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ACT Prep Black Book: The Most Effective ACT Strategies Ever Published

by Mike Barrett (Author)

4.2 304 ratings

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Purchase options and add-ons

Click the link above to see the fully up-to-date second edition of the ACT Prep Black Book for advice on the current version of the ACT, along with over 600 detailed walkthroughs of real ACT questions!

The "ACT Prep Black Book" gives you unique, effective ACT strategies from Mike Barrett, an ACT tutor with clients all over the globe who pay him hundreds of dollars an hour for phone tutoring. The Black Book is a must-have, whether you need to

make a perfect 36 to be competitive at an Ivy,
score a 10 in each section to claim a sports scholarship,
or anything in between.

The Black Book works best when used with the authentic ACT questions in the "Red Book," which is the Real ACT Prep Guide, 3rd Edition, by ACT, Inc. The Black Book shows you how to beat the ACT, while the Red Book gives you real ACT questions to practice with. (The ACT Prep Black Book has no affiliation with ACT, Inc.)

The Black Book and the Red Book are all you need to get your best possible ACT score.

Why is the Black Book the ideal ACT book?

It actually works, for one thing. You'll learn to use the ACT’s own design flaws against it.
The Black Book is a clear, concise roadmap to the ACT. (See the partial table of contents below). It explains exactly how every ACT question works, and how to beat it in the least time possible.
The Black Book contains over 200 original solutions for real ACT questions from the Red Book, so you know it actually works. (You'll need the 3rd edition of the Red Book to use these solutions. But you shouldn’t always trust the Red Book’s own explanations of its questions, believe it or not! As Mike demonstrates repeatedly, the Red Book’s explanations frequently rely on faulty and inconsistent reasoning. Mike shows you what’s really going with the ACT in a way that the Red Book does not.)

Click the "look inside" feature above to browse the Black Book and get a feel for how it approaches the ACT!

A selection from the table of contents:

. . .
Getting The Most Out Of The ACT Prep Black Book
A Note To Concerned Parents
Frequently Asked Questions
...
The ACT’s Biggest Weakness
...
Timing Issues
...
The General Process For Answering ACT Reading Questions
Walkthroughs: The ACT Reading Process In Action Against Real Questions
...
Unwritten Test Design Rules Of ACT Math
...
ACT Math Answer-Choice Patterns
The General Process For Answering ACT Math Questions
...
Walkthroughs: The ACT Math Process In Action Against Real Questions
...
How To Read Passages On The ACT Science Section
...
ACT Science Answer-Choice Patterns
...
Walkthroughs: The ACT Science Process In Action Against Real Questions
...
Commas In The ACT English Section
...
The General Process For Answering ACT English Questions
ACT English Answer-Choice Patterns And Issues
Walkthroughs: The ACT English Process In Action Against Real Questions
...
Unwritten Test Design Rules Of The ACT Essay (ACT Writing Test)
Recommended Step-By-Step Approach To The ACT Essay
...
Analysis Of Sample Essays In The Real ACT Prep Guide, 3rd Edition
...
When Things Go Wrong
4 ACT Myths
Shooting For A 36
If American English Isn’t Your First Language
Parting Advice

Click the "look inside" feature above to browse the Black Book and get a feel for how it approaches the ACT!

