My Third ACT Experience

What I learned From my 2nd ACT Experience:

1. To Study The Science Graphs in the "Princeton Review Book"/online to find out the best strategies. 
2. To Study The Grammar Section More thoroughly to be more precise in order to catch any slip-ups
3. For Math, To review my questions or refer back to the hard questions to optimize the best results
4. Take my confidence and knowledge from my previous two experiences and be more relaxed and knowing.
5. On the reading section,  to really look for what the author is trying to get across

In Essence, I'm trying to get a scholarship to college so the 26 couldn't cut it, I was looking for a 28 [acceptable for Stanford].


Pre-Test/Section 1: Reading: This time, I went to a different testing location equipped  with full desks instead of the half-desks, which really helped  me to get relaxed and comfortable.  I started out the reading section with a specific strategy: To look for the main ideas of each paragraph, then go and try to answer all of the questions, referring back to the passage if needed. I breezed through this section because I had a game-plan: that momentum could bring out a rhythm  and groove in my testing.That technique worked nicely because I finished before with time to go back and look at a few arduous questions.


Section 2: Math: No change here. I did great and this time I reviewed some of the permutation and combination problems and even caught a mistake. You brain may skip and you don't even realize it, it's always good to check your answers if you have time.


Section 3: Grammar

Grammar was a little  shaky in places, but overall not a challenge. I caught myself looking for the wrong elements in some questions, but then reconnected with my logic. Overall, I thought I man-handled it.

Section 4: Science 

This was make it or break it for me. All that was standing in my way was a series of complicated graphs that weren't so complicated if  you just had patience enough to connect the dots. That what I did. I let my thoughts develop instead of searching for them  by bouncing from graph to graph aimlessly. I thought I was a little rough-around-the-edges, but overall a minor success.:


Writing: Topic: Give your opinion on the combination of schools into one super high school.
This was easy enough. My thesis started out to be that I believe that it isn't sanitary or favorable to the students because of the crowded halls, and cramped lockers, but I turned it around to it  not being fair for a student's education because of the increased activity and distraction. I broke my first thesis up and used them for main ideas for my body paragraphs. Overall, got to the point, and was clear and concise.

Results For My Third ACT::

Score 28

Reading: 29

Math:28

Science:26

Grammar:27

Writing: 11 Out of 12

I Made IT!!! Now I have To Apply for the scholarship!!!!!!!

My Second ACT Experience

What I learned from my 1st ACT Experience Was.......

1. Never Sit at a right-handed desk if you are a lefty. Therefore, get there early. When I took my first ACT, I got there late and had to take a right-handed desk.
2. Next, Come test day, nothing else matters. Concentrate on the tangibles. Your test, and that you have to come calm, relaxed, and centered. If you get distracted, it will cost you a couple wrong. There is little room for mistakes, the time allowed is very strict. If you do the Math, 45 minutes  is allowed for 75 questions on each section, you have to do about two question per minute in order to score to your potential by having time to think clearly on the last bunch of questions on each section.
3. I also learned that to get better, you have to study and refine the way you  approach the sections. This means to think about your weaknesses in every Section and to improve them. Things don't just come to you, you have to study to realize what you were missing in your logic. This was particularly true for the permutation in the math section, even though I scored a 23 on  the Math section in my  1st ACT. In The science section I studied the graphs and approached the section in a whole new way.

So This is section by section my experience of my 2nd ACT :

Pretest/Section: Upon arriving early this time, I went to a left-handed desk located at the end of the aisle instead of in the middle. This was a relief and a good amen to my day. I started the 1st section, reading, approaching it in a way I studied off the "Princeton Review." This was to Skim the section, looking particularly for the main idea and concepts of the passage. Next, to answer all of the questions referring back to the passage if necessary. I also got a tip to really concentrate on the mood and how the character feel about the events because this context is often used in the questions. At end, I was feeling good except for one passage that I couldn't seem to find a few specific answers in so I just used the rule our method [cross out the ones you know were wrong, and then chose the most logical answer according to the concept.


