momofkhm Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I had heard here that Barron's was really good and am looking at them on Amazon right now. (Need to get at least one more test in and hoping for the early college dates in the fall.) I was all set to buy a Barron's and then read this review: I have been preparing students for the ACT test for over 20 years, and I am always looking for new up-to-date practice exercises because the strategies never really change. Barrons test prep book is okay but not as concise and thorough as Princeton or Kaplan. So what says the hive? We don't have the money for a class. But we do want to prep the girls. Which brings to mind another question - is it better for each student to have their own book? Oldest will be taking the ACT a final time 2012-2013 school year but middle will be taking it for the first time. The ACT counts as the required state testing, so my kids take it in 10th grade and up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joules Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I don't recommend the McGraw Hill 10 ACT Practice Tests. We only did 4 tests, but the errors in the solutions were appalling. I had to trash it. I've liked The Real ACT Prep Guide from the makers of the test. The tests are previously administered so they've actually been proofread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 I suppose everyone has their favorites, but my middle son hated Kaplan. He said it mostly teaches tricks and is trying to get scores in the mid 20's based upon tricks. He wanted to know the answers without tricks... We use it for questions/practice, but that's it. I don't have mine "read" it anymore. He said McGraw Hill (different book than previous post) was good at providing info if kids didn't know material, but test questions were on the easy side, so he didn't consider it great for that. Princeton R he liked, but didn't spend much time with (for from library). Barrons 36 and Barrons (regular) were his personal favorites, but they do tend to focus on the hard problems. He also used sections from the Real ACT book for practice, but said they not good for actually learning much. They were very good for pure practice. We only own a couple of these. The rest we got for free from our library. This kid was testing into the 30's with no prep and mainly wanted to shoot for perfection, so YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaAkins Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 (edited) Cheryl, It appears that you are local to me (Wake County). I'm not sure if you are a member of spiceline, but this message came through sometime this past winter and I saved it: For those of you who are members of the Wake County Public Library, don't forget that you have lots of helps through the Library website: www.wakegov.com/libraries Click on Research Click on our Databases in OneSearch On the OneSearch page, scroll down toLearning Express and click on that. You have all ages/tests to get help with - including practice tests, etc. Be prepared to log in with your library card number and 4-digit PIN. Wake County has paid for these subscriptions, and you as members have full access to our online reference helps. Hope that might help you! ETA: There are so many resources on that link: AP prep, CLEP, SAT, ACT prep, etc, etc. And best of all, it's all "free" (well, we've paid county taxes in order to have this resource!). I realize that most others reading this will not be able to access it since you don't have a library account and pin for this county, but you may want to check out your local libraries to see if they offer anything similar. Edited June 8, 2012 by MamaAkins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted June 8, 2012 Author Share Posted June 8, 2012 Cheryl,It appears that you are local to me (Wake County). I'm not sure if you are a member of spiceline, but this message came through sometime this past winter and I saved it: For those of you who are members of the Wake County Public Library, don't forget that you have lots of helps through the Library website: www.wakegov.com/libraries Click on Research Click on our Databases in OneSearch On the OneSearch page, scroll down toLearning Express and click on that. You have all ages/tests to get help with - including practice tests, etc. Be prepared to log in with your library card number and 4-digit PIN. Wake County has paid for these subscriptions, and you as members have full access to our online reference helps. Hope that might help you! ETA: There are so many resources on that link: AP prep, CLEP, SAT, ACT prep, etc, etc. And best of all, it's all "free" (well, we've paid county taxes in order to have this resource!). I realize that most others reading this will not be able to access it since you don't have a library account and pin for this county, but you may want to check out your local libraries to see if they offer anything similar. If I saw that on spiceline, it went in one eye and out the other. :tongue_smilie: Thanks! I'll look it up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wildiris Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 The book with the red cover: The Real ACT Prep Guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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