I recently spoke with two high school students who managed to get perfect scores on their ACTs. Granted, both students have excellent GPAs, but I found that these two had very different methods of studying but similar qualities.
Study Methods
To keep things straight, I ’ll call the first student Steven and the second student Josh. Steven had the most annoying answer when I asked him his study method: He didn’t study until the night before. "I’m just really good at standardized tests," he told me.
However, while that answer may want you to throw in the towel, he continued and said that he did occassionally take advantage of the school’s ACT practice software. That’s more like it.
Josh, on the other hand, whose father is the City Attorney, studied often for the test. His dad made sure of that. He said that he used the Princeton Review and did many of the practice tests. He highly recommends this method of study.
So, if you aren’t naturally good at taking tests–and you probably wouldn’t be reading this if you were–than use whatever method of practice material is available. Check to see if your school has special software, check out a book from the library (just don’t write in it!)–it really helps.
When I studied for the GRE, I used several of the study guides and did plenty of practice tests. Since the GRE is on a computetr, I made sure to do at least two full-length tests on my own computer. That way I would be ready for the real experience. It’s like training for a marathon, do a little at a time, until you do it all the way.
I did really well on my GRE– just sayin’.