ACT Science

[Adaggiote]

Hello everyone,

I am planning to take the ACT on April 9th. I am preparing well under timed conditions with McGraw Hill and tiny doses of Kaplan. For some reason, the science section looks very overwhelming and when I gather myself together, I have lost some time. I score in the low 20s in this section. Can anyone please recommend any study or test taking strategies??

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[tictac21]

I would suggest to continue to practice the science sections. Just look for your weakness in the specific area and focus on that. Good luck!

 

[torshi]

practice reading skills and reading graphs, that's basically what it is. No science involved

 

[Lil Mick]

I didn't know you could study for it when I took the ACT, but reading scientific articles helped me prepare for the science parts of the MCAT (journals, textbook figures...). A lot of the ACT questions dealt with graphs, charts, and relationships between variables. Any material dealing with those presentations of data should give you a general idea of how to handle the questions that appear on your exam...

 

[Halfpint]

If you want to improve your score in the science section just get some practice tests and try the science section. It also helps if you can familiarize yourself with graphs, charts, tables, etc. The first time i took the ACT i got a 27 on science and the next time i got a 33 which makes me think its more about being used to the way the science section is set up than anything else.

 

[Adaggiote]

coool...thanks guys!!

 

[kansaskid]

I had a 34 in the science section and mostly what I did was perfect my reading skills. There's actually very little science involved, just reading critically about science. Practice analyzing the charts and graphs so that you can talk about what's being expressed there without reading the text. Then look at the text and compare the two to fill in any gaps. Once you can do that you're golden. Also, spend time reading for fun. If you read science related magazines written for the general public it will give you a good baseline for being used to reading the types of things on the ACT Science section. Probably one of the best things that helped me was being able to speed read the sections with high comprehension. That gives you more time to consider the questions just like in the reading section (where I got a 35). I basically kicked the ACT's butt, so feel free to PM me for study/practice tactics! And good luck! ::

 

[taechris]

I ended up getting a 35 when I practice tested on it. What I did was ignore all the paragraphs and just look at the diagrams. If you can't figure it out, then resort to reading the paragraphs. When it's comparing trials, the paragraphs are important. When it's just there to "explain," ignore it.

 

[Adaggiote]

I had a 34 in the science section and mostly what I did was perfect my reading skills. There's actually very little science involved, just reading critically about science. Practice analyzing the charts and graphs so that you can talk about what's being expressed there without reading the text. Then look at the text and compare the two to fill in any gaps. Once you can do that you're golden. Also, spend time reading for fun. If you read science related magazines written for the general public it will give you a good baseline for being used to reading the types of things on the ACT Science section. Probably one of the best things that helped me was being able to speed read the sections with high comprehension. That gives you more time to consider the questions just like in the reading section (where I got a 35). I basically kicked the ACT's butt, so feel free to PM me for study/practice tactics! And good luck! ::

Cool. thanks a lot. I am taking it on the 9th. So what i will do is take a few more practice tests. By the way, i noticed you are IN Beni. My parents are actually Nigerian..

 

[kansaskid]

Cool. thanks a lot. I am taking it on the 9th. So what i will do is take a few more practice tests. By the way, i noticed you are IN Beni. My parents are actually Nigerian..

Very cool! Yeah, I'm a Peace Corps volunteer (rural community health volunteer to be specific) over here and I really like it. It's cool (and disheartening at times) to see the differences in health care between here and the US.

Good luck on the ACT; I'm sure you'll kick it's butt!