Act (Prep or Practice or Review) Best Books

There are numerous "Best Human activity Books" lists out there. But we think most of them aren't very adept or thorough, then I've tried to write a much better guide here.

In this article, y'all'll learn which books are absolutely disquisitional for your ACT prep, which focus on improving individual sections, and which you'll need if you're aiming for a pinnacle score. Most importantly, y'all'll acquire how to use these superlative-notch ACT prep books for constructive studying.

This guide is pretty detailed, and so hither are some quick links you can employ to bound around to unlike topics. That said, I recommend reading the whole article if y'all can!

• What's Ameliorate About This Guide to the Best Human activity Books?
• Who Is This Deed Prep Books Guide For?
• Disquisitional Human activity Prep Books
• Best Deed Books by Subject
• All-time Additional Books for Top ACT Scorers
• All-time All-in-One Volume for Less Motivated Low Scorers
• Other Gratis Resources for Act Prep
• Is Using ACT Prep Books the Best Option for You?

What'south Better About This Guide to the Best ACT Books?

Because your Human action score is of import for getting into college and y'all'll probably spend a expert amount of fourth dimension studying, it's important yous get the correct communication. Follow the incorrect advice, and it might be also tardily to improve your score before you lot need to apply to college.

You'll need to vet the advice you get (including ours) earlier deciding on your ACT prep plan. As you read each commodity in your research, ask yourself: why should I trust this person online giving me advice?

To exist transparent, here'southward why we believe our ACT prep books guide is ameliorate than others online:

• I explain in detail why good books are good and what each book's flaws are. Yous probably haven't heard of some of the books we recommend because they're either newer or less well known. By dissimilarity, most other Human activity book guides just list a few books without much rationale about what makes them worth buying.

• I believe it's important to target your weaknesses and where yous need to prep. I'll point out books that are all-time for preparation specific sections, and books that are better depending on whether you're scoring high or low. Other guides tend to assume all students are the same.

• I don't get paid for promoting these books over others. I've studied dozens of books for Deed prep, and these are the books I'd exist using if I myself were prepping. Other sites, such as most.com and reviews.com, are often paid to arrange their rankings and get kickbacks from publishers.

• I like to think that I know what I'1000 talking almost. I scored a perfect 36 on the Act and have worked personally with thousands of students prepping for the Act. I've worked with students of all levels, from those scoring below 12 to those aiming for 34+. Other writers don't always have the expertise needed to differentiate between Act prep books, and thus they tend to recommend books as an afterthought (and you can probably tell).

Ane important disclaimer: I'yard co-founder of PrepScholar, an online ACT prep program. I believe nosotros've built the best prep program available. It diagnoses your strengths and weaknesses and gives you a structured all-in-one program, combining the best aspects of the books beneath, and then y'all know exactly what you need to written report at every signal in your prep.

However, I want to stress that you don't demand a program to excel at the ACT. In fact, writing this guide might lose us some customers if you decide you don't need a program at all. Simply if you lot'd rather non have to manage x books and would prefer an integrated, consummate program with the greatest take chances of raising your ACT score, cheque out our comprehensive Human activity program.

No matter what you ultimately decide, if you're serious nearly Act prep like I think yous are, continue on reading.

Who Is This ACT Prep Books Guide For?

Starting time, this guide is for students who are serious virtually Human activity prep. You must be motivated to go a high score, and you need to exist willing to put in hard piece of work. Getting through these books will accept dozens of hours, simply because the ACT covers so much material.

If yous program to study only five hours or and so, your choice of book won't make much departure. Y'all should focus your time mainly on taking an Human activity do tests and reviewing your answers. With such a brusk amount of prep time, your score won't go up much—and you lot shouldn't expect a miracle.

Buying high-quality ACT prep books—and actually using them!—is the first and easiest step of Act prep. Y'all'll demand to put in serious work to actually get the score improvements y'all want. Nosotros'll explain below the best ways to use Human activity prep books.

Secondly, this guide is for students who want to improve their scores by more than two points. To make consistent improvements at this level, y'all demand more but tricks. You need to sympathise the content beingness tested—like the underlying math concepts and grammer rules—rather than just ineffective "tricks" that make you experience like y'all've learned something when you really haven't.

At present, if y'all're looking to better by only ane point, you might be able to do that simply by retaking the examination, specially if you lot've taken the Act merely once.

