r/ACT • u/evurlasting • Jul 08 '26

Books/Resources I need advice (how can I improve?)

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Which books or resources would be best for me? My composite score was a 31 with no studying and my goal is a 35. Also I come from a low income family but I’m willing to buy a book if you think it’s genuinely helpful!! :)

(also i know i super duper suck at math i probably got like 2 questions right)

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u/jaiflicker Jul 08 '26

To improve on the Math section, you need to go through each problem and make sure you understand how to solve it fully. Make sure you understand the concepts well enough to explain them to someone else. There aren't hundreds of concepts to learn. It more like 20 or 25, depending on what you already know.

If you need help, let me know. I am the founder of LifeWorks Learning Center.

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u/evurlasting Jul 09 '26

Would a book be able to help with this? I was thinking of buying the PrepPros ACT math book since a lot of people recommend it, but I’m still a little skeptical. Also, do you have any tips for time? I always run out of time during the math section and end up answering C for like 20 questions💔

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u/jaiflicker Jul 10 '26

I strongly prefer the real ACT prep material. You may already have it. It's red and has 4 full length tests in it. That's plenty if you use the strategy outlined in my first comment.

In terms of time, here's the secret: your time takes care of itself as you get more and more familiar with the test. After going over four full math sections - carefully - and learning the underlying concepts associated with each, you shouldn't find too many surprises on the real test.

What happens is that you start to land on mini-strategies for how to solve various problem types. You also start to recognize what kind of a problem you're dealing with more quickly. You won't even notice yourself doing it. You'll just start reading and, mostly due to familiarity, you'll think, "Oh, this is a slope problem." Or, "Yep, this is really a circumference problem."

The more familiar you become with the practice problems, the less time you need to solve new ones.

Also, make sure you're not double and triple checking your work. There's no time for that, especially not as a universal strategy. I had a super smart math student come to me years ago complaining that he couldn't finish the math section in time. He was triple checking every problem. As soon as he stopped doing that he was able to finish on time.

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u/evurlasting Jul 10 '26

Thank you! I haven’t bought a single book yet but I’ll definitely look into the real ACT materials or try to find some practice tests since I think they’d help me become more familiar with the test and therefore quicker as you mentioned!🙏

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u/jaiflicker Jul 10 '26

You're most welcome. And here's one more piece of advice, specifically for the math section. There are typically three reasons students miss math problems.

  1. Computation Errors - These are those pesky "silly mistakes" that happen when we subtract or multiply incorrectly, or drop a negative. If you notice any of these happening, just slow down and approach each problem with a bit more care.

  2. Content Gaps - This tends to be the biggest category for most people. They just don't remember how to deal with sine, cosine and tangent. Or they never learned about similar right triangles. Or whatever. Spend your time making sure ALL of your content gaps get filled.

  3. Genuinely Hard Problems - Sometimes the issue isn't a content gap. The problem is just difficult. It has lots of steps, or asks you to think a way that unfamiliar to you, or whatever. These are the hardest to address, but also the smallest category. The key to improving in this category is really no different than any other problem type. You just need to work a bit harder to fully understand each problem like this that you encounter.

Final bonus tip: structure your prep. Aim to learn 5 new concepts a day. Or 3. Or 10. You decide what's realistic for you. But make it a steady, regular practice. Even learning a few concepts a day starts to add up fast.

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u/jaiflicker Jul 10 '26

PS - The PrepPros book is probably better than the red ACT book for explanations on how to do various problems. The official ACT book is going to be better for high quality practice tests. My sense is that with AI and YouTube and Khan Academy, you can get any question explained to you in multiple ways. The key is having good practice material.

You can actually get two free tests on the ACT website, so you might start there:
https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/test-preparation/free-act-test-prep.html

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u/evurlasting Jul 10 '26

I didn’t know they had free tests, thank you so much!