The Complete Guide to ACT Reading, 2nd Edition

My son credits these guides (we got him the Reading and the English) for his several point increase on the ACTs. We asked him if he wanted us to pay for the expensive ACT prep class and he said he would prefer the books. He really studied with them and it paid off. Reading was initially his lowest score and he ended up with a 36 after using this guide! He asked me to write a review!

As an English tutor and teacher, this book has been invaluable in terms of explaining how to approach the various multiple-choice questions test takers encounter (ex: direct, inference, tone, vocabulary, etc.) I'm a fan of Meltzer's last two books (The Complete Guides to SAT Reading and ACT Writing) and this book does not disappointment. As her previous books, this book is also use-friendly for teachers and beneficial for students.Her two practice tests at the end of this book also add extra assignments to the dearth of official and official looking ACT tests available.Yes, the book has some typos and the her writing isn't the most gripping nor compelling work you will read; however, in terms of content and strategy, I don't know of a better book to supplement the reading section of the Real ACT Prep Guide.

We incorporated this into our homeschool. So my high schooler does pages from this every three days as she also has the Science, Writing and Vocabulary. It's a great way to study and not be pressured. She did say, that they explain things well... but since she did the Analytical Grammar curriculum it was a decent review.

I am the director of a small learning center that teaches a wide spectrum of academic skills to students. Last night I was working with one of our students on the ACT. We used the "REAL ACT" guide, which I have always liked, and then went to Erica Meltzer's Complete Guide for more skill and strategy for the test.WOW! As usual Erica came to rescue, providing strategies for students at every level of skill development. We have a long history of great success with middle school test preparation, but using Erica's books has taken us to a much higher level with high school students! I cannot recommend her work OR her website highly enough. Check out [...]and BUY HER BOOKS to help your son or daughter!

I found this book to be very helpful. It is important to understand that simply buying an ACT study guide book will not improve scores; if you want to see a noticeable improvement in scores you have to put in a lot of work. That being said, I raised my reading score from a 25 to a 31 from using primarily this book and a few others to test my new strategies. If you want to improve your reading score, this book coupled with self-motivation is where to begin.

This is great prep for the ACT reading comprehension section, and I use it with my ACT prep students who have already scored a 28 or above in that section of the exam, but want to raise their score; one of my recent students scored a 34 after I tutored her using this study guide. Meltzer is definitely the expert on this topic. Her text on the ACT English is also quite good.

She loved it and said it was just what she needed to up her score.

While there's a lot of information here, I was disappointed as someone who teaches test prep, looking for a solid guide for my students. The book is way too wishy-washy about technique. The author offers several choices which serve more to confuse the student than provide solid direction. The book is also way too long, about 300 pages and not a chart, graph or bit of color, things that would make a student keep paying attention.The book is dry to the bone, just all black and white text, which makes reading a real chore and for someone who is a visual learner, there are no helpful asides to reinforce what the other is talking about. It makes reading the book seem like watching paint dry. 11th graders don't have a great attention span and putting a 300 page, all black and white book with no graphics whatsoever is a great way to turn them off. While I believe the author has good knowledge in the subject, I have the knowledge to know it didn't work well for my students and my search for a good book on SAT/ACT Reading will continue!