<p>I won’t supply a timeline, but instead I will provide you with my own in depth approach.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Take real tests. There are 9 which are widely available to students. 5 in the Real ACT Prep book and 4 online which can be found by searching “act booklet (insert year)”
Map out your own schedule. If you have two weeks to prepare, obviously only use the real tests. If you have a month or more, don’t use up the tests but vary between the real ones and fake one from other books. I would suggest taking up to, but no more than, 3 tests a week.</p></li>
<li><p>Know your basic high school math. If you’ve paid attention in school, you’ll do okay. Review concepts you are unsure about using your textbook, your ACT math guide, or Khan Academy online.</p></li>
<li><p>Know your grammar rules. Barron’s ACT 36 book has an excellent guide on the English section. Every punctuation rule you need to know is in there.</p></li>
<li><p>Be able to read a reading passage in at least 3.5 minutes. Practice will increase your speed and remembrance. Google tips on reading quickly if needed.</p></li>
<li><p>Be able to read and comprehend graphs quickly. Maybe practice without a time limit.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Okay. Now that those prerequisites are out of the way, I can be begin some detailed info on how to jump from a 30 to a 36.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Analyze practice test results. Make a chart and keep track of the number of questions missed and type of questions missed. An exams would be this for English, “Dumb mistakes, punctuation, passage review, etc.” do this for every test. </p></li>
<li><p>Every 3-5 tests (I did it every 5) mass together all results from those 3-5 tests. Calculate percentage of total missed and what percent of missed questions were in what category. For instance, I found that I missed roughly 4% of all 300 math questions across the 5 tests; I also found that 50% of the questions I missed were dumb mistakes, and that 25% were questions that I did not know how to solve.</p></li>
<li><p>On your next test, focus specifically on your greatest weakness for each test. As you do this, you will see certain weaknesses disappear and others become higher in the their percentage. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Okay, that was the self examination stage. Now your weaknesses and have fixed some. What about the ones that just won’t go away? I found that in Science, for the first 5 tests, I missed 12.5% of all questions. On the next 5, I missed 12%. Hardly a worthy improvement. I knew this needed to be fixed and on my next set of five, I missed only 4.5% of all science questions. For me, this was as simple as doing the passages out of order. The 5 questions passages first, then the 6ers, and then the 7ers. What ever you find as your weakness, search online until you find a method that improves your results. I would suggest googling such as “science 36 score methods college confidential.” Or something of that likeness. </p>
<p>I will not be including per section methods in this guide. You can find those yourself. What I have provided, WILL increase you score IF you are committed. I increased my score this way from a 31 to a 35. I took three tests a week and spent hours each day studying and reviewing my mistakes and brainstorming new methods and mastering my timing. I took roughly 20 tests in all in preparation.</p>
<p>Tip: If you want, retake some tests which you have already taken. Try to wait at least 2-3 weeks. Look at these results and see if you Missed any of the same questions. This can be extremely helpful. </p>
<p>So, use this guide as the backbone of your prep and incorporate all tips and methods from other users and attach them to this. </p>
<p>Please ask me any and all questions.</p>