ACT Reading Strategies

Reading Section Section 3 of the test 40 questions 35 minutes 4 passages

Four Passages Passage I: Prose Fiction A story Passage II: Social Science Information; dry, dense—like a history textbook Passage III: Humanities Art, music, dance, movies, television, etc. Passage IV: Natural Science Like a science textbook

Organization of 4 Passages They are always the same four types. The four types are always in that same order. The type of each passage is clearly labeled in bold print at the beginning of the passage. Each passage will have 10 questions that accompany it.

How to Approach the Reading You don’t have to read the passages in order. Read your favorite passage first, your least favorite last. Time is an issue! Most people say they do not have enough time to read all the passages and answer all the questions in the time allotted.

How to Approach the Reading Rather than rushing through the four passages and performing poorly on the questions, give yourself more time for three passages and try to do a better, more thorough job on the questions for those passages. For example: 10 minutes 5 minutes

Number Correctly Answered How well could I score? As an example, on one of the ACTs a student correctly answering the number on the left earned the score on the right: Number Correctly Answered Score 9-10 11 18-19 18 20 19 27-28 25 29 26 30 27 32 33 31

How to Decide the Order of Reading Think about the passage types and what type of reading you generally prefer. Read through the first sentence or two of each passage. Determine in what order you’ll read the passages.

Tackling the Reading Read through the short questions (not the answer choices) When possible, “premark” the passage with question number (if line or section numbers are identified in the questions. Read and underline the passage. On the last passage you read, if you’re running short on time, you can just look at questions with line references and try to answer those questions w/o having to read the passage.

Tricks and Traps The ACT often uses wrong answers that refer to some phrase elsewhere in the passage refer to a concept or idea elsewhere in the passage are the exact opposite of the correct answer contain some element of truth are “out in left field”

Common Question Types Words in context include the words infers, implies, or suggests Main idea or purpose Include the words least, most, not, except Roman Numeral (combination answers) Author’s purpose, tone, attitude Sequence of events Reasoning Not required to read the passage