Section 2: Math
Now this was even easier the second-time around for me. I had studied permutations and combination's and also had reviewed trigonometry [sine, cosine, tangent]. My Tips for Math is that if you know how to do it, it's that simple. You don't have to use reasoning and seep thinking , just all your knowledge that you already have learned. There's no pondering the multiple choice, the answer is the only answer. I flipped a few trig problems around maybe, but other than that, nailed  it!


Section 3: Grammar: This gave me more problems than I expected, on my previous ACT , but I brushed up on my parallelism [identifying similar traits and attributes in accordance to a series of words, otherwise called parallel structure].  The it's and its, "woman's" and "women's"is also something you need to know for this section. "Woman's" is for one females possession and "women's" is for more than one females possession. "It's" is for when you can replace the word with "it is" or "it has." "Its" is for when you can replace the word with "his" or "her."
Example: It's been a nice day.

Section Four: Science
Now, having studied up on my graphs and improved my analytic  skills, I approached this section with you could say confidence. This  soon dissipated once I hit a rocky series of questions that I wasn't sure how to get the answer for. It showed three graphs with test subjects on the bottom and water and acidity as the controls. In Short, I couldn't find what graph to refer for for the questions and if I was making the right conclusions. I did better than my first attempt, but obviously just going straight to the questions then referring back to the graphs wasn't working for me. There was a disconnect in my logic that gave me the indifference of not knowing which graph held the answer in some cases. In conclusion with the science, I fell a little short.


Writing: Topic: Should Teachers have the privilege to set their own rules in a classroom. This was a topic that I felt strongly about and wrote an extraordinary thesis paper! I thought! I even exceeded all of the paper in the test booklet so I finished on the back cover. The thing is, I wrote too much. My ideas weren't concise enough and I didn't give a strong enough voice. My writing skills had always been above average and now I was being down-trotted on something that I felt was above average. Anyways, I gave an explanation on how teachers should be allowed to make their own classroom rules, as long as in coherence with the school districts jurisdiction because students would feel less anxiety and more relaxed in a classroom with extra privileges, such as: water,  games, fun material, talking periods, choice of where you want to sit, and when to have tests.Now, I explained a very good paper and ended up getting a 8 out of 12, subliminal to my first 11 out of 12.

                  Results For My Second ACT:

Score:25

Math: 26

Reading: 25

Science: 21

Grammar: 25

Writing: 8 Out Of 12

My Personal Experiences And After thoughts On My First ACT

My 1st ACT Experience:

Pre-Test/Section One:Reading

Walking in to the testing auditorium I was already fatigued from the start. I didn't eat enough for breakfast and I had studies systematically 2 hours per night  for the past 7 days to cram in a mega review. I felt more comfortable on what I was being tested but not a whole lot of it stuck. I'm a lefty and I was assigned a righty desk right smack in the middle of the college auditorium. I was staring right into the thigh of  a hot brunette wearing a plaid skirt. Like life wasn't tough enough. Now, I started talking to the girl about the test and how it was my 1st time and she talked the same worries back, getting us both more nervous and anxious. This was not my original game plan! I tried to get re-centered and focused but things weren't going my way anyways already, I had to write across my body, I had gotten flustered because I argued with the test administer about changing to a left desk, which unfortunately were all taken! So the test started with English, my best subject. Now, I did okay but I was really nervous and disconnected for the 1st five minutes so I got off to a slow start. This hindered me toward the end when I had 5 minutes left to do about 15 questions. Well, I got them done but not as accurately as I could've.

Section Two : Math

My Bread And Butter. Started to get in a groove and zipped right through it. While the permuation and combination was a little fuzzy, not to mention a few problems of Trig, I felt it was easy.After all, I had gotten straight A's in Math ever since 6th grade.

Break:  Bought two snickers Bars, mmmmmhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Section Three: Grammar

Feeling Confident I felt things were turning around for me when I began to have an anxiety attack or some kind of mental lapse. Not good, I stopped and tried to relax and get going again but I felt I was starting to think illogically. Overall, the parallelism is what got me in the end. Word choice and tenses were easy but parallelism gave me a few stumbles.

Section Four: Science 

Feeling fatigued, but intrigued by my neighbor.....
I started the hardest section of them all, Science. This is thus because you have to analyze boring, complicated graphs after 100 minutes of testing. I totally had the wheels come off on this section. I was already thinking that I didn't prepare myself and why try when I knew I could do better next time. Doubt was creeping into my conscious all the while I was not getting the graphs and the downward spiral grew more severe until finally a last attempt with five minutes left to answer the last 20 questions. I had completely blown this section.

