<p>I took the ACT on June 2012 at the end of my sophomore year. It was after AP exams and I knew I will prepare more for the March ACT, so I didn’t prepare as much.
June 2012 ACT
Composite-27
English-22
Math-30
Reading-30
Science-24
Combined English/Writing 22
Writing 8/12
Then, on the whole month of February, I prepared by taking lots of practice tests. I thought I would improve a lot and since this test was going to send scores to the ivy league schools, I was expecting at least a 30. The June ACT knocked out my backup schools, but these scores are too bad for the schools I really want to go to.</p>
<p>March 2013 ACT
Composite-25
English-24
Math-25
Reading-28
Science-23
Combined English/Writing-23
Writing-8/12
In all honesty, this was really disappointing after more than 30 hours of preparation. I had enough rest, and I used the strategies to get me a good score. I guess it was just a bad test day, but overall, I consider myself very competitive since I’m on top 10%, all A’s, plenty of extra curricular and sports. However, I need help because I need to know whether I should take the June 2013 ACT, or risk everything on the September 2013 ACT?</p>
<p>It is likely to be your last attempt no matter it is in June or September. It seems you’ll need much more than 30hr of preparations. What was the average practice scores before your second test? Were the practice tests timed? If you were expecting a score 30, I guess you must have achieve at least 30 in the average practice score. You probably want to spend the summer to better prepare for your final attempt. You know, all those EC and class ranking only help once you have reach the threshold in test scores particularly if you are interested in any top schools.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply. Yes, that is why it is critical that I get the scores. Yes, the tests were timed, and the average was usually 28-29. Definitely, I definitely need to be more comfortable to the point where I know what to expect on every page and the way to answer the questions correctly.</p>
<p>It seems English and Science are the area you have consistently lower performance than the other section that you may want to put more focus on. If you can do at least one timed practice test per week during the summer, you may be able to bring your average practice score up to 30+ by the end of the summer. Make sure you not only going through the test, but also the answers of the wrong ones. Everyone will reach a plateau in score sooner or later, but usually there is room for 10-20% improvement simply by working hard on practice tests.</p>