How to Improve a Low ACT Math Score

In this article, we’ll discuss strategies and guidelines on how to improve a low ACT math score effectively. Here we will discuss what it takes to score a 29 and higher.

Strategies to Improve Your Low ACT Math Score

Skip the Difficult Math Questions

To score a 25-27, you only need a 40 out of 60 raw score i.e. you can completely skip 20 questions that count for 33% of the test, and can still score a 26. In return, this trick gives you way more time to solve easy and medium difficulty level questions. Also, this is a huge help if you’re usually short of time on ACT Math.

Focus on Your Weak areas and Drill Them

Every student has a unique skillset and is better on some topics than others. You might have done better in Arithmetic than Algebra. Or say you prefer Probability over Trigonometry. You don’t have an unlimited amount of time to go over all the concepts and master them. In nutshell, you must focus on greatest areas of improvement and work carefully on those.

Stay Focussed On the Most Tested Skills

Some concepts are tested far more often than others. In fact, the most common skill like numbers-rational numbers is asked almost 10 times more likely than the least common skill like complex numbers. If you ignore such important factors, you’ll waste a lot of time studying things you really can avoid! Therefore, this factor is also one of the most important techniques under how to improve a low ACT Math score.

Practice Using Only Authentic & High Quality Sources

Carefully choose your preparation books and other prep material. Thousands of online courses and books are available in the market but many of these programs and books are either too hard, too easy, or structured incorrectly. The root cause of this problem is lack of right understanding of the ACT Math section. The best source for ACT Math questions is the Official ACT Tests.

 Keep a Log of All Your ACT Math Mistakes

Every mistake you make on a test happens for a specific reason. Make sure you go over your errors and understand exactly why you missed that question. Else, you will make that same mistake over and over again. By taking a structured approach to your mistakes, you’ll have a running log of every question you missed or marked wrong and your reflection on why.

 Monitor Your Time

Time pressure is a big problem for 19-27 scorers. Because many questions are difficult, it’s easy to get stuck into a hard problem and spend minutes trying to solve it. This takes away time from other questions that you can solve and get right. Two ways to ease time pressure are- By doing more & more practice, you’ll automatically get better at solving questions and another way is to monitor the time you’re spending on each question. Hence, this point also adds to the ways of how to improve a low ACT Math score.

Bubble In Your Answers All At Once

Finish question 1, bubble in answer 1. Finish question 2, bubble in answer 2. And so forth- Following this process of marking answers wastes a lot of time. You’re distracting yourself after every question by doing two things at once – solving questions, and bubbling in answers. You must finish solving questions on one section, by keeping last 5-7 minutes for copying answers to bubble sheet. This has huge advantages: you focus on each task, rather than switching between two different tasks.

Guess on Every Question You Don’t Know

The ACT has no guessing penalty for getting a wrong answer. That means there’s no reason to leave any question blank. Before you finish the section, make sure every blank question has an answer filled in. Thus, it is also an answer to your question- how to improve a low ACT Math score.

This section may be daunting for many test takers but with careful preparation of all important concepts and adequate practice, you’ll be able to master it. Time management is obviously an essential key, which cannot be enhanced in one or two days. So keep practicing with timers and give timed sectional tests to build up your stamina for the same.

Good Luck for ACT preparation!!

-Team Leverage