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Mike Barrett has been helping people do better on standardized tests since he was in high school. In college, he worked briefly for Kaplan but left when it became clear to him that the Kaplan method was irreconcilably different from the way he naturally thought about the test. A few months after Mike graduated from college with a degree in linguistics, his younger brothers needed help with the SAT, so he taught them his approach to the test. Word of their success spread throughout their high school, and Mike was soon offering informal SAT tutoring to a few dozen of his brothers' friends. One of those students recommended to Mike that he set up his own SAT preparation company. He thought about that for a couple of weeks and decided to pursue it. Since then, Mike has used a variety of channels to help tens of thousands of students with the SAT, PSAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, ISEE, and SSAT. He regularly travels to work with students all across the United States, and consults with students all over the world through Skype. He speaks at live events as well, and is available for booking. Mike's ACT strategies are so different from the traditional approach because he analyzes standardized tests from the ground up, rather than simply assuming that they cover the material they claim to cover. In other words, most ACT tutors and courses teach the same math, reading, and writing skills that you learn in high school, because they mistakenly assume that the ACT is a test of college readiness. But Mike has looked carefully at large numbers of real ACT questions, and knows that they don't reward the same things that teachers reward in high school and college. According to Mike, ACT questions generally rely on very basic concepts but present them in very strange ways. So students who want to improve their test scores shouldn't waste time re-learning what they've already learned in school - instead, they should learn how the ACT actually works, so they can take their existing knowledge and leverage it into a higher score. And this is exactly what Mike teaches you to do in the ACT Prep Black Book. If you want to understand how the ACT actually works, you need to read this book.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ ACT Prep Books (April 6, 2014)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 436 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0692027912
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0692027912
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.9 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5 x 0.99 x 11 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #498,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #98 in Children's Test Preparation Books
- #1,345 in Test Prep & Study Guides
- #15,440 in Unknown

Customer Reviews:
4.2 304 ratings

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Mike Barrett

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Mike Barrett is a test-prep expert who has been tutoring people for standardized tests ever since he was in high school. His approach to tests like the SAT, PSAT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, ISEE, and SSAT is unique in that it is based on his strategic analysis of the role of testing in education and in admissions, rather than on a superficial appraisal of the supposed subject-matter of an individual test. In other words, while most test-prep courses will teach students to memorize vocabulary words for the SAT, for example, Barrett explains to students how top-scoring SAT-takers minimize the importance of vocabulary by exploiting certain weaknesses inherent in the process of standardization itself.

Barrett employs a variety of formats to work with students: He tutors over the phone and in person, he lectures to large groups, he holds small seminars, he sells online video courses, and he offers free training materials through his blog and through YouTube.

Tens of thousands of students have used Mike Barrett's ideas to improve their performance on standardized tests. Because of the sheer volume and variety of feedback he has received from these tutoring students, Barrett has been able to refine his approach to testing, and tutoring, in a way that sets his methods apart from those of other test-prep resources.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5

304 global ratings

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Owen Kavanagh

The best ACT book I've come across

Reviewed in the United States on May 13, 2014

Verified Purchase

I did well on the ACT myself back in the day, and I checked out this book along with some others so I could give a recommendation to a young relative who's getting ready to take the test.

This ACT book is the only one I have seen that actually takes the exam apart on a fundamental level. It shows the reader how to figure out which parts of a question are important and then figure out the correct answer without any guesswork-- even on the dreaded science and english sections, which are usually the ones that seem hardest for most young people.

One other thing I appreciate in this book is the way it stresses the importance of the mental aspect of test-taking. As Barrett explains, scoring well on the ACT is all about doing simple things correctly, over and over again. Barrett explains what those simple things are-- and then he goes the extra step of helping the reader understand exactly what it takes to achieve the high levels of accuracy that are necessary. This is reflected in the hundreds of sample solutions in the book and also in the many short chapters on technique, focus, practice, and all of those other related skills that make the difference between an okay score an an elite one.

Just one more small note: To get the maximum benefit from this book, you'll need a copy of the ACT's official "Red Book" too. This is the only source of real test questions and it's essential to a good prep plan. These two books are all you need IMHO.

67 people found this helpful

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clive cussler

Use this book early and often!

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2017

Verified Purchase

My son upped his score by 3 points using this book. I'm going to have my younger kids start reading and practicing earlier using this book and I'm confident they'll get even better results. When you look at ACT questions, they look like nothing you've seen before. This book does a great job of explaining that all of the questions are testing something you DO know, and how to figure out what the real question is. Knowing that is a confidence boost, but to get results you really must do practice tests (from the Red Book) AND check them while constantly thinking about how the questions illustrate the points Barrett made in this book. This book was very valuable!

