The Ultimate ACT Guide: Road to a 36

Just kidding, because that honestly shouldn’t be (and doesn’t need to be!) the Be-All and End-All. Rather, the goal of this guide to help you achieve your best possible result in the most efficient manner, so you have time for the more important things in life. I often find that guides can be very wishy-washy, so I have structured this one to include very concrete steps you should carry out during recommended time periods when preparing for and taking the ACT.

I was very very lucky to achieve a 36 on my first try. Regardless, I do think there are some aspects that can be controlled that could lead to greater chance of scoring higher. Keep in mind of course that this is largely based off of personal experience, so what worked for me may only be mildly helpful for you!

Before it all Begins (Timeframe: end of Sophomore year, beginning of Junior year).

1. Identify whether the ACT is Right for You.

The stereotype (that is largely true) is that the SAT is more suitable for literature-inclined kids who like to spend their time ruminating over the nature of life (in this case, just spending more time on harder - perhaps more profound – math and reading-comp questions), while the ACT is more suited for the STEM-based kid who would rather do slightly easier math, reading and funky science-graph-analyzing problems in crazy quantities and less time. If you’re still not sold, check out this article comparing the ACT and the SAT, or just take a mock test of each. (https://www.diffen.com/difference/ACT_vs_SAT)

*Just my two cents though, I think the ACT is slightly easier (and I consider myself a more lit-inclined kid)

2. Start early.

Most of the knowledge required for the ACT will have already been taught in school by the end of your sophomore year, so any additional knowledge learnt afterwards really does not contribute to boosting your score. By starting early, you’ll likely have more time to prepare during weekends, because your schedule will just get more hectic as high school progresses.

3. But also END early.

The total length, from preparation leading up all the way up to taking the test, should not span more than 4 months. Beyond that, you’ll just end up in a perpetual cycle of gaining the skills to ace the ACT and losing them again because of your long periods without practice. So don’t waste time relearning skills you could’ve mastered the first time. DO NOT go into prep camps (if you choose to take that route) thinking, “I’ll just see where this takes me.” Set a test date before you even begin preparing so you have a clear end goal in mind. And of course, DO NOT go into these tests with mindsets like “if I screw up on this one, I can just retake it!” OR “I’m just gonna do this first test as practice.” You are wasting your parents’ money, your time, and your grader’s time. Aim to just kill it in one single shot, because it is totally within the realm of possibility. You have all the knowledge you need- just take the test and get it over with!

Preparing for the Test (Timeframe: summer before Junior year, winter of Junior year)

1. Identify the skillsets you need to gain.

For a large portion of people, preparing for the ACT is just familiarizing themselves with rules of the game. For others, it might require some additional learning to plump up that knowledge base. It is essential that you identify the specific skills you need to acquire early on so you do not waste a month just taking mock tests and making the same mistakes. There are copious amounts of articles out there that break down each section to talk about the skillsets required and the different question formats present in each, so I will not reinvent the wheel here. Here is one that does an exceptional job: https://blog.prepscholar.com/act-format-expert-guide. I do however have some specific tips on each section that I will cover in the sections below.

2. Familiarize yourself with the test.

This does not just mean knowing the times allocated for each section, how many questions there are… blah blah blah. This is about knowing the question formats that are present in each section. The link above once again does a more in-depth breakdown of this, but to recap the most important points:

I encourage you to read through the article linked above to more specifically pinpoint your weaknesses.

3. A.l.w.a.y.s Set a timer.

“I’m just gonna try out these question formats! I’ll time myself next time.”

“This is just practice; I’ll be able to do it quickly if I want to.”

Lol bye Felicia, because you might as well just not practice at all. The time crunch is what makes the ACT taxing. It’s this one-minute-per-question rapid-fire work testing your familiarity and flexibility with your knowledge that is demanding, so practice that!

4. Give your studying a structure.

We talked about setting an end goal for you to work towards, but in between that, it’s important you structure your studying. Prep camps are NOT willy-wonka magical machines: you can’t just walk in with a 22 and expect to walk out with a 36. They give you an introductory structure to your studying, but the rest of it still has to still be self-governed. Here is the structure that worked for me:

Taking the Test

Below are some subject-specific tips.

1. English

• Learn the grammar rules! This is likely the easiest section to consistently score well, so make sure you use it to your advantage.

• Iffy about a question? (like literally, if you’re anything less than 120% you’re right, you’re iffy) mark the answer and come back to it. This is a section that most people end up with excess time, so make every question count!

2. Math

• 40-20 rule. Generally, the first 20 questions are easy, mid 20 are medium, and last 20 are hardest. Spend 30 minutes on the first 40, and 30 minutes on the last 20.

• Can’t answer a question within a minute? Mark an answer and return later. You’ll be surprised by how much a fresh look can help.

3. Reading

• NO time to return. With 4 passages and 35 minutes, aim to finish each passage under 8 minutes (8:30 maximum).

• This is a super awesome trick that will help you SO much: SCAN the questions, looking for the ones that refer back to specific lines (eg: “Question 3. In line 34-37…Tom Sawyer does xyz. What does that show about his character?"). MARK the lines in the text, labeling them with the specific question they refer to (eg. mark lines 34-37 with the question "3" so you know this section corresponds to that question). DO NOT read the questions beforehand, just FIND AND LABEL the line. This should take around 30 seconds. This way, when you read through the text for the first time, you can answer the questions referring to specific lines immediately. Reading through should take at most 2:30 minutes. This is REALLY important because these “line-specific” questions take up more than 50% of the test (this is a facts). By doing this, you’ll have answered a bunch of questions upon finishing reading the text for the first time.

4. Science

• 6-7 passages, 35 minutes. Aim to spend 5 minutes per passage.

• Spend 1 minute scanning the passages, paying close attention to the key points of each paragraph and how everything is structured. This makes looking for answers later easier. Unlike the reading section, science is more straightforward where the answers to questions can be found usually immediately by going back to the passage and scanning through (usually the graphs).

• Trust your intuition. This is often the most straightforward section, but is made complicated because we’re psyching ourselves out of our own logic thinking “it can’t be this easy.” It is!

The Day of the Test (Timeframe: September ACT (less than 4 months after you first started)

1. REST THE FUCK UP.

You’ve sowed all the seeds, now you gotta harvest your crops. Treat this like a life-changing olympics event: go to bed at 8 every single day of the week leading up to that weekend, drink a lot of water, eat healthy! So much of the ACT is luck based in the sense that it all rests on how you perform the day of. Don’t sacrifice all these months of handwork leading up to the test just because you didn’t treat yourself right. Just get it done with!

2. Aim high.

Aim for 1-2 points above your target/current range. High expectations won’t hurt!

Good luck, go kill ‘em!

#ACT #advice #guide #road #to #a #36 #standardized #testing