Please Help Me Turn My Life Around

armavirumquecan0
Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:48:46 +0000

To start off with though, get yourself the official ACT prep book (red cover) and the official blue SAT prep book and read over all of the material they have to offer. Then, take a practice test and evaluate your performance, even if you have taken an ACT or SAT already. I can tell you, having taken both the ACT and SAT and scoring well, that practice makes perfect. Disciplined, nightly practice. While I didn’t need that much of a score jump, what you want is definitely very easily in reach. The fact is, doing problems for only two weeks may not be enough. You sound like a good student, so you clearly have the capacity. Having said that, hard work is the best way to up your score. If you can get yourself to do a section (ACT) or 3 sections (SAT) every day until your test, you will definitely reach your goal.

Some more section specific advice:
In writing, I often find it helpful to mentally read back the passage with corrections, because sometimes intuition is the best way to find grammatical errors. If you are truly struck on a question, mark your best guess, and at the end, look through other sentences for a similar grammatic rule that is correct and base your answer on that. People often have no idea how many answers are embedded in other question.
In reading, skim the passage or skip straight to questions. I don’t know what more to say, because time is everything on this section.
In math, look for shortcuts. Sometimes, very complicated diagrams are actually solved using simple rules, like 30-60-90 triangles. The test isn’t meant to be advanced, just tricky. My biggest problem was making silly mistakes, and I fixed a lot of this by underline things like “positive” and “integer” that I would miss.
In science, i really don’tknow what to say. This is a really hit or miss section, and only practice will help. It is usually easiest to ignore the explanation, do all the graph ID problems, then read and answer theory questions. Also, having some background in science does help, though ACT claims you need no experience.

Honestly, it is a great idea to enroll in a Kaplan or other test prep class. While you CAN do any of the practice work that they assign on your own, being in a class with deadlines really keeps you on track and motivated. If you don’t have time, then a private tutor may be a good idea.

In conclusion, Practice, practice, practice. If this means getting tutoring or lessons to motivate you to do this, or having the will to do it on you own, then so be it.