Guide to ACT Preparation

Guide to ACT Preparation

Basic Needs: Sleep and food

• Starts at 8:00 am, no time to warm up
• Eat breakfast before (no break until 10:00 am)
• Eat a snack during the break

What to Bring: Technology and apparel flexibility

• Bring your own approved calculator
• Dress for success
• Or dress for all types of room temperatures (hot, cold, moderate)
• Bring a watch in case the room has no clock

Avoid whiplash

• English: Complete each passage and then bubble
• Math: Complete one page and then bubble
• Reading: Complete each passage and then bubble
• Science: Complete each activity and then bubble
• Leave nothing blank, always guess

English

Being Comfortable with no change

• No change will be correct about 16 times 
• It is a choice 25% of the time and correct 21%

Semicolon Rules

• Separate two related clauses w/o coordinating conjunction 
• Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, etc.
• Separate clauses with transitional phrase or conjunctive adverb 
• Can always be replaced with a period  
• Ex. I had to go to the bathroom; it was being cleaned.

Colons

• Less popular
• Rarely asked on the ACT
• Primary purposes are:
• To begin a business letter
• To introduce a list 

Fragment Checks

• Will not be obvious like "The dog is"
• Most likely be longer, unfinished thoughts
• Ex. After you finish cleaning and washing the dishes"

Commas

• Often placed to where it interrupts a sentence
• Most often used to add a parenthetical phrase
• Parenthetical phrase: expression that adds info that's not necessary
• Also used to set off an appositive: re-names the subject
• Ex. Sheila, a new member in the club, was cool. 

Dashes

• Basically super commas
• Indicate an interruption in thought or dialogue
• Can take the place of parentheses
• Commas and dashes cannot be mixed

Contractions vs. Possessives

• Contractions: "break them open" to see if they sound wrong
• Example: That is they're school. --> That is they are school --> Incorrect
• Most common: their, they're, there/ your, you're/ it's, its, its'

OMIT and delete

• Use OMIT and DELETE
• Usually requires irrelevant information to be deleted
• Delete sentence that does not match the tone of the essay

Verb Agreement

• Verb Tense: use the whole passage to help you
• Anything not underlined is correct
• Subject-Verb Agreement: separating the subject from the verb
• The kids at the honor roll breakfast is super cool. WRONG
• Subject: kids; Verb: should be are, not is 

Pronouns and Paralellism

• Pronoun- Antecedent Agreement: 
• when pronoun agrees with the noun (the antecedent) 
• Bob told Bill that he wanted to go to her house. WRONG (his not her)
• Parallesim: consistency throughout a sentence to give it rhythm
• Avoid being repetitive; it sounds more sophisticated but it's not

Who vs Whom vs which vs that

• Who: typically part of the subject 
• Whom: objective pronoun, often placed after "to" or "for"
• That and which refer to objects not people
• "that" is used in restrictive clauses (that cannot be deleted)
• "which" is used in non-restrictive clauses (can be deleted)

Rhetorical skills

• 1. Select sentence that best introduces a paragraph
• 2. Select sentence that best achieves the goal-- not what sounds best
• 3. Determine what will happen if you remove a sentence
• 4. Determine what will happen of you add a sentence
• 5. Determine if the passage achieves the purpose

Math

Content

• Algebra- 33 questions
• Geometry- 23 questions
• Trigonometry- 4 questions 

Difficulty

• Does not necessarily get more difficult
• First 20 are usually easiest 
• Cannot spend 20 minutes on first 20 questions

Answering the Questions

• Use the answer choices and cross out what is definitely incorrect
• Traditional Method: set up equations to solve
• Plug in Method: plug in the choices to see which is correct

Quadratic Equations

• Most ask for solutions with little options to choose from
• If it's too difficult, use the answer choices to start
• y=x^2+2x+2
• If you have time and cannot factor, use the quadratic formula
• x=(-b+-sqrt(b^2-4ac))/2a

Angles

• Triangle Sum Theory: interior angles add to 180 degrees
• 360 degrees in a circle
• Supplementary angles: add to 180 degrees
• Complementary angles: add to 90 degrees
• Vertical and Corresponding angles

Perimeter and Area

• Perimeter: easy, often irregular figures
• Area of Rectangle=Base x Height
• Area of Triangle= 1/2 Base x Height
• Area of Circle: pi x radius squared

Slope, x and y intercpets

• Slope: know slope given two points or equation
• Know relationship between slope of parallel and perpendicular lines
• x-intercept: x value when y is zero
• y-intercept: y value when x is zero

SPecial Triangles

• 30-60-90/ 1-sqrt3-2
• 45-45-90/ 1-1-sqrt2
• Easiest side lengths: 3-4-5

Other Math Rules

• Exponents: most common rule is multiplying exponents with same base
• Scientific Notation: usually asked to give answer in notation after solving
• Pythagorean Theorem: a squared plus b squared equal c squared
• Distance and Midpoint Formulas: NOT given
• Better chance of getting midpoint formula question than distance

Trigonometry

• sine=opposite/ hypotenuse
• cosine= adjacent/ hypotenuse
• tangent=opposite/ adjacent 
• SOH CAH TOA

Reading

Time Crunch and types of passages

• Most challenging because of time 
• Some believe test takers should do most interesting first
• Types: Prose fiction, Social Sciences, Humanities, Natural Science
• Try to finish at least 3 of the 4 passages

Specific References and Lead Words

• Easiest questions refer to specific line or paragraph
• When running out of time, do these questions first
• Lead Words: look for words that stand out (italicized, quotes)
• Reverse Lead Words: words like EXCEPT, save for last

Other Quick Facts

• Don't study the passages 
• Only understand enough to answer the question
• Watch for words like ALL, NEVER, and ALWAYS
• Extreme words are rarely the answer

Major Question Types

• Main Idea: eliminate answers that are too specific or broad
• Specific Detail: look for evicence
• Conclusion/Inference: inferences will not be directly stated 
• Extrapolation: asked what is probably true; match author's tone
• Vocabulary: only asked in context; easiest type of question

Science

Breakdown

• 3 Experiment passages
• 3 Charts/Graphs
• 1 Arguring Scietists 

Helpful facts

• Introductions are usually unncessesary
• Determine what is changing, controlled, colected
• Fighting Scientists: read each passage carefully, spot differences
• Don't try to understand the actual science behind the charts/graphs
• Indentify trends in the data-- positive or negative? direct or inverse?