Top ACT Tricks To Improve Your Score

If you are studying for the ACT or SAT, you already know that there are tons of resources out there (both paid and free) to help you practice section-specific questions that you may see on testing day. I would know. I write a lot of these guides for a living. A question that I often see students asking in comments or on chats is how to improve their score. They don’t understand how they’ve tested lower than expected and are concerned that their composite score will not be high enough to get into the school of their dreams.

As a result to these queries, this article is not set up to be another section-specific studying resource, because hopefully you are already following a structured studying outline either on your own or with professional assistance. Instead, I’m offering an actionable set of proven strategies and tips that will help you improve your score effectively and efficiently in addition to a structured studying plan.

#1 Locate Your  Specific Weaknesses With Practice Tests

To study efficiently, it’s imperative to take a timed practice test at least once to show you where your weaknesses are, focusing on these weaknesses, and creating a strategy to improve upon them. 

A key to taking practice tests is to mimic testing day conditions and try to imagine what it will feel like on the actual day of the test.  Take the test on the same day and time of your registered ACT test. Use the answer sheet that comes with the practice test and time yourself, finishing all sections of the ACT. What you’ll realize with taking practice tests is that it’s a marathon. You must learn what it feels like taking almost 4 hours-worth of an exam at one time and having mental endurance to follow through. In addition to building up this mental endurance, you’ll also feel more at ease when testing day arrives because it doesn’t feel as new and will help get rid of some of the butterflies.

Once you have finished taking the exam, you’ll need to grade your test to figure out your raw score using the answer key provided. Tally your section scores as well as the composite score.

Now you will be able to have a look at what sections you excel in and what sections will require the most amount of attention to see greater improvements in your score. In each section, make note of the types of questions you are consistently getting incorrect. Do you notice you have trouble understanding the main point of the article in Reading or struggle on “if-then” statements in Math?  This is the best time to notice these trending errors and seek specific resources to correct these inaccuracies.

If you are looking for where to start, here are some free official ACT practice tests that you can download and take at your convenience:

ACT Practice Test 2015-2016 (Form 72CPRE)

ACT Practice Test 2014-15 (Form 67C)

ACT Practice Test 2011-12 (Form 64E)

ACT Practice Test 2008-09 (Form 61C)

ACT Practice Test 2005-06 (Form 59F)

#2 Learn To Spot Incorrect Answers Quickly

The ACT is written to purposely confuse you with its answers. But the good news is, when you are taking the ACT there is always one indisputably correct answer and the other 4 answer choices are indisputably wrong. What does that mean for you? Well, this means as long as you learn the strategy behind choosing the right answer, you will know the others are 100% incorrect and not need to second-guess your answer choice.

How do you eliminate incorrect answers?

Here are some tips to help eliminate incorrect answers quickly:

-Look for extreme modifiers (always, never, only, no one, the best, the worst). Most of the time, these words are too absolute to be the correct answer.

-Look for thoughts that were never mentioned before. If a new idea or topic was brought up, it’s generally not correct.

-Look for two answers that seem to be the same. Because there is only one correct answer, these two must both be incorrect.

#3 Save The Hardest Questions For Last

The worst thing you can do on test day is to get tripped up on a difficult question as soon as you start. This is bad for your confidence and is also a major time-waster when there are plenty of other easier questions that you could answer quickly and, most importantly, correctly. Learn to be honest with yourself and skip over a question that seems hard.

#4 When In Doubt, Guess!

There is no penalty for guessing incorrectly on the ACT. But there is certainly a strategy to guessing. Before taking the test, choose the letter you will fill in for every single question you guess on. The ACT answer choices are completely random, but you may be surprised to hear that if you were to choose “random” answer bubbles for each question, your guesses are not always as random. Those who guess with the same letter have a higher percentage of correct guesses than those who do not designate a guessing letter. Similarly, make a small mark next to each question you guess on so that if you have time at the end, you can quickly find them and spend some more time on these questions. But whatever mark you have made, be sure to erase before the time is up.

Taking note of these tips is not an exhaustive list to studying for the ACT but rather a set of pointers that, when used in conjunction with well-structured test preparation like Quesbook’s free ACT prep, should help you to achieve an improved score quickly.

Good luck!