How to Increase Your Score: Time Management Test-taking Strategies ACT PREP ENGLISH

SET YOUR ENGLISH ACT GOAL ScoreRankingPercent Correct on ACT 31 top 1% 90% correct on ACT 26 top 10% 75% correct on ACT 23 top 25% 63% correct on ACT 20 national average 53% correct on ACT

SEVEN BASIC RULES FOR TAKING THE ACT These seven rules apply to every section of the ACT. They really are just commonsense guidelines, but it’s amazing how the pressure and time constraints of the ACT can warp and mangle common sense. Remembering and practicing these seven basic rules will help you save time and cut down on careless errors.

1. Know the instructions for each subject test Guess what? The subject test instructions are always the same—learn them ahead of time and save time. Since you’ll need all the time you can get, don’t waste time reading the Subject Test instructions during the actual test. Learn the instructions beforehand by taking practice tests and reading our chapters on the Subject Tests.

2. Use Your Test Booklet as Scratch Paper A pristine test booklet is a sad test booklet. Use the margins to make notes of key points. Make marks beside questions you skip and need to return to. Underline key words, names, dates, and facts. Note your “figuring,” draw diagrams, jot down solutions in the math and science subject tests. In the reading subject test, use your test booklet for the “skim and scribble” strategy—note as you go.

3. Answer Easy Questions before Hard Questions This is a crucial strategy for the ACT. All questions within a Subject Test are worth the same number of points, there’s no point slaving away over a difficult question if doing so requires several minutes. Answer the easy and moderate questions first. That way you’ll make sure that you get to see all the questions on the test that you have a good shot of getting right, while saving the leftover time for returning to the difficult questions.

4. Don’t Get Bogged Down by a Hard Question If you’ve spent a significant amount of time on a problem and haven’t gotten close to answering it, just let it go. (In ACT world, a minute and a half is a lot of time.) Finish answering the easy and moderate questions about the passage and then return to the more difficult questions. If you need to guess, choose B or C as your “guessing letter” and use that throughout the test (experts say your chances are higher than randomly guessing). In the English test, generally choose the shortest answer.

5. Avoid Carelessness Don’t move too quickly through the questions. Speeding through the test can result in misinterpreting a question or missing a crucial piece of information. Don’t be tempted by “partial answers” among the answer choices. (Yeah, test makers do this deliberately.) Everything given in the answer must be correct. Don’t allow yourself to assume a defeatist attitude toward questions that appear to be complex. Jump in; you may find the question is easier than it appears.

6. Be Careful Bubbling In Your Answers Imagine this: you get all the right answers to the ACT questions, but you fill in all the wrong bubbles. The scoring computer doesn’t care that you did the right work; all it cares about are the blackened bubbles on the answer sheet, and the wrong answers that they indicate. Protect yourself against this terrifying possibility with careful bubbling. An easy way to prevent slips on the ACT answer sheet is to pay attention to the letters being bubbled. Odd-numbered answers are lettered A, B, C, D (except on the Math Test, where they are A, B, C, D, E), and even- numbered answers are lettered F, G, H, J (except on the Math Test, where they are F, G, H, J, K). You may also want to try bubbling in groups (five at a time or a page at a time) rather than answering one by one. Circle the answers in the test booklet as you go through the page, and then transfer the answers over to the answer sheet as a group. This method should increase your speed and accuracy in filling out the answer sheet. To further increase your accuracy, say the question number and the answer in your head as you fill out the grid: “Number 24, F. Number 25, C. Number 26, J.”

7. Always Guess When You Don’t Know the Answer Don’t leave any blanks on your score sheet. The scoring computer will not know or care whether or not you “really” knew the answer. Before guessing, eliminate one or two answers