5 people found this helpful

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H. Miller

Tutored 4 students using these techniques. Mean ACT score? 34

Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2020

Verified Purchase

When my freshman daughter’s school let out this spring for the pandemic, it seemed a good time to do some prep work for the ACT. As an 8th grader, she had taken the test, so she decided to concentrate on her weaker subjects before the April test. When that was canceled and she registered for the June date instead, she had enough time to work on all four sections. This is the first edition of the Black Book, and she is the fourth student (not all my children) that I have used Barrett's explanations and techniques with. I would not necessarily just hand this book to a student to study with, as his explanations are long and the text is visually dense, but tutoring students using this book has been quite effective. I would have purchased the second edition for her to work through at a later date, but she will not need to retake the test.

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2015

Verified Purchase

I got several ACT books in preparation for having my daughter study for a test (she is a junior). Here are first impressions that will likely make this book a secondary, rather than a primary, source for the plan of attack for our family:

1. This is not a stand-alone book--it is supplement/companion to another book, "The Real ACT Prep Guide, 3rd addition". Don't bother buying this book unless you place your order for both--otherwise, you will be stuck with a book that gives explanations to questions that are not in the book (probably due to copyright reasons).
2. This book is FAR too wordy--the first 60 pages tell you about the test and good info on how to do well, but this info badly needs a "cliff notes version". Our kids today communicate with the conciseness of Twitter--this book reads more like War and Peace. I can think of very few teens who would have the patience to read through 60 pages without the feeling of any immediate payoff (and those who are that conscientious, detail oriented, and thorough, probably are already doing extremely well on the test anyway :)
3. The book does have some general pearls--which include only practice using real questions; "ACT is not for geniuses--anybody can score very high even if they lack actual knowledge", "ACT is very literal--every answer is wrong or right. Don't over-interpret--go with things for which there is direct proof in the text", "start with Reading, as it will lay the ground for the rest of the sections as well", and "you must learn from every mistake".
4. The real value of the book appears to be in the explanations to the actual ACT questions from the Real ACT Prep guide. The explanations are supposed to be better/more thorough/ultimately more useful than the ones contained in The Real ACT Prep guide, aka as "the red book" (not to be confused with another "red book" on amazon which appears to be capitalizing on this confusion").

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

Sherry Knoppers

Wow! Great way to approach ACT prep!

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

With all the pressure on kids to get high test scores to qualify for more scholarship money or to get into more prestigious schools, the Black Book (along with the official ATC "Red Book") is a great way to approach ACT test prep. Focusing on test taking strategies and analyzing wrong responses to sample test questions (from the "Red Book"), the Black Book offers a fresh perspective that helps students apply what they already know instead of trying to learn new material they think they might need to know. Any motivated student willing to put a little time into reading this book, doing sample tests from the "Red Book", then using the Black Book to analyze incorrect responses should be able to head into their ACT test confident that they will do well! The cost of these two books (this Black Book and the "Red Book") seems a small price to pay for the chance to maximize results on such an important test.

12 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Suraj Pancheti

Some of the Best Books for ACT Preparation

Reviewed in India on November 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

Some of the Best Books for ACT Preparation.There are many Strategies for ACT exam and would definitely help you in Increasing the Score.Study resources you use to prepare for ACT exam play a very important role in helping you to crack the exam. ACT is considered to be one of the toughest entrance exams of the world. All ACT preparation tips tell you to focus on practice but until you know your theory and concepts well, it will not be possible for you to solve ACT questions. Give it a shot and you would definitely love the book.
*"[...]"* *All the Best for your ACT preparation*

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in India on April 21, 2017

Verified Purchase

The book is very well equipped with tips and ways but I was searching for some practice questions...

One person found this helpful

G Kalimani Venkatesan

This is a really great book

Reviewed in India on September 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Note that there are some changes to the test like the essay and dual passages that are not covered in this book. Apart from that, follow every word in this book and you'll be fine

Abhinandan Jain

Five Stars

Reviewed in India on September 16, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great Book....

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