Overall, every bit long every bit you lot're serious about score improvement and want quality ACT books to study with, this is the guide for yous.

The Best ACT Prep Books of 2022

We're going to divide the best ACT books into a few categories:

• Critical Books: These are accented must-take books for your ACT prep, no matter your skill level or weaknesses.

• Subject area-Specific Books: These are the all-time books to use for the Deed sections: English, Math, Reading, and Scientific discipline.

• Books for Height Scorers: These books are challenging and guaranteed to push button you over the top.

• Books for Depression Scorers and Depression Motivation: If yous want to study for only a handful of hours and improve your ACT score by just a footling bit, these are the best books to use. That said, we don't recommend putting such piddling time into your prep!

Disquisitional Human action Prep Books

These must-take books are what I believe everyone should have, regardless of your electric current score or what y'all need to ameliorate. This category is extremely difficult for books to qualify for. In fact, there are merely two Human action books out of the dozens I've tested that I think are worth ownership.

The Official ACT Prep Guide 2021-2022

Nosotros've written at length almost the importance of official ACT exercise questions. The ACT is weird and tests concepts in means you've never seen in schoolhouse before. This means that y'all demand to train with realistic questions then you tin learn the patterns of the ACT.

Official ACT practise tests released by ACT, Inc., are the gilt standard for Human activity practise questions. Each test contains real questions given to students at previous exam administrations. The quality of official questions is far better than those written by unofficial sources such as Kaplan and The Princeton Review.

This particular prep book, informally chosen the "Red Book," is by far the best source of ACT practice tests.

Pros

• It has the best set of ACT practice tests you can get anywhere, flow.

• The book's six full-length exercise tests offering a sufficient amount of practice for most students. Since each test takes at least four hours to complete and review, that'south already 24 hours of material!

• Includes 400 additional practice questions, available online.

• Answer explanations for each of the exercise test questions are bachelor in the volume.

Cons

• You can go 6 other official practice tests for free online (although these don't have respond explanations).

• Answer explanations in the book are not specially helpful for self-learning. Most explanations say something like this: "A is wrong because A is wrong. B is right for these reasons." This book doesn't bear witness you how to solve the question from step one, which is what most students need.

• Six tests isn't quite enough for ambitious students. You lot'll demand to supplement your prep with other free practise tests or the official online ACT program, which is skillful only for the extra examination it offers.

• Information technology doesn't provide other instructional material. If you're bad at algebra, yous tin can't rely on this book solitary. Y'all're really only buying it for the tests, and Human activity, Inc., knows this.

• Taking exercise tests without learning strategy isn't going to ameliorate your score, and the book doesn't provide guidance on how to do this effectively.

• Most of this volume is identical to the 2020-21 edition (except for one new exercise test), and then if you already own that book, information technology's probably not worth buying this newest version.

ACT Prep Black Book, Second Edition

This is the but other critical book I recommend for Human action prep. Just using the Black Volume lonely, you'll probable need supplemental help (which I'll talk more about below). But what it does accept is and then good that I believe every student using ACT prep books in their studies should read it.

What y'all'll get from the Blackness Volume is a manner to retrieve about the Human activity. Just what does this hateful? Here are a couple of examples of what you'll larn:

• The ACT is designed to be a predictable, standardized test. It needs to test basic concepts and then that it can exist administered nationwide to all students, but information technology also needs to be difficult, so it distorts the questions in weird ways.

• Every answer must be unambiguously right, or else students would complain that their incorrect answers are correct. This means that your strategy should be to rule out all wrong answer choices, which is particularly important on ACT Reading.

Some of the concepts in this book were things I understood intuitively back when I took the Deed, merely the author here articulates them in a crystal clear style. It'southward influenced the way that I call back well-nigh teaching our students at PrepScholar. Of all books on the market place, this book aligns most closely with my personal philosophy on the Human activity and how to succeed on it.

Pros

• Information technology offers a very lucid have on the ACT. The ideas in it will modify your view on the Human activity and hopefully motivate y'all to work harder, knowing that whatever student can excel on the test.

• Information technology contains practical strategies that are more than helpful than those in most other Human activity books; you lot don't just acquire to rely on tricks.

• The volume doesn't assume that all students are the same. It offers a few alternatives for strategies, so suggests that you endeavor them out to meet which one works best for you.

• It offers a solid set of answer explanations for the hardest questions in the Official Guide (encounter previous book). The author breaks down the best style to approach each question in a straightforward way.

