5 Best ACT Prep Test Books

Passing the ACT or not will determine whether you will be the desired student in leading universities or if getting into a college will be a real headache for you. Due to that fact, many scholars are overwhelmed and afraid of this test.


Every high-school student realizes its importance and understands that only good score can give some advantages for their college applications. With this in mind, it’s evident that such testing requires long and thorough preparation.

I would like to give you a starting point and tell about my top of greatest books that will help you to cope with this pressure, prepare for ACT and succeed on it.

Before we start, let me give you a reminder and understanding of what ACT is and what you have to know about it before starting your preparation. ACT is a test, which students normally have to take in two cases: 

1) when they are going to apply for college or university; 

2) when the student plans to transfer from one educational institution into another. 

It consists of several blocks that evaluate person’s general knowledge, ability to complete tasks of college level in four main areas, and there is also an option to take an additional written test that shows student’s ability to structure and express his thoughts in a proper manner. 

The four main blocks include tasks on English, math, reading and science reasoning. There is one overall score that shows student’s readiness to college, and also there are separate grades for each of these blocks that present your knowledge of these subjects.

To Make This Top List Really The Best I Will Include Several Categories Of Books

• Must Have – top books that every student who wants to pass the ACT has to have during his preparation;
• By Subject – list of books that are the best choice if you need to improve your knowledge in one of the listed above blocks;
• For Better Success – books that will bring your score to the top;
• Not Worthy – list of books that you should better avoid.

Books That You Must Have During Preparation For The ACT

The Official ACT Prep Guide, 2016 - 2017

(By: ACT )

Practice is an essential part of any study, and preparation for the ACT isn’t an exception. This test has a unique and quite an unusual style of tasks and questions, which the majority of high-school pupils have never seen before, as well as a set of strict rules that everyone must know. With this in mind, I would recommend everyone to get The Official ACT Prep Guide. This book gives students an overall understanding of what this test is about, how it will look like, what types of questions you can face, what strategies to use for better results. It also includes lots of useful tips from test’s creators and basically walks you through the whole process of the ACT, starting from preparation and registration, up to passing the test and understanding of the evaluation methods that will be used.

Advantages

• Book includes 669 pages of informative and helpful information that is a Must Know for everyone who is going to take the test;
• Explanation of rules, such as how much time is given for every block and so on is provided;
• Authors explain how your work will be evaluated and give practical tips on how to score better.

Disadvantages

• The book doesn’t provide enough material regarding the precisely content of each block of the text, so it’s good for getting familiarized with the ACT but is not that great for practice.

The Real ACT Prep Guide

(By: ACT )

Regarding practice, this book is one of the best options out there. It shows real examples of questions that were given to students during the ACT. In this book, you’ll find a full set of test questions with correct answers for every block of the testing.

Advantages

• At this time, The Real ACT Prep Guide is number one book to practice before the ACT;
• In the book, you have five full tests, which contain the most accurate questions in the ACT style;
• Answers to every question are also provided in the book so you can check yourself.

Disadvantages

• Provided correct answers don’t have reasoning behind them, so it’s good enough to check your level to understand where you are, but it won’t give you much help in improving the situation;
• Here are not included any additional guidelines or tips.

Best Books That Will Guide You Through Every Block Of The Test By Subject

Books that were mentioned earlier can give a lot of useful information but if you want to succeed you will probably need more thorough preparation to each of these tests separately, so here are the best books that can help you improve your performance in every field.

The Complete Guide To ACT English

(By: Erica L. Meltzer )

To get an excellent score on your English ACT you have to know ALL general grammar rules, and, as an addition, you’ll need to spend some time on practicing your skills because, as was mentioned earlier the ACT questions can be tricky and unusual. The Complete Guide to ACT English written by Erica Meltzer is my recommendation to you. This book provides easy to understand rules and gives you everything you need to know to successfully pass the exam and doesn’t provide any unnecessary details. And practice test is also present in the book.

Ultimate Guide To The Math ACT

(By: Richard F Corn )

The Ultimate Guide to the Math ACT, by Richard Corn, is your perfect helper during preparation for the ACT. It gives you full lessons that explain basic concepts and help to improve your skills in each area of weakness. This book also provides excellent examples for training every skill that is necessary to pass the test and presents useful strategies that explain how to prepare for the Math exam more efficiently.

The Complete Guide To ACT Reading

(By: Erica L. Meltzer )

This guide is also created by Erica Meltzer, and I would’ve called it the best one of all that exist today! It divides the Reading exam into sections by different skills and kinds of questions, which is very efficient because it allows the student to focus on one particular skill at a time and go to another one after he mastered it. Some of the advantages that make this book worth your time are comfortable structure and helpful methods for solving different kinds of problems, a good set of practice tasks that are really close to real ACT questions.

500 ACT Science Questions to Know by Test Day

(By: Inc. Anaxos )

This is a amazing collection of Science related questions for ACT exam preparation. The ACT exam is all about speed and accuracy. If you practice more you have better chances of getting high score. This book should help you get practice on types of questions that can be seen in ACT exam frequently.

More On ACT Science

Today not many book would focus specifically on the Science section of the exam. At this point, I would recommend you to look at practice questions at The Real ACT Prep Guide and see what moments have to be improved, and then you can either consult with your teachers or find additional material on the Internet.

Hopefully, this reading list will help you to make your ACT preparation more efficient and will help you reach the highest scores! Good Luck!

Doris A. Palmer is an expert academic writer at Studyscanner. She also provides consulting services for students who are getting ready to pass their exams. Throughout her career she has met numerous students who didn’t know how to start their preparation for the ACT, so today she is going to tell you where to look for help.