<p>I took the ACt as a sophomore and scored a 21. (E:20,R:23,M:19,S:20) I’m trying to improve my score to a 28 and I have been taking practice test after practice test with the Real ACT prep book. My scores are now (E:28, R:30, M:20, S:25). My question is…are the practice test harder or just as hard as the real ACT and what are my chances at a 28!?thanx!</p>
<p>I can only answer the last part of this.
We live in an ACT state, and at my kids’ school the PLAN, the pre-ACT test is taken by freshmen, sophs and juniors.
As a freshman, DS made what I thought was a respectable 21 or 22 on the PLAN, then as a sophomore made an abysmal score - we still don’t know why or how or what happened. So, we insisted that he take the ACT spring of sophomore year just to see if the soph PLAN was a fluke - he made a 24.
He took ACT again fall of junior year to include the writing, made a 27, I don’t remember what he made on the writing. This was great for his college list, but he was 1 point short of Honors College at one favored school, and 1 point short of in-state tuition at another, so HE decided to take it again. I had misgivings at this point, because no visible studying had gone on, but this was his decision. He did do some concentrated work during the last week or two before the test, took it for the 3rd time fall of senior year and made a 30.</p>
<p>My point with that long story is that if you want to improve on the ACT, you can. Back in the dark ages when I took the ACT, I seem to remember the scoring was affected by age, to reflect maturity and how many months of high school a person had had. I don’t think that is still the case, but more than the SAT, repeated exposure and additional class work can help. Self-motivation can help. Don’t expect to make up those 7 points in one retake, but 2 might do the job. DS’s scores bounced around a bit, but he brought up his math and science - math through review and science through not being psyched out by the questions.</p>