Why does everyone do so poorly on the Science section of the ACT?

Test Preparation
21

<p>Generally I feel that the science section isn’t as straightforward as the others…it’s not as if you have a problem to solve or a grammar error to identify. You need to analyze a multitude of charts and information and draw appropriate conclusions in a set amount of time, which is difficult without substantial practice.
When I took my first ACT practice test at Princeton Review, I got a 23 on the science section because 1) I didn’t pace myself well, 2) I was exhausted by the time I got to number 32 and guessed on the rest, and 3) I needed to get used to the format. </p>

<p>When I took the ACT in April, I got a 31 on the science portion, which is not exactly my goal, but it’s a 8 point jump :)</p>

22

<p>I think it’s just because of the time. I love science and do well in science classes, but the science section is just analyzing graphs and data. The four times that I took the ACT, the highest I got on Science was a 31 (huge upward trend though). I just ran out of time every single time and had to guess on the last 5-10 questions. I was already so tired of the test that I couldn’t concentrate as well as I should have.</p>

23

<p>[2011</a> ACT National and State Scores | Average Scores by State | ACT](<a href=“http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2011/states.html]2011”>http://www.act.org/newsroom/data/2011/states.html)</p>

<p>If we look at states where 100% of graduates are tested, average science scores are not lower.</p>

24

<p>Maybe because the first time I took it I had no idea how it was structured.</p>

<p>It was an absolute waste of time to spend my time understanding the informational paragraphs or even just reading them. After the second set of questions I realized you could skip the paragraphs and only need to look at the graphs to answer the questions but I lost too much time already.</p>