Last April I took the ACT's I got a 20..

Question

I need to get atleast a 22 or 23, is there ANYTHING I can do to raise my score up? Any tips or strategies you have used, that helped you out would be greatly appreicated!

Please, no rude comments.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Many times the first time you take the ACT you are nervous and dont know what to expect, so you score lower than you are capable of. Biggest advice: Take it again. It always raised my score.

I took it in 7th grade and got a 20.

I took it in 10th grade and got a 28.

I took it in Febuary of 11th grade and got a 29.

I took it in April of 11th grade and got a 31.

I did no sort of prep work inbetween either. Do I suggest taking it four times? Not necissarily, especially if its within the same year. You wont see an eight point jump just by taking it again a month later. But you will see improvement.

However, easy ways to prepare yourself for the next time around so hopefully you dont have to take it a third time:

Take a prep class. I havent done this, but my friends have and said it helped a lot.

Buy a prep book with practice exams. A lot of times the questions on every exam are of the same nature. Review the types of questions you consistantly get incorrect, and review those concepts (i.e. Maybe you seem to get factoring questions always wrong, go back and reteach yourself. Ask your teachers for help if necissary.)

Relax, if you are jittery its harder to concentrate. This is better than any test you take in school; you can redo it if you do poorly!

Every 20 questions, put your pencil down, close your eyes and count backwards from 30 (a trick I learned from my AP history teacher). Studies show that your brain tires out after a while and students score lower on the last questions, even if they arent any more difficult. I did this religiously the second time I took it as a junior and my score went up two points.

This is something I noticed myself, but take it with a grain of salt. Im a quick test taker, and I found myself having ample time for the reading, english and math sections. However, with the bounty of graphs and charts and information in the science section, I felt that you had to rush to finish. Does this mean you should do the same? Not necissarily. Just keep your eye on the time and give yourself enough time to finish. Skip questions if they take too long and come back and answer later. Do not leave any questions blank though, guessing does not hurt your score.

Good luck. Im sure you'll reach your goal!

Answer 2

retake it. The more practice you have, yourr score will go up.

Good Luck

Answer 3

I definitely recommend a test prep book to read over and practice from.  A lot of people say that you don't need to study for tests like the SAT and ACT, but nothing could be further from the truth. You can't just walk into these kinds of things blindly.  I strongly recommend "The Real ACT Prep Guide."  It helped me get a 36 composite on the ACT.