of them yet).</p>
<p>good luck mang.</p>
<p>Check out Jeandevaches’ Guide to the ACT (Just search the forum for it). It contains a lot of simple and helpful tips to help you increase your score. I also found SparkNotes ACT Book to be very helpful for review and strategies. As everyone else said, practice tests are valuable when preparing for the ACT and you should do a lot of them.</p>
<p>Good luck in improving your score!</p>