Cons

• This book requires a ton of self-discipline and insight to use effectively. Because you're learning from your mistakes and no ane is at that place to guide you, you need to be cocky-driven to experiment with unlike strategies and find out which i works all-time for yous. For some students, following a set of directly guidelines could exist less disruptive.

• Question explanations are based on the onetime third edition of the Red Book. If you don't accept that book, large parts of this book will be either difficult to utilise.

• Most question explanations embrace the hardest questions in the Ruby-red Volume. These serve equally good examples for how to think generally most Act questions, but if you're scoring at the 8-26 score level on a section, these questions can be pretty confusing.

• The fundamental content is lacking. If y'all're weak in algebra, for instance, this book alone will not assist you lot principal the discipline area. I believe more than in recognizing your weaknesses and, through focused prep and specific practice questions, mastering those skills. This book is more almost teaching an approach to prepping for the ACT.

• Its English language and Science sections are non as potent every bit its Reading and Math sections are. This is largely due to the nature of the English section, in which it'south less near understanding how the test works and more than about mastering grammer rules.

Best ACT Books by Subject

Beyond the critical books above, you'll virtually likely need supplemental help on specific sections. This section discusses the best books for ACT English, Math, Reading, and Science. These books all follow my prep philosophy:

• Divide ACT content into skills, and get focused training on those skills.
• Use realistic, high-quality questions to prep finer for the Human action.
• Cover but what you demand to know—not advanced cloth that's not on the ACT.

Best Deed English Prep Book

The all-time mode to excel at ACT English is to understand the grammar rules and how they appear on the ACT. You also demand to do a lot of focused exercise questions to brand certain you learn the patterns of the Act. That'southward how we designed our online Human action prep plan to teach you grammar.

My recommendation for all-time ACT English volume is The Consummate Guide to Act English by Erica 50. Meltzer. The book is fantastic at distilling grammer into exactly what you lot need to know for the Act; you won't take to larn whatsoever cabalistic grammar concepts that won't appear on the exam. As for the rules that are tested, Meltzer presents them all clearly and covers the essential foundations for those who want to castor up on basic grammer knowledge.

Pros

• This book articulates grammer rules clearly and accurately.

• It covers just what y'all need to know for the Act and cuts out extraneous material.

• Exercise questions employ a realistic ACT-passage format. They're also all grouped by topic so y'all tin can get repeated practice with the same skill.

Cons

• It's a fleck pricey for a book that covers just one Human action section (around $30).

• Testing a single grammar skill in this format can be misleading practice for the real test. For instance, if yous know the section is focusing on subject field/verb agreement, you might exist biased toward recognizing that error on a practice quiz only not on the actual exam.

Best Deed Math Prep Book

My philosophy on Deed Math is that the best way to significantly amend your math score is to acquire the underlying math content. Learning some simple strategies like plugging in answer choices can get you lot a niggling progress, but you'll quickly encounter a ceiling if you lot have gaps in your underlying math skills. Ultimately, you demand to larn algebra, geometry, and number theory to exist able to do well on the ACT.

Your best bet, therefore, is to find a volume that tin both teach yous math content in an organized way and give you practice problems to test individual skills.

For these reasons, I recommend the Ultimate Guide to the Math Act past Richard F. Corn. This is a well-written ACT prep book that forces you to buckle down on your weakest math areas.

Pros

• Its lessons teaching math concepts are clear and helpful. They stay focused on math you lot need to know for the Act and don't swoop into whatsoever irrelevant topics.

• The book divides math into more manageable sub-topics. For case, algebra is divided into solving equations, FOILing, word problems, etc. This division into smaller skills lets you concentrate on and attack specific points in your prep.

• It contains higher-level strategies on how to prep effectively.

Cons

• Answer explanations are lacking. They bear witness you why an respond is right but don't teach y'all how to recognize the problem and solve it.

• Though high quality, questions could be more than creative. The Act has a host of questions that are unique and unusual, and having this diverseness is important to mastering the test.

• The book doesn't distinguish by difficulty level. On the ACT, the hardest questions are much more challenging than the easiest questions. If you're scoring in the average score range, you lot don't actually demand to know how to solve the hardest xx% of questions. Trying to understand these tin can be a waste of time when you should instead build your fundamental skills.

If you're struggling with ACT math concepts at a bones level (say, scoring 16 or below), I recommend that you supplement your work with Khan Academy, a gratuitous online program that offers an engaging way to train your near basic math skills. Notation that it'south not customized for the ACT specifically, so this program lonely won't be plenty for your ACT prep.

Best ACT Reading Prep Book

In my feel with thousands of students, ACT Reading is the most difficult section to amend. It uses logical reasoning skills that aren't as easy to master as math concepts and grammer rules are. It's very important to figure out what types of Reading questions volition be asked and how yous can approach these questions in a systematic way.

My recommendation for best ACT Reading book is once again by Erica L. Meltzer: The Complete Guide to ACT Reading. This volume dissects the ACT Reading section by both question blazon and skill. Meltzer does a great task pedagogy the cadre of what the question is asking and how to work with the passage to arrive at the right reply.

Of all writers, Meltzer aligns most closely with my philosophy of drilling questions skill past skill to recognize patterns.

Pros

• It offers a great breakdown of the Reading section on a skill-by-skill level. You'll get some of the most helpful strategies for every Reading question blazon.

• The book has lots of realistic, high-quality passages and questions. Meltzer uses passages extremely like to those you'll come across on the ACT.

• Information technology contains useful strategies on skimming and how to approach Reading passages.

Cons

• For a book that covers just 1 section, it'south a bit pricey (over $xxx).

• The writing style is dry and clinical, like an academic textbook. I personally prefer this—cut out the fluff—merely it tin can be quite dumbo for the boilerplate educatee.

• Its lack of creative page layouts and trend to employ a lot of text on large pages can go irksome.

All-time ACT Science Prep Volume

Despite the fact that many students notice the Science section to exist the nearly challenging part of the ACT, until recently at that place were no books specifically dedicated to helping you on Human activity Science. At PrepScholar, nosotros know all the tricks for making Human action Science easier, so we decided to compile them into a volume.

Because it's the only book on the market place specifically dedicated to ACT Scientific discipline, we fabricated sure to make The PrepScholar Guide to ACT Science exceptional. This book covers every topic, skill, and question type yous'll run across on Human action Science, which means that nix on this section will come as a surprise on test mean solar day.

Virtually importantly, this book also includes all of our best Deed Scientific discipline exam-taking tricks. Many students go tripped upward on the Science section because information technology's then dissimilar from the scientific discipline tests they've taken in school. However, this volume shows you how to identify all the tricks in ACT Scientific discipline and acquire how to avoid getting fooled by them.

Pros

• The volume contains a complete breakdown of every type of passage and question type you'll see on Human action Scientific discipline.

• It includes a listing of every scientific discipline fact you could be tested on, so you lot're just studying the science you demand to know.

• It as well contains multiple strategies for tackling Science passages then you lot can choose the method that works all-time for you.

• It has lots of expert test-taking tips and strategies.

Cons

• There's no final quiz or test section at the terminate of the book. To fully practise everything yous've learned from this book, we recommend taking full-length Science sections.

Best Additional Books for Top Act Scorers

Looking at the list above, yous can see that you already have your work cut out for you. With nine full-length exercise tests and five books at your disposal, you lot'll be studying for well over 80 hours. If you lot go through all of your practice using the guidelines we recommend, you'll probable make huge improvements.

If you still desire additional exercise, though, I recommend Barron'south Human activity books—specially if you're aiming for a well-nigh-perfect score. I call back using these books during my ain prep in high school, and while Barron's questions are inferior to those in official ACT exercise tests, they're a solid fill-in source to use if you've finished everything else above.

Pros

• These books offer a lot of content. With Barron'south you go thousands of practice questions and detailed lessons with several examples.

• They're extremely thorough, covering every nook and cranny you need to know. You lot can exist confident that very petty is tested outside of what's contained in these books.

Cons

• Topics can sometimes be likewise difficult than what y'all demand to know for the ACT. Some questions go unrealistically hard in a way you'd never see on the bodily test. If you're not an ACT expert, you won't be able to detect when this happens and might end up wasting time studying content that doesn't ultimately matter.

• The books often lack clear direction on what's important and what's not. For example, a grammer rule that appears once every exam gets the same number of pages as a grammar dominion that appears eight times every test. Once again, this is the flip side of being thorough. Equally a result, these aren't the books to use if y'all take limited study time.

• Non all of their strategies are good. For instance, I have mixed feelings near the reading communication in Barron's ACT 36 (pictured above).

Best All-in-1 Book for Less Motivated Low Scorers

My recommendations have so far been for the ambitious student who really wants to better his or her score.

Merely I know some students but want to put in five hours, become some exposure to the test, so accept the ACT and forget about it. I personally believe that for most students, improving your Human action score is the best way to improve your chances of college admission. If you lot experience like you don't desire to put in much endeavor to studying for the ACT, I strongly suggest reexamining your approach.

That said, if you're stuck in the mindset of merely getting the Act over with, the book I recommend is Kaplan's Human activity Prep 2021. Information technology's an all-in-1 book that covers all 4 sections and contains practise questions and tests. It doesn't excel at any of what it'south doing, but information technology covers the virtually of import bases. It also tends to have more reasonable content than other all-in-one books, such as the Deed book by The Princeton Review.

I'll be honest: I don't love this volume. I don't even really like it. To be frank, I don't recommend information technology if you seriously want to improve your Human action score and are willing to put in study time. But if you only want a single source that can practice an okay chore and is easily digestible, this is the best volume out at that place.

Pros

• It covers all four ACT sections and has a total of three full-length practice tests (ii of which are online).

• At nearly $15, this volume is pretty affordable in terms of the breadth information technology covers.

• It offers some helpful, basic strategies that can get y'all a few like shooting fish in a barrel points if you get stuck answering questions.

Cons

• Exercise questions tend to be unrealistic. They often don't phrase questions the way the Act would, and they don't examination concepts the right way, either. Questions likewise don't fox you in the same ways the real test does.

• The strategies are not very helpful once you motility across a 24 score level on a section.

Other Free Resources for ACT Prep

More of import than buying ACT prep books is knowing how to use them effectively. The more than books y'all take, the more important information technology is to understand how to build a unified study organization.

We've written thorough guides to walk you through your ACT study plan:

• five Strategies That Will Get Y'all four+ Points on the Deed
• How to Get a Perfect Act Score, past a 36 Total Scorer
• When Should You lot Accept the Act? All-time Exam Dates

Is Using Human activity Prep Books the Best Option for You?

At that place are a lot of Act prep methods available to you, and book studying is only one of them. Simply to explore all of our options, allow's quickly examine whether studying with Human action books is right for you.

People who choose to report with books do and then for different reasons. Some do it for cost reasons. As I noted in a higher place, the best Human activity books can get expensive. If you buy all of the top books, you lot'll exist spending around $200. This is already close to the cost of our online Deed prep program, which goes beyond books by guiding your studies pace by pace and motivating you lot to put in the fourth dimension.

Others report with books considering they're self-motivated and like pedagogy themselves. If this isn't you, books tin can be a disappointing manner to spend your fourth dimension—and y'all probably won't improve, either. By far one of the about important ways to improve your Act score is to written report your mistakes and larn from them. If you lot tin can't practice this reliably, you lot'll need extra help to become started.

Nosotros've written a free guide to compare other methods of Human action prep. Click the image below to download this guide so you lot can compare the different methods and see which 1 is best for you.

What'south Next?

Agreement your ACT target score is critical. Get started by reading our step-by-pace guide to figuring out what Human activity score you need to aim for.

Bank check out our manufacture-leading online Human activity program. We've designed it to cover all of the advantages of ACT books and tutors—and more than—at an affordable price. Featuring in-depth strategy lessons and thousands of practice questions, our program uses content from the leading books. Nosotros even include the Official ACT Prep Guide to a higher place as part of your plan.

Beyond that, our plan acts similar your personal tutor. It guides y'all step by step through what you should be working on at every moment to all-time improve your score. It customizes to your strengths and weaknesses, and and then gives you focused practice and so yous learn the patterns on the Human action. Furthermore, it motivates you to study so that you put in plenty fourth dimension.

There's a 4-point guarantee, likewise—meaning that if yous don't amend your score by 4 points or more, yous go all of your money back!

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and feel. If you purchase an particular through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Take friends who also demand help with examination prep? Share this article!

About the Author

Every bit co-founder and head of product design at PrepScholar, Allen has guided thousands of students to success in Saturday/Act prep and college admissions. He'due south committed to providing the highest quality resources to help you lot succeed. Allen graduated from Harvard University summa cum laude and earned two perfect scores on the SAT (1600 in 2004, and 2400 in 2014) and a perfect score on the Human action. You tin as well find Allen on his personal website, Shortform, or the Shortform web log.

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Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/best-act-prep-books

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