Happy first ACT of the 2025-2026 school year! With the test results coming out soon, we hope you will be satisfied with your scores. If you’re wondering what comes next—never fear. I’ve compiled tips and advice from your favorite ACT Prep Course teachers here at Edmond North on what they recommend to help you achieve your goals.

Now what?

Mrs. Walls is the English section prep teacher. She teaches AP Literature, Teach OK, and is the English Department Head Teacher. 

When you’ve just gotten your scores back and aren’t sure what the first move is, her advice is to “look at your composite score and then the subscores of the individual tests and compare them to any tests you’ve taken before.” She continues, “If it happens to be one of the tests that allows you to order your answers back (with a copy of the test and the answer key), use it to identify any strengths or weaknesses–look closely to identify error patterns.” 

If you get your scores back, and you start to freak out, don’t. Mrs. Wall’s encourages students to have a growth mindset.

“Celebrate the win! Regardless of your score, recognize the effort. Some students feel disappointed at first–remind yourself that the ACT is just one piece of the admissions picture, and you almost always have time and options to improve.” 

Pro tips

Mrs. Riley is the math section prep teacher. She also teaches AP Statistics and IA Algebra II. 

A common problem when taking the ACT is running out of time. If you’re worried about timing, her advice is, “The best thing you can do is don’t spend too much time on one problem.”

Time is essential on the exam, and sometimes students can freeze if they are stuck on a difficult problem. 

Riley suggests, “If you don’t know what to do, skip that problem, guess and move on. Don’t spend four to five minutes on a problem that you are going to end up guessing on anyway—you just wasted time.”

Another important tip is not to leave answers blank. 

“Don’t leave anything unanswered. You are scored on how many questions you answer correctly. If you don’t answer a question, you have a zero chance to get it correct! Guessing is better than leaving it blank.”

Practice and try again

If you didn’t get the score you wanted, remember, don’t stress too much. The ACT is all about practice and repetition—it just takes time. You can also always take it again. Even after you’ve submitted your scores to colleges, you can continue to take the test to increase your score for scholarship purposes. 

“Try try again! Practice—if you do nothing between tests, nothing is going to happen to your score,” Riley says. 

As someone who has taken the exam five times I can confirm the more you take it the more familiar you become with the patterns and format of it.

We hope these tips and tricks will be helpful. The next national ACT is on October 18, and the last day to register on the act.org website is September 30. Let us know in the comments what you like to do to prepare for the ACT!