Writing Section:

Writing was also my marque area of aptitude. I had been a natural born writer and knew exactly how to write a convincing thesis paper. The Topic I got was asking me to give my opinion on the inclusion of Gym, Choir, and elective subjects and their place in a high school. I replied that if still included, they should not determine a student's grade and if not that, just removed and not required by the district to pass high school.It Went Great, The Best I Could Imagine!

Blue = Above Average
Red=Below Average
Green=Average

                                My Score: 22

Reading :21

Math:23

Grammar:21

Science:19

Writing: 11 Out Of 12


Overall to be honest, I was happy with this score as a first attempt. Better Than I'd Expected. Hey, 21 is Average, so I'd scored in the top 50% percentile on my first try, not bad right?

 

 




.

How To Score Above Average On Your ACT

What To Expect:

1. Very Enclosed, cramped areas. 
2. Uncomfortable, test administors staring at you, people nervous. Remember your regular testing conditions. Now, take away the good desk, space, feeling of certainty and relaxation, and you've got the ACT.
3. Dead quiet silence for at least 4 hours [except for the 15 minute break.
4. One-sided desks with half of your regular writing space. Lefties, say a prayer!!
5. Test order going form easiest to hardest.
6. An initial clogging of anxiety and emotion but once you get in a groove you'll be fine.
7. People saying it's easy or that they did good on it. [How do they know!!]
8. College auditoriums or classroom environment.
9. Long, boring instructions.

   10. Headaches, fatigue, despair. [Usually gets better the 2nd time around]
  
Now, How Do you prevent feelings of nervousness , uncertainity, and Anxiety? Here are some proven Steps on every section of the test, including pre-test prep, to help you excel to you potential.

1. On Entering The Room try to find an end desk if you have the choice, finding a middle desk sometimes will mean [like in my 1st testing situation] that you will be looking directly into your neighbor's thigh when you write. Now, this isn't a problem for some, but if they have a skirt on, well you might be getting a little distracted!
2. Sharpen your pencils and mentally prepare yourself for the next four hours. Tell yourself that this is just one big accumulative review and that it's just like any other test. Also try to relax and clear your mind. 
3. While they are having you fill in all of the neccessary  information on your testing booklet, don't get distracted. STAY FOCUSED AND RELAXED.
4. When the test starts you'll be taking the English Section first. This means reading passages and taking the context into meaning. Just remember, look for the main idea of the passage and the important facts. When proceeding to the questions, you can read the details sufficiently enough  to answer the questions.
5. Next, is the Math Section. Relax this is the easiest section. The hardest part is trigonometry and probability functions/combinations. This is all Algebra II and below. 
6. Next, is the Grammar section. Just remember the essentials for punctuation and read the preceding passage carefully in order to know which tense should be used. This section mostly has to do with tense and word choice. Not too hard, but can give you problems if you don't analyze what they're asking you to correct, or not.

Finally, the Science section. This may break your bank as far as your score goes. This usually results because you are getting tired, losing focus, and not many people know and have practiced reading biology graphs and have good analtic skills. This was my worst section in all three tests. Remember, in this section the answers are all on the paper. All you have to do is read and analyze. There is no configuring. Your brain isn't used to this type of process and sometimes you will have to read the graphs a few times before you connect them to the questions. 

 Here Are The Top Ways To Score A Good Score On The ACT :

1. Buy A Good Prep Book: My Favorites  Are The" IVY INSIDERS GUIDE TO THE ACT" and The Princeton Review. These all will help raise your score and help you save precious amount of time on the test.
2.  Practice 45 minute essays and then gradually start 30 min. ones
3.  Make sure you know your grammar rules well, especially parallelism
4. Be able to analyze a passage, which can be as simple as trying to find the flow or purpose.
5. See if you can practice with old ACT tests or practice ones
6. Concenrate with a healthy breakfast!
7. Be Mentally Tough and Focused come test day and relaxed, don't do anything strenuous on your mind 24 hours before!