Guide to ACT Preparation

Basic Needs: Sleep

• Starts at 8:00 am
• First test has 75 questions with 45 minute
• No warm up time

Basic Needs: Food

• Eat breakfast before ACT
• No breaks until about 10:00 am
• Have a snack during break

WHat to Bring

• Make sure to bring a calculator
• You must be comfortable with calculator
• Dress for all temperature conditions

Time limitations

• Rooms may not contain a clock
• Bring watch to keep time
• Make sure all alarms on watch are off

Avoid Whiplash

• English: Complete each passage then bubble answers
• Mathematics: Complete one page then bubble answers
• Reading: Complete each passage then bubble answers
• Science: Complete each activity then bubble answers
• Be careful not to bubble incorrectly

Nothing Blank

• Leave no answer blank
• There is no penalty for wrong answers
• Fill in all bubbles not answered in extra time

English Test

• 75 questions
• 45 minutes
• 36 seconds per question

Be comfortable with no change

• No change will be answer approximately 16 times 
• If there is no error then put no change and move on

Semicolon rules

• Semicolons separate two closely related independent clauses
• This does not require a coordinating conjunction
• Semicolons can replace a transitional phrase or conjunctive adverb as well

Colons

• Colons are rarely used on the ACT
• There will be little to no colons

Fragments

• Fragments will not be short and obvious
• Most likely to be longer
• Most of the time they are unfinished thoughts

Commas

• Most used punctuation mark
• Often included incorrectly in sentences
• Select answer choices without unnecessary commas

Dashes

• These are like super commas
• Take place of parentheses
• Commas and dashes cannot be mixed and matched

Be comfortable with Omit and delete

• These options are disproportionately correct
• Usually requires irrelevant information to be deleted

Verb Agreement

• Most tested skill along with punctuation
• Used for verb tense and subject-verb agreement

Avoid redundancy

• May seem like sophisticated writing
• Actually is unnecessarily wordy
• Often needs correction on the English section of the ACT

Pronoun

• Typically two skills are tested using pronouns
• Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement
• Pronoun-Antecedent Clarity

Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

• Simplest of the pronoun skills
• Wants to know if the pronoun agrees with the noun

Pronoun-Antecedent Clarity

• A little more complicated
• Questions used in asks reader to determin what the pronoun refers to

Parallelism

• Consistency in a sentence
• Gives the sentence a rhythm

Rhetorical Skills

• Considered most difficult questions and asks one of five things
• Select the sentence that best introduces a paragraph
• Select the sentence that best achieves a desired effect
• Determine the effect of removing or adding a sentence
• Determine whether or not the passage has achieved a stated purpose

Mathematics test

• 60 questions
• 60 minutes
• 1 minute per question

Mathematics test cont.

• Contains 3 core subjects
• Algebra with 33 questions
• Geometry with 23 questions
• Trigonometry with 4 questions

Difficulty

• Does not generally get tougher as it progersses
• First 20 questions are generally easy
• Last 20 questions are generally tough
• Manage your time
• Do not take 20 minutes on first 20 questions

Take advantage of answer choices

• Use the choices if you are not sure how to solve a problem
• Plug in answer choices if you feel it is faster for you

Quadratic Equations

• One of most challenging skills
• Most questions will have few options
• Use answer choices to start if difficult

Angles

• Must understand the angle properties for some parts of ACT
• Make sure to understand the following properties:
• Triangle Sum Theory, 360 degrees in a circle, supplementary angles
• Complementary angles, vertical angles, and corresponding angles

Perimeter

• Generally easy
• Used in real life situation problems
• Must know the relevant information to solve
• Uses irregular figures frequently

Area

• Will be used for several shapes
• Expect to see the following:
• Rectangular Area(base*height)
• Triangular Area(1/2*base*height)
• Circular Area(pi*radius^2)

Slope

• Be able to determine slope of lines using 2 points
• Know the slope relationships of the following:
• Parallel and perpendicular lines

Probability

• Generally easy questions
• Make sure to answer the actual question
• Some problems will try to confuse you

Counting Techniques

• Easiest questions on Mathematics ACT
• Requires simple math

X/y-intercepts

• Used to determine equation of lines
• Understand the definition of these
• X-intercept: value of x when y is 0
• Y-intercept: value of y when x is 0

Exponent rules

• Most likely will be asked about these once
• Usually multiplying exponents that have same base
• Might see a power of a power

Scientific Notation

• Usually used as a small part in a big question
• Will have to convert answer to scientific notation

Distance and midpoint formulas

• These are not given
• More of a chance to see midpoint
• May see both

Pythagorean Theorm

• At least three questions that require for use
• Many more where it can help
• Usually asked in a real world question

Trigonometry

• Only will be asked four questions
• Generally easy questions
• Understand relationships of sine, cosine, and tangent
• SOHCAHTOA

Reading ACT

• 4 passages(750 words)
• 40 questions
• 35 minutes

Untitled Slide

Time Crunch

• Most challenging test due to time
• 3 minutes to read gives you 30 seconds for each answer
• You could read passage in the order of each question

Types of Passages

• Prose fiction
• Social sciences
• Humanities
• Natural Sciences

Specific References

• Easy questions
• Give reader line that contains information needed
• No need to read passage for these

Lead words

• Easily identifiable words in questions
• Generally names and places
• Often in quotations or italicized

Reverse Lead words

• Questions that use word EXCEPT
• Save questions like this for last
• Look for leading terms that do not appear in context

Do not study

• Use what is given to you to answer questions
• Do not use what you already know
• Only focus on the part the question is about

Extremes

• Look for words like ALL, NEVER, ALWAYS
• These indicate extremes
• These are seldom the correct answers

Five Major question types

• Main Idea
• Specific Detail
• Conclusion/Inference
• Extrapolation
• Vocabulary

Science Test

• 7 passages
• 40 questions
• 35 minutes

Breakdown

• Experiment Passages(3)
• Charts/Graphs(3)
• Fighting Scientists(1)

Ignore the introduction

• Do not read introduction on most passages
• Only read introduction for fighting scientists passage
• Introductions generally waste time

Spot the difference

• Examine data in the experiments
• What changes? What is collected? What is controlled?
• Most questions refer to one experiment or chart/graph

fighting scientists

• Read introduction
• Understand the paragraphs
• What makes the scientists different?
• Identify stance on which both disagree with each other upon

Do not study

• Like the reading passages
• Only use what is given
• Do not use what you know

Identify Trends

• Identify trends in the data
• Understand what a direct/indirect relationship is
• Often referred  to as positive/negative trends

Good Luck!

• Make sure to read over this
• Remember strategies to achieve maximum time
• Check answers
• Spend time wisely!