Are the ACT practice tests misleading?

Test Preparation
1

<p>So here’s the thing, in high school i took a bunch of ‘‘interims’’ in high school that were strictly modeled after the ACT. My scores in math reflected what i knew and had covered thoroughly, which was virtually nothing. But for English and reading i always scored in the 97-100% range. Also, in junior year before the ACT i scored higher than everyone else on the mock ACT science reasoning test, but on the real ACT i didn’t get anyone near this. I’m confused because this was apparently aligned with the ‘‘skills’’ that would be on the test.</p>

<p>What could possibly be a reasonable explanation for this? Is it possible that i thought i was pacing myself but was too nervous? It just doesn’t add up. This wasn’t a practice ACT test from the official organization, but one modeled after it with ‘‘state standards’’. Maybe this actually hurt my score?</p>

<p>The use of quotations is excessive but absolutely necessary.</p>

2

<p>The only explanation that I can come up with is that you were being compared to other high school students during the “interims” and prospective college students during the ACT. This can skew the percentiles quite a bit, I think. Also the percentiles are really weird with the ACT – they aren’t directly proportional.</p>

3

<p>Maybe, but the scores i got were basically how many i got right out of a certain number, nothing complex. I guess the standards that were tested weren’t on the ACT. </p>

<p>I wish i knew.</p>

4

<p>Unless you can answer any question you get, your score will vary on different exams (or practice exams in this case).</p>