STRATEGIES FOR MASTERING THE ACADEMIC SKILLS (AND TEST TAKING SKILLS) MOTIVATION FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS! STRATEGIES FOR MASTERING THE ACADEMIC SKILLS (AND TEST TAKING SKILLS) NEEDED FOR SUCCESS ON THE ACT! We don’t expect everyone to go to Harvard but we want everyone to have a chance at college either immediately after grad or years later if they decide to attend

GOALS! - Life-long Skills Workplace Skills All students, even those not attending college, need the skills the ACT exam reinforces! - Life-long Skills Workplace Skills Test scores that reflect true skill ability - Scholarships College Success MOTIVATION IS KEY! Too many interventions come and go For lasting improvement we must look at curriculum, instruction, and assessment Mission Six-Step Implementation Strategies Administration Technology

College Helps with Jobs & $.

EARN $1.5 - $3 MILLION MORE WITH A COLLEGE DEGREE! How to get to college? G.P.A. = 45% ACT/SAT exam = 45% Other = 10%

MOTIVATION! Standards for College Readiness: What does it all mean? A PARADIGM SHIFT: 50% = 18 60% = 22 66% = 24 71% = 26 80% = 29 91% = 33 One Little Point at a Time! ACT 9957 C Scale Excerpt Note: The ACT scales 1 - 36

EVERY STUDENT CAN PERFORM WELL ON THE ACT! - The Score chart is a great tool to show the students that they don’t have to get every question right in order to get a good score on the ACT!   Explain to them that although a 50% on an English Class test may be a failing grade, it is an 18 on the ACT, and many colleges will accept that score!!! A 60% on a History Class test may be a D-, but on the ACT it’s a 22! Now colleges aren’t only accepting you, but they’re giving you scholarships! **Student GPA is also taken into consideration**

Mapping ACT English Editing five short passages ® Editing five short passages 75 questions - 45 minutes – 9 minutes Per passage Usage - Mechanics Skills 40Q 53% Rhetoric Skills 35Q 47% Punctuation 10Q 13% Grammar and Use 12Q 16% Sentence Structure 18Q 24% Strategy 12Q 16% Organization 11Q 15% Style 12Q 16% Conciseness Ambiguity Low-level usage Shifting point of view Subject-verb agreement Tense Pronoun use Adverb vs. adjective Double negative Idioms Possessives comparisons Run-on Comma splice Fragment Coord conjunction Parallelism Misplaced modifiers Clauses Subordination Split construction Unintended meaning Appropriate support Main idea Audience Effective: Opening sentence Concluding sentence Comma Semicolon End-stop Dashes Hyphens quotes Paragraph development Sentence-level structure Paragraph-level structure

Mapping ACT Mathematics ® 60 questions - 60 minutes Direct use of math facts or formulas 32Q 53% Word Problems 16Q 27% Inference or decision making 12Q 20% Pre-Algebra 14Q 23% Elementary Algebra 10Q 17% Intermediate Algebra 9Q 15% Geometry 14Q 23% Coordinate Geometry 9Q 15% Trigonometry 4Q 7%

4 Passages – 40 Questions – 35 Minutes Mapping ACT Reading 4 Passages – 40 Questions – 35 Minutes ® Read 750 words Prose/Fiction 08:45 10Q 25% Read 750 words Humanities 08:45 10Q 25% Read 750 words Social Science 08:45 10Q 25% Read 750 words Natural Science 08:45 10Q 25% Explicit Questions 14Q 35% Implicit Questions 26Q 65% Specific Detail Sequence Cause/Effect Comparison Author’s Voice Main Idea Generalization Conclusion Words in Context

7 passages - 40 questions - 35minutes Conflicting Viewpoint Mapping ACT Science Reasoning 7 passages - 40 questions - 35minutes 3 passages Data Representation 15Q 37% 3 passages Research Summary 18Q 45% 1 Passage Conflicting Viewpoint 7Q 18% Identify data points Identify units/labels Identify trends Identify variables Identify controls Understand 7Q 17.5% 3 3 1 Hypothesize Conclude Compare evaluate Analyze 20Q 50% 9 6 5 Generalize 13Q 32.5% Extrapolate Interpolate Predict generalize 9 3 1

The Six-Step Approach: Step 1: Diagnostic Testing and Assessment Reports Step 2: “Basic” Skills Review Step 3: In-Class Problem-Solving, Concepts, and Strategies Step 4: Practice Test Reinforcement Step 5: Final Exam and Assessment Step 6: Personal Study and Improvement Plan Mission Six-Step Implementation Strategies Administration Technology

75 questions, 5 passages, 45 minutes English 75 questions, 5 passages, 45 minutes Punctuation COMMAS are used on the ACT in 6 ways: 1. After Introductory Clauses followed by a complete sentence 2. To Mark Interruptions 3. To Separate 2 sentences w/ a conjunction To mark Afterthoughts To Separate Words in a series / list To Separate Adjectives Hint: When in doubt, leave the comma out!

DASH 1. Interruptions 2. After-thoughts SEMICOLON 1. Separate 2 complete sentences COLON 1. Summary list. 3. Between 2 complete sentences APOSTROPHES 1. One owner = ‘s 2. More than one owner = s’ 3. Plural words form the possessive by adding ‘s GRAMMAR 1. Verb tense and agreement 2. Pronoun agreement 3. Parallelism

What are the 4 ways to separate two complete sentences? 1. 2. 3. 4. Other English HINTS Shortest is Best! When in doubt, leave it out! Read on! Never pick “being” Pacing!!!! (9 minutes per passage. You must incorporate this into your curriculum quizzes and tests!) Quiz! What are the 4 ways to separate two complete sentences? 1. 2. 3. 4.

MATH 60 Questions, 60 Minutes! Math Questions on the ACT Content Area Percent & Typical Number of ?s Pre-Algebra 23% - 14 questions Elementary Algebra 17% - 10 questions Intermediate Algebra 15% - 9 questions Coordinate Geometry 15% - 9 questions Plane Geometry 23% - 14 questions Trigonometry 7% - 4 questions Total 100% - 60 questions total

Math 60 questions, 60 minutes 1 Math 60 questions, 60 minutes 1. The Math test covers basic arithmetic, pre-algebra, elementary algebra, advanced algebra, coordinate geometry, plane geometry, & trigonometry. 2. 60 questions 3. Easiest to hardest 4. The answer might be obvious without any work.

5. Plug & Chug and use Pick C whenever possible 6. Sometimes you may need to work backwards. It may help to look for wrong answers rather than correct ones. (Process of elimination). Do the easy questions first (the first 30)! Pacing!!! 10. Calculators are allowed and encouraged!

The answer is c; the overall change is a decrease of 4%. Math Examples 1. The price of an item is first marked down 20% and then up 20%. Express as a percentage the overall change in the price of the item. a. 0% b. +4% c. -4% d. +10% e. -10% (This problem illustrates the strategy of avoiding the obvious choice, and makes you more aware of percent questions.) Choose an arbitrary value, $100.00, $100.00 – 20% = $80.00, $80.00 + 20% = $96.00 The answer is c; the overall change is a decrease of 4%.

2. If k is an integer, which of the following must be odd? I. k + 1 II. K x k + 1 III. 2k + 1 A) I. only B) II. only C) I. and II. D) I. and III. E) III. Only (Try plugging in odd and even numbers for k, then analyze your results. The answer is E.)

3. Eva can complete a job in four hours 3. Eva can complete a job in four hours. Jill takes ten hours, and Eric takes twenty hours. How long will it take them to do the job working together? F) 2/5 hour G) 2 ½ hours H) 4 hours J) 11 1/3 hours K) 34 hours (This problem illustrates the use of common sense. Work problems often confuse students. Answers H, J, and K can be eliminated since Eva can do the job by herself in four hours. By logically considering between F and G, 2 ½ hours seems much more likely than 2/5 hour. The answer is G.)

Be an active/demanding reader! Pacing!!! (8-9 minutes per passage) READING 4 passages, 10 questions each, 35 minutes total! Always review the answer choices before looking back. Be careful on questions with specific line references. If looking back, read a few lines before and after the given line reference. Do not hesitate over answers. You must get to all 4 passages! Be an active/demanding reader! Use CPR and/or TD! Pacing!!! (8-9 minutes per passage)

No matter what, each student MUST have a reading strategy! For most students there is a definitive reading strategy that produces the highest possible ACT reading score. It is a two step process, and it is extremely simple. Step 1: Read the entire passage quickly but actively, seeking out the most important information. You are allowed to annotate or underline, but only do this if it is already one of your reading strengths. When you finish reading the passage, you should be able to mentally review the main ideas and supporting details! If you cannot do this easily, you were not actively reading! (Reading the passage should take between 4 – 5 minutes.) Step 2: Answer the questions. Be sure to read ALL FOUR answer choices, using process of elimination, BEFORE looking back to the passage. (Answering questions should take about 4 – 5 minutes.) No matter what, you must complete each passage in LESS THAN 9 MINUTES!

In order to reach your maximum reading score, it is imperative that you get to all four passages! Remember, it is possible to get some answers wrong on the ACT and still achieve an amazing score! An alternative strategy that works for some students is to actively read only the first and last paragraphs while skimming the body of the passage and then answering the questions as described above. This strategy should only be used if you are so instructed by your ACT teacher. (This often works for students whose maximum ACT reading score typically falls below an 18, which in most cases still meets state standards.) No matter what, DO NOT waste precious time by reading the questions first! This strategy is a virtual guarantee of a low reading score. Again, DO NOT read the questions first unless specifically instructed to do so by your ACT teacher.

Science Strategies Seven passages, 5, 6, or 7 questions each, 35 minutes total! There are seven passages, based on all areas of science. All info is provided, usually more than needed. It is NOT a reading test. Analyze the graphs, table, & charts, then answer ?’s. Work from the questions back to the data. Underline the clues in the questions! Let the answers tell you where to look. Use P.O.E.; treat it like a T/F test. Look for patterns. Fighting Scientists is the ONLY reading section. Pacing (3 – 5 minutes per passage)

With all of the information put in front of you and only 35 minutes to answer all of the questions, the science section can seem overwhelming. The most important thing you can do to conserve time is orient yourself. Think of it like shopping at a grocery store… Let’s say you are going to the supermarket and all you need to buy is milk and bread. The supermarket carries tens of thousands of items – will you need to go through each item on each aisle in order to find the two that you are looking for? Of course not! You would use the aisle signs to figure out exactly where to go, then scan the appropriate aisle until you find what you are looking for. The whole process would take you a few seconds. The science section is no different. Sure, there is a considerable amount of information provided with each passage, but don’t let it slow you down. Orient yourself using the headings on charts and graphs the same way you would at the grocery store, and the ACT science reasoning can be as straightforward as buying a loaf of bread.

Writing Strategies B. O. W. Brainstorm, Outline, Write Writing Strategies B.O.W. Brainstorm, Outline, Write! Intro 3 body paragraphs Conclusion Counter-Arguments?

1. Bring lots of sharp #2 pencils and a calculator. ON TEST DAY 1. Bring lots of sharp #2 pencils and a calculator. 2. Treat the night before like a school night. 3. Eat a balanced breakfast. 4. Wear comfortable clothes. 5. Arrive early. 6. Bring a snack. 7. Maintain your concentration. 8. The real ACT will seem more difficult than any of your practice ACTs. Why? Well, it’s not any harder; it’s just that you are a little nervous because this one counts. Being nervous is OK; it means that you care what happens. 9. Think positively.