<p>I’m thinking about studying one hour a day for five days a week for about nine months and read every day for one hour for nine months as well. Will both of these things help me get a strong ACT score? Is there anything else I should do? Just a quick background: I have about a 3.6 gpa right now, entering my junior year, working hard to get all A’s in several honors courses and other classes, but I don’t do well with my state’s standardized test. In Iowa, I’ve heard our standardized tests are supposed to be really hard, and the good thing is that it has given me some experience in a standardized test situation where I have a very short time to answer all of the questions given. My goal for the ACT is to at least get a 27; however, I would much rather want a 30 since that would make my life a little bit easier.</p>
<p>If you are a good student and do well in your classes, you don’t really need to study. The week before my one and only ACT attempt, I studied for about 2-3 hours a day (so a total of like 14-21 hours) and I scored a 35. Mostly you just have to get yourself familiar with the format, timing, and types of questions. If you don’t work that fast, you might have to do quite a bit of practicing.</p>
<p>^I have a similar story, but you can’t deny that most mortal ACT takers benefit from studying more than that. Just being a good student and doing well in class isn’t going to get you a 35.</p>
<p>For OP, make sure you do practice tests. It sounds like you have trouble with the time limits, and the ACT is a time trial, no doubt. The only way to get into the habit of timing yourself and getting the most out of every minute is to do practice tests repeatedly and get it down to a science. It’ll also show you which individual subject areas you lack in. A lot of people will have highly disparate section scores, and you can improve your low section scores MUCH more easily than you can improve your high section scores.</p>
<p>even that is not going to improve your score much</p>
<p>I believe I study for the ACT about 40+ hr and I was able to bring it up 4 points. 6 points if you superscore the ACT. </p>
<p>Like most people would say on this forum. Take practice tests! I would do about 1 full test every other day to get used to the timing aspects and review the mistakes the next day. This might be extreme but you should be safe than taking chances.</p>
<p>I went up:
8 points in English
3 points in Math
4 points in Reading
5 points in Science</p>
<p>Those are my highest increases.</p>
<p>So the amount of time I’m using is fine then, right? I don’t need to add anymore time to this amount of studying? It’s about 180 hours of ACT practice tests and tips, so I’m also wondering how many hours is too much? When the test comes around, I think I’ll probably do best in science and the grammer/vocabulary section. I may not do as well in the math and reading sections of the test though. I know by reading an hour a day will increase my chances for doing better in that (from what I’ve heard). Plus, I’m taking an extra math class this year at school to train me better at taking my state’s standardized math test (which might help me get more prepared for the ACT math section). Is there anything else I can do though for those two sections? Sorry for the load of questions.</p>
<p>I have taken Calculus at my school and came out with an A but my math was only a 26. So a high math class is not going to make much of a different.
Reading a book and taking the reading portion of the ACT is too different things. I would advise you to use the 1 hr of reading to take practice tests. </p>
<p>The only advise I have for you is to keep taking practice tests timed.
Do it until you are satisfied with the results.</p>
<p>Take the real test whenever you can.
I took the ACT 5 times and have improved all 5 times</p>
<p>Is there usually a difference between the first and second time you take it? I’ve heard stories about those who took it once, and then they took it again and got way better results, because they would be use to the style of the test by then. Plus, I’ve always heard stories from my teachers and what not about how reading helps you understand the reading sections of standardized tests. I would use that extra hour for the ACT, but I’m useing all my time I got for the ACT now in a class where your allowed to do your homework an hour a day. However, with reading, I’m only using my time to read on the bus for an hour a day (to and from school). I don’t much time to do more than an hour a day with the ACT.</p>
<p>Most of the time there is a big difference. But because some people are bad test takers and they just do better the 2nd time. </p>
<p>The reading is one of the hardest test to improved on. The best way is to drill yourself and that why I do not think reading a book will help you. When you are taking the ACT you are skimming the passage not reading the passage. </p>
<p>If I were you I would do math on the bus and practice reading in a quiet environment.</p>
<p>Alright. Thanks for the help. As far as the math goes, I think there will be one big disadvantage, and that’s because I’m taking geometry this year. I’ll be taking Algebra 2 next year as a senior, but I did hear that there’s very little Algebra 2 on the ACT, so that’s good.</p>
<p>Actually, taking geometry this year might improve your score more than taking some upper level math class such as calculus. That is because there is absolutely no calculus on the test, while there can be quite a bit of geometry and other lower level math stuff. When I took the test, I found that the stuff I mostly didn’t remember was the geometry stuff. It really helps to have it fresh in your mind. This is kind of random, but I remember that on the June test there was a question that had a matrix, and that’s something I was introduced to in Algebra 2, so that’d be something you would want to learn about before taking the test.</p>
<p>Will do. Thanks for the help!</p>
<p>Bit late, but I got a 30 with just doing some of the practice tests on the ACT website, studying a bit would have helped of course, but dont go crazy with it, there is no way that you can touch on everything that will be on the test, just focus on your math, the rest is based on logic and reading comprehension.</p>
<p>I took it in March of junior year and got 32 (without studying). Then I took it again in April with about .5 hours/day a week before the test, and got a 33. I am taking it again in September, i really need a 35 or 36 (to make up for bad SAT and bad gpa (3.8)). is this a good idea?</p>
<p>That’s a ridiculous amount of studying.</p>
<p>Take a practice test before studying at all to see where you are. If you’re pleased with your score, either don’t study at all or study for a bit the week before the test. If you’re not pleased, consider studying with the help of a book, course, or tutor. If your first score is 30+ and you’re not pleased, be pleased. Books may still help, but courses and tutors are pretty much useless once you break 30.</p>
<p>Personally, I didn’t study at all. I took a free practice test and scored a 35. I took it for real and scored a 34. I took it for real a second time only because it was state-mandated and scored a 36.</p>
<p>Please, please don’t use that as a sign you’re not going to need to study. That is far from a normal or frequent occurrence. I’m just naturally good at tests, especially when they’re multiple choice. You will probably need to study at least a little bit.</p>
<p>@futuremed: You don’t need to send the SAT if you’re sending the ACT (at most schools), so you don’t need to make up for a bad SAT. Further, a 3.8 (unless weighted) is not a bad GPA. If you got a 32 without studying, there is no reason to study for the ACT. Studying will not be worth your time and is highly unlikely to improve your score. From here on out, it’s luck.</p>
<p>@RedSeven, Thank you so much for the advice!</p>
<p>You might want to structure your prep around when you are actually taking the ACT’s, and increase the amount of time you prep for it once the test date approaches. Starting early is always good though. Also, you might want to take the SAT’s as well, as many people score better on one test. What colleges are you specifically interested in?</p>