ACT Strategies for All

Berkley High School

2009-2010

Emily Mullins

Goals for today

Becoming aware of what is on the ACT. Understanding ACT strategies for each

section on the test. Feeling more confident about what to do

between now and the actual ACT.

Be informed!

Know the facts about the test before you get in the seat!

Understanding what will happen is half of the testing anxiety battle.

The directions for each section will ALWAYS be the same. Read these before the test so you don’t waste that time.

Be informed

Let’s read through them now…

Pay attention to what they are looking for!

Be informed!

English – 75 questions, 45 minutes No order of difficulty or separation of grammar Content Tested:

Punctuation – 13% Grammar and Usage – 16% Sentence Structure – 24% Strategy (aka purpose) – 16% Organization – 15% Style – 16%

Be Informed!

6. A. NO CHANGE B. more familiar C. best familiar D. very much familiar

7. A NO CHANGE B. familiar modern, form C. familiar, modern, form D. familiar, modern form

8. A. NO CHANGE B. it’s C. its J. their

The game arrived in Europe during the Renaissance where the most familiar labels of queen, king, bishop, and knight replaced the older names for the pieces, and with those adaptations, the more familiar modern form of the game was born.

Even with there unusual background, chess was little more than a game for aristocracy, dilettantes, esoterics, or drawing-room gentlemen

Be Informed! Math – 60 questions, 60 minutes

General order of difficulty (2 will be easier than 50), BUT this is not always the case for every student!

Content Tested Pre-algebra – 23% Elementary Algebra – 17% Intermediate Algebra – 15% Coordinate Geometry – 15% Plane Geometry – 23% Trigonometry – 7%

Be informed!

You may use a calculator, but formulas are not provided.

Formulas you need to know: Areas for square (s2), rectangle (bh), triangle

((1/2)bh) Circumference for a circle Diameter (2r) Perimeter (add all the sides)

Be informed! Reading – 40 questions; 35 minutes

Four passages in the following order: Prose Fiction, Social Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences

10 questions about each passage testing pure comprehension / “fact retention” 7-8 detailed questions with line references 2-3 general questions about passage purpose

Be informed!

Science – 40 questions; 35 minutes No order in the 7 passages, but always 3 charts

and graphs, 3 research summaries, 1 comparing hypotheses

No science knowledge required; simply reading comprehension

Be informed!

Essay – 1 question, 30 minutes Does not affect your composite (numeral) score Bad score puts a red flag on your ACT score Full introduction and conclusion required for a

passing score (6 of 12) Read very quickly (3 minutes)

Be informed!

You do NOT lose points for wrong answers so always put an answer in.

Pick one letter for the whole test for answers you do not know. No one letter is statistically preferred according to ACT and independent research.

iPods are not allowed during the test – practice without it!

Wear a watch and keep track of your time.

Skipping Questions?

News Flash:You do not have to attempt every

question on the ACT!You DO need to answer each

one, though.

Skipping Questions?

You will generally “not get to” all the questions Some of those might be ones you would have

gotten correct Why should you waste time on hard questions

you might not get right when you could spend that time on questions you know you can get right?

Math Drill

You have a third of an ACT Math test in front of you.

Circle, but do not solve the problems you know you can get right and would be the easiest for you.

5 minutes

Math Drill

Yes, it did take more time, but you swapped a little time for an increase in your accuracy!

Order of Questions/Passages

The questions and passages in the ACT do not need to be answered in order – they only need to be “bubbled” in order

Order of Questions/Passages

Students tend to do this on school tests but feel that standardized testing is somehow different.

Because this strategy is your norm, sticking to the technique calms fears during the test.

Just remember that you MUST be careful when skipping questions on their scantron.

This applies to almost all sections.

Order of Questions/Passages

English Because time is so

short, you should not skip around in English. This is the only section in which this technique does not work.

Math Basic arithmetic might

be the easier questions for you. Take your time and don’t make silly mistakes.

Long word problems take twice as long – skip them for now!

Fail geometry? Skip the questions!

Order of Questions/Passages

Reading Prose Fiction is short

fictional pieces – generally the hardest – skip if you don’t like analyzing literature!

Natural Sciences is like National Geographic and fact based – generally the easiest – start here for a confidence boost!

Science “Scary looking” passage?

Skip it and work with an “easier looking” one!

Enjoy charts? Search out those passages first.

Tired of text-heavy passages by the end of the ACT? Skip comparing hypothesis passage for some variety.

Use the Answers

Just looking at a question can be quite overwhelming because the answer could be “a thousand things!”

Students often just don’t know where to start…

USE THE ANSWERS! One of them is correct!

Use the Answers

Math Alex wants to find out how much it will cost to

buy 500 iTunes songs at 0.50each with a 10% off coupon he has and a $5 gift card.

Students will often begin calculating the answer, but the answer to such a question is often an equation. Why do the extra work? Check what your options are!

Use the Answers

Students need to check and see if answers have anything in common. They can often eliminate more than one answer with one piece of information.

English Example: A. NO CHANGE (grabbed; she then) B. grabbed. She then C. grabbed, but she then D. grabbed, then D is the only one unlike the others and must be

correct.

Use the Answers

Considering Chart A to the right, when will the precipitation in the East reach 80mm? A. May B. July C. September D. October

Simply follow the trend on the chart and do not do more work than is necessary. 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Pre

cip

ita

tio

n (

mm

)

Jan Feb March April

Month

Regional Precipitation 2002

East

West

North

Use the Answers55. Lines AB and CD are tangent

to the circle and form angles AOD, DOB, COB, and AOC. The radius of this circle is 4. Given this information, what is the measurement of angle AOD?

A. 45

B. 90

C. 125

D. 180

E. 240

Look ONLY where you need

The ACT is notorious for including extraneous minutiae which detract student’s attention from the pertinent information.

Answers will often refer to other parts of the passage so students will think, “oh I remember hearing/reading that. It must be correct!”

Practice going back and rereading.

Look ONLY where you need

Reading While you skim the passages, you should jot

down a few words to formulate a crude table of contents so you know where to check back.

Science While glancing over charts, you should mark

down trends, underline units, and briefly summarize the chart

Same goes for experiments where text is involved.

Look ONLY where you need

Math Word problems often include extra information

designed to throw off students (or “ensure they can locate the necessary details”)

Underline the actual question so you find the average instead of just the sum, for example.

English Strategies Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy Never say the same thing twice in a sentence.

Which of the following are redundant?most unique consensus of opinion period of timepast history true facts unexpected

surprisesafe haven careless error seldom happensstrangled to death in the year 1852 dead corpsetwo twins too premature fast car

Be concise as long as you don’t compromise content.

English Strategies That versus Which Which (Adj) precedes unnecessary information.

Seals, which are mammals, thrive along the California coastline.

I like bananas, which are yellow fruits that contain a lot of potassium.

That (Adj) precedes necessary information. Seals that play in the water are the most fun to watch. I like bananas that are brown and mushy.

Rule of Thumb: If the situation you are describing is always the case, then use which; otherwise, use that.

English Strategies

There versus Their versus They’re There refers to a place

Your money tree is over there. Their refers to a group’s possession

Their house is under construction right now. They’re is a contraction for “they are”

They’re really excited about their pet komodo dragon.

English Strategies Consistency is another concept tested on the ACT and

SAT. Goal: keep all of the verbs in the same form in a sentence. What’s wrong with the following sentence?

Jane loves to eat, to sleep, and drinking chocolate milk.

How would you change these sentences? To eat Grandma’s apple pie is tasting heaven. For lunch I am expecting to eat a sandwich and

drank a coke.

Math Strategies

For “simple” math problems, be very careful with your calculations The ACT will predict common errors and will

place them there. Your calculator is only as smart as what you put

in there. In other words, write out your work.

Math Strategies

Underline the actual question. If they are asking for an average, they will put the

total (without being divided) as one of the answer choices.

Keep in mind what they are actually asking you for.

Reading Strategies

FOCUS: do NOT read for comprehension and do not try to rush through all 4 passages You will have to go back and reread the majority of the

passage any way!

You have two options: skip the passage and go straight to the questions or skim through the passage first.

Reading Strategies

Before you read Preview ALL the passages and pick the one that

looks the most interesting Read the blurb/intro so you know what the

passage is aboutShorter questions are also easier; look for those!

Look at the questions so you know what they are going to ask you about

Label questions as either detailed or general

Practice!

Take 1 minute and flip through the Reading section to determine the order you would answer the passages.

Reading Strategies

After you read (if you read)… Do the easy detailed questions first Save the general “what is the purpose/message

of this passage” for LAST If they give you line numbers, go to those lines

but then read above and below 5 lines If they direct you to lines 15-17, read 10-22. By the end, you will have read the whole passage

Reading Strategies

Be familiar with the types of questions they ask.

Refer to the “Common Question Stems” worksheet

Science Strategies

There is always extra information given. Treat these like word searches: look only for

what they are asking you. Find key words and look for them together Example:

Based on the data in Table 2, one can conclude that when the mass of sucrose is decreased by one-half, the amount of heat released when it is burned in a bomb calorimeter will:

Science Strategies Use common sense!

They cannot test your scientific knowledge (aside from a control and hypothesis), but you can use your logic.

Example: Below 1,200 meters, the ice is bubble-free.

Researches hypothesized that this is because: A. oxygen cannot exist under pressure B. the gases in the bubbles have dissolved into the

surrounding ice. C. there is no gas at that level. D. the older ice at that level froze in a difference manner

than the newer ice closer to the surface.

Science Strategies

Below 1,200 meters, the ice is bubble-free. Researches hypothesized that this is because: A. oxygen cannot exist under pressure (Think of a balloon!) B. the gases in the bubbles have dissolved into the surrounding

ice. C. there is no gas at that level. D. the older ice at that level froze in a difference manner than

the newer ice closer to the surface. (How many ways can ice melt?)

Without reading the passage, you already have knocked down two answers.

Essay Strategies

Nail the format and you will nail the essay. Content does not matter as much as format

does. Five paragraphs Must have an introduction and a conclusion Specific example in each body paragraph Counterargument

Appearance counts!

Essay Strategies

Spend 2-3 minutes brainstorming both sides of the argument. Keep your writing brief, but make sure you have three reasons each with an example.

Process of Elimination

You can automatically eliminate answer choices that are: Extreme (always, must, has to) Hypothetical (If….then…) Predict the future (Women’s rights will get better) Too big for a general question

If you have two answers that are direct opposites, more than likely one of them will be the right answer. This is especially true during the Science section.

Process of Elimination

Watch out for exact wording repeated: Correct answers are always a paraphrase of the

actual passage and will not include the exact same wording.

Never mentioned? Can’t be right! Look out for answer choices that sound correct

based on what you read but that were never actually mentioned in the passage.

The Next Step…

Just like any other skill, you must PRACTICE the ACT.

There are books you can purchase at a book store to review Cracking the ACT by The Princeton Review has

great strategies The Real ACT Prep Guide by the ACT has three

full length tests with detailed answer keys.

The Next Step…

Online Reviews Leaning Express Library

www.mel.org MeL Databases Learning Express Library College Preparation

The Next Step…

The Next Step…

www.actstudent.org Some practice problems College information regarding requirements Where to sign up for an ACT

March Michigan Merit Exam you do NOT have to sign up for or pay for

If you take the ACT again, you have to register a month in advance and register

Any questions?