Andrew Keen is among the select group of students who achieved a score above 30 on the ACT. We had the opportunity to speak with him to gain insight into his preparation strategies for the exam.

MJ: What was the most challenging part of the ACT for you? And how did you overcome it ?

AK: The most challenging part? I’d say it was the reading for me, just because like the time constraints, mainly because you’ve got, what is it? I think it’s 40 questions in 35 minutes. But really what I did for that, as I just took some practice test, I kind of got used to how the timing felt, and I just kind of had to stay focused throughout the whole time to be able to push through.

MJ: What motivated you to aim for a high score on the ACT? How did you stay motivated throughout your preparation?

AK:Oh, really, the only the only thing I really wanted to do was do my best and my best is might be different from somebody else’s best. So really all I wouldn’t want to compare my score to other people. So I just wanted to do what I, what I knew was my best. And I stayed motivated through that just just by just knowing that if I worked hard and what the result would be something that was happy with

MJ: What specific strategies did you use for different sections of the test?

AK: So for English, I guess. The main thing was just now I try to stay like kind of mindful of what the passage was talking about throughout the whole time, even though I wasn’t reading every word. And I would just refer back to my grammar rules and stuff. And then for math, my strategy was really just plug everything that could enter the calculator, because that was the simplest way to get the why those answers. Then for English, like our reading, like I said, just being able to stay focused. And read what I did is I read the passage, like all the passages. I know a lot of people don’t like to do that. But that’s just something I do. Just try to be able to comprehend everything. And for science. I really just look at the tables. I don’t even read anything but just refer back to the tables. It’s what I do.