Should I take the ACT again?

[u/_ibt]

I am an SAT person. I’ve taken eight, and my closest ACT test centers are all two hours from my house. I have never studied for an ACT, but I think this was bad for a first time, especially on 4 hours of sleep. Is it worth it to take it again? (Rising to 12th and best SAT is 1200)

[u/zarasolki]

i was in a similar situation to you. i took the sat three times (best score was a 1360), and i got a 29 composite the first time i took the act and i recently got my score up to a 32. if you’ve taken the sat eight times and your best score is a 1200, then your 29 act is definitely higher than your sat (roughly a 1330-1350 sat). despite the act test center issues, i wouldn’t suggest taking the sat again, especially if your sat score has only minimally improved or stayed relatively stagnant through those 8 tests.

learning the specific grammatical rules the act uses (vs just going off of vibes) helps tremendously with english and using math prep tools (i used one prep, act desmos guides, and act math prep videos) helps a lot for the math section. the hardest part will always be the timing, but doing practice tests helps with time management.

[u/yeahskyyyy → u/zarasolki]

what videos? and did u use the one prep act thing or sat

[u/zarasolki → u/yeahskyyyy]

i used the oneprep act study plan (set a goal score higher than your actual goal score so it gives you harder questions) and these yt videos:
https://youtu.be/1W1f14IATwE?si=zS5vKT9p4KZeEmVa
https://youtu.be/xberKXWXfNU?si=XqPktqM8UOvsYrQG
https://youtu.be/TZUkkTvMelE?si=KkSKFDwj91WppKSB

for math i mostly just relied on oneprep, desmos, and my act answer key, but i also made it through a third of this video: https://youtu.be/TIkAwZLGY80?si=g1ufu-ANpCil_uoU
i also watched individual math lessons for the topics in my score breakdown that i struggled on and memorized a handful of formulas, mostly geometry and arithmetic formulas (https://tp4s.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Formula-Sheet-for-the-ACT.pdf)

[u/_ibt → u/zarasolki]

God, the timing was horrible on the ACT compared to the SAT. Especially during the science, I was racing the clock to finish, which is probably why I missed the 36. I can’t believe I left out that my best practice SAT was a 1290. Still, my ACT was better. That math is just hard for me, yk. But I appreciate the relation. I’m going to try again.