General Test-Taking Strategies Understand Multiple Choice, Pace Yourself, Target Scores, & Preparation

Understand “Multiple Choice” Only the Answer Matters A computer, not a person, will score your test. The computer doesn’t care HOW you chose your answers; it cares only whether your answers are correct and readable in little oval form. In fact, it doesn’t even matter whether you knew the answer or guessed. The structure of the test is a message to you from the test writers: “We only care about your answers.”

Understand “Multiple Choice” Only the Answer Matters…continued Remember, the ACT is a tool, so treat it as such. It wants right answers? Give it right answers, as many as possible, using whatever strategies you can!

Understand “Multiple Choice” The Answers are Right in Front of you, Sherlock! For any ACT multiple-choice question, the answer is already right there in front of you! Only… it’s hidden among a bunch of incorrect answer choices. Your job is to locate the correct answer, and because the answer is right there, begging to be found, you have two methods you can use to try to get the correct answer…

Understand “Multiple Choice” The Answers are Right in Front of you, continued… Method #1— Look through the answer choices and pick out the one that is correct. Method #2— Look through the answer choices and eliminate wrong answers until there’s only one left.

Understand “Multiple Choice” Advantages of each method: Method #1— When you are sure how to answer a question, this method is a much simpler and quicker process. Method #2— When you are unsure how to solve the problem, this method becomes more appropriate. By focusing on the answers to the problem, you might be able to use the answer choices to lead you in the right direction to solve the problem through trial and error. You also may be able to eliminate some answer choices.

Understand “Multiple Choice” Advantages of each method: SPEED!!!! Using the right strategy can increase your speed without affecting your accuracy, giving you more time to work on – and answer – as many questions as possible.

Multiple-Choice Guessing Random Guessing Random guesser Charlie Franklin will always guess C or F because he likes those letters. Using this method, it is probably that Charlie will get about 25% of the questions right… yielding a Composite Score of 11. A score of 11 isn’t too shabby considering Charlie expended no intellectual energy beyond identifying C and F as his favorite letters.

Multiple-Choice Guessing Educated Guessing Instead of immediately guessing, educated guesser Eddie works to eliminate answers, always getting rid of two answer choices for each question. In doing this, Eddie has a 50 % chance of getting the correct answer; therefore, Eddie will likely get ½ of the questions correct. Eddie’s Composite Score will be about a 19. FYI, 19 is the average score on the ACT.

Multiple-Choice Guessing Random vs. Educated While random guessing can help you, educated guessing can REALLY help you “Always guess,” really means “always eliminate as many answer choices as possible, and then guess.” Here’s another example…

Multiple-Choice Guessing Let’s say you know the correct answer for ½ of the questions and you guess randomly on the remaining half. Your Composite Score will likely be a 22! Now let’s say you know the correct answer for half of the questions and you make educated guesses on the remaining half. Your Composite Score will probably be a 26! (landing you in the 90th percentile!)

Timid Guessers Educated guessing is actually a form of partial credit on the ACT! For example, you’re taking the ACT and come to a questions you can’t quite figure out. While you aren’t sure of the answer, you are sure that two of the answer choices can’t be right. Eliminating two answer choices increases your likelihood of guessing correctly between the remaining answers.

Timid Guessers ACT Scoring is deliberate! When the ACT creators decided that they wouldn’t penalize wrong answers, they knew that the lack of a penalty would allow people to guess. In other words, the test was built with the specific understanding that people would guess on every question they couldn’t answer. The test creators planned for you to guess, so go ahead and do it!

Pace Yourself The ACT presents you with a ton of questions and not much time to answer them. Getting bogged down on a single question is not a good thing. But rushing isn’t good either! In the end, there’s no real difference between answering very few questions correctly and answering lots of questions incorrectly.

Set a Target Score A perfect score on the ACT is not a 36; it’s the score that gets you into the colleges of your choice. When setting a target score, be honest and realistic. If you score a 20 on your first practice test, your target score probably shouldn’t be a 30. Instead, aim for a 23 or 24.

Prepare Preparation is the key to success on the ACT. The ACT is lurking sometime far in the future. At east 8 weeks away or so. It can be difficult to motivate yourself to study, but establishing an organized study routine can help keep you on track.

Prepare Setting Up a Study Schedule WRITE DOWN an actual study schedule. Keep this schedule where you’ll see it every day. Show it to a parent who will nag you incessantly when you don’t follow it. You might as well use this nagging to your advantage! Plan on studying at least a few hours each week (depending on how much time you have before the test date)

Test Day Get plenty of sleep the night before (duh!) Eat breakfast! Bring a calculator The on that you normally use (preferably with an extra battery), so you don’t waste time searching for the right buttons on an unfamiliar calculator. Bring a watch You may not be able to see the clock and are only able to rely on yourself to know how much time remains.