<p>My daughter is going to be gearing up for her final push of ACT preparation for the June 9th ACT test. She took it April 14th and April 24th and scored a 30 and a 31 respectively. She is going to take it for the final time in June, and is hoping for improvement in her composite score. She would be thrilled to even go up by one point to 32.</p>
<p>Anyway, she has the Real ACT Book and it has been an invaluable tool for her. She has 3 practice tests left in the Real ACT Book to take, but then after that, she has 3 books to choose from where she can take their practice tests. The 3 books are:</p>
<p>McGraw-Hill's 10 Practice ACT tests Third Edition (10 tests)</p>
<p>Barron's ACT 36 (looks like the equivalent of 1 practice test)</p>
<p>With the June 9th test fast approaching, she feels she will only get a chance to take 5 more practice ACT tests where she takes the tests under "real" life conditions (ex. timing the test, taking it all at one time like she would during the real ACT test, minimal breaks, etc.). It is a given for her that she is going to use the 3 remaining tests from the Real ACT Book because that is the best prep guide around, but her question is, what book should she choose to do the remaining practice tests from? Is one a lot better than the other? She also wants to do multiple sections of the math and science section from one (or any) of these books, but those will be done when she can fit the time in. These 2 sections were her lowest scores when she took the real ACT test. She scored a 30 in math on both of her real tests and a 25 and a 30 respectively on the 2 science sections on the real test. Is there one book over the others that would be better for her to focus on while prepping, or are all equally as good? She will not have the time to do the remaining practice tests from all of the books, so we are just trying to figure out the best game plan for her.</p>
<p>Thank you in advance for any responses or advice!</p>
<p>Hi there. Truthfully, I wouldn’t go with any of them. I’m a stickler for official questions only with my students If she’s really desperate, I’d probably go with the Princeton Review, but there are some other available official ACT’s out there to work with, too. Try this link.</p>
<p>Also, the ACT’s official online prep course is an option for more tests and practice questions, and at only $20 it’s very reasonably priced. It’s useless for actually learning anything, but it’s one more source of practice materials.</p>
<p>Hope that helps, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got more questions.</p>
<p>Swans004 ~ Thank you so much for your post and your honesty. I realize those books aren’t ideal, but they’re what we’ve got. Thank you also for the link. You reminded me that I do have 2 additional “real” practice ACT tests that I printed off the internet some time ago (I have the tests from the 2005-2006 and 2011-2012 ACT pamphlets), so I will use those 2 tests w/the 3 remaining tests from the Real ACT Book to give to my daughter to use for her 5 practice tests that she will have time to take between now and the real test on June 9th. I guess I am left w/having her do some math and science sections from the other 3 books that we have, but at least she has 5 “official” practice tests that she can take in preparation for her last ACT test. Thank you so much for your reply! You were very helpful!</p>
<p>I am taking maybe my last ACT too this june and I took it in Feb and April and I got a 28 and a 27 respectively. I really want a 30 and I am determined to get it. Unfortunately, I have already done about every old test I could find( all the tests in Preparing For ACT, and all the tests posted in the link by @Swans004) so now I have the Princeton Review-1296 Practice Problems and the McGraw Hill one too. I guess i will just do tests from those books until I find some more real tests. any suggestions?</p>
<p>Canefreak2001~ I have links to 3 printable practice tests that I got from the internet. Not sure if you have these or not, but I thought I would post them here for you just in case. Here are the links:</p>
<p>Unfortunately I have done them already but thank u very much for posting the links. I am just going to continue to do practice tests from McGraw Hill and PR and I am going to do some old tests from the Real ACT Guide and hopefully I wont remember my old answers lol</p>
<p>We really liked Advantage Point’s Boost Your Score CD. It uses only the real ACT tests. When you enter your answers it also scores them by subareas (more specifically than the ACT combined subsections) and provides tutorials for each subsection. I think this was the most useful tool in raising my son’s score.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for letting me know about Advantage Point’s Boost Your Score CD, Momom2 and Lacrossemom. I just looked it up on Amazon and I am ordering it ASAP!</p>
<p>Yea same here, I get way higher scores on McGraw Hill than i did on real ACT, right now im working out of 1296 practice questions from PR, i hope that is okay.</p>
<p>Use pamphlets first, then Princeton Review both the 1296 questions and the comprehensive practice books. Barron’s is too difficult, McGraw Hill is too easy, both give inaccurate estimates of scores. I also suggest looking at your local library for test prep books. That way you can get older books without having to purchase them, thus more practice.</p>
<p>Advantage point has several real tests and when you input your scores, it breaks the scoring down into minute detail so you know exactly how to focus and target your studying. It also has review guides as well separating out each question by question type. There is also a calculator programming guide. We just found it really helpful to focus in on the exact areas S was messing up on. Plus it’s pretty inexpensive and you can load it on 3 different computers or split the price with a friend.</p>
If she’s really desperate, I’d probably go with the Princeton Review, but there are some other available official ACT’s out there to work with, too. Try this link.</p>