<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I’m going to be a Senior in high school & am new to the forum so I’d would like to introduce myself.</p>
<p>I received my ACT results today and although I improved 2 points, its still not something to be proud of… I scored a 17 on my first test and on my retake I scored a 19. I’m very disappointed because I took practice tests, attended a course offered by my school to help you prepare and I’m not too bad of a student (3.4 cumulative GPA). I want to know the trick or proper readiness technique to bring a 23+ result home at least… I am not even asking to get into Ivys or anything. I would just like to be safe for a good amount of colleges.</p>
<p>P.S. I’m going to take the September test so that means I’ve got a good amount of time to prepare for it</p>
<p>April 2014 Results (17):
English - 16
Mathematics - 18
Reading - 16
Science - 19
Combined English/Writing - 18<br>
- Writing (score range 2 to 12) - 08</p>
<p>June 2014 Results (19):
English - 23
Mathematics - 19
Reading - 16
Science - 17
Combined English/Writing - 23<br>
- Writing (score range 2 to 12) - 08</p>
<p>Could anyone would give me some advice?
Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>It’s sometimes the way we prepare for the test that messes us up. Can you figure out factors during the test that could have affected your score? Were you short on time? Were the questions too difficult? Were you not familiar with the test structure? Do you get distracted too easily? Once you figure that out, then you can focus your preparation and studying towards fixing that. </p>
<p>I really suggest getting the red book for the ACT (or any test prep book for that matter). They give you some tips and great insight on test taking strategy. </p>
<p>Hopefully this helps! </p>
<p>I would suggest that you get a test prep book. Mine (Princeton Review) really helped because it gave me tips and tricks and it explained every answer to the practice questions. You’ll really need to spend time on practice questions and tests. Take some tests untimed at first and then take timed tests. Also, most people get really anxious before the test so remember to relax!</p>
<p>My sister got a 19. She finished undergrad in 3 years and now has an MLS. If prepping was enough, every HS would just start having an ACT/SAT test prep course and we would have thousands of people getting perfect scores. Embrace where you are. Don’t compare yourself to everyone else’s scores. You can have a great life regardless of your scores.</p>
<p>Yeah I would say get a test like Princeton Review’s Cracking the ACT. I’d say you either need help on the basic stuff tested on the ACT or you need to get a better grip with the time of the test. Generally ACT prep classes aren’t helpful because they aren’t tailored to a single student but rather an entire class.</p>
<p>@polarbear97 - It seems that you are lacking a bit conceptually. First off, I must correct a misconception; simply attending a prep class and going through the motions will not get you where you want to be. You certainly need to dedicate a little more on your part. Use the red book, Princeton Review, whatever you find useful, and get cracking. Brush up on your math skills a little by going back on reviewing your algebra and geometry notes from school (or Google works too). For Reading and Science - perhaps set a goal as to where you want to be. Instead of focusing on doing all the questions with 50% accuracy, try to do 75% with 100% accuracy. English - it looks like you’re at your target score as of June, but try to get up to at least 80% - a lot of it is listening to the sentence in your head. It helps to have a couple higher scores in order to balance out a weaker one. </p>
<p>All in all, capitalize on your strengths and exploit your weaknesses when studying. Good Luck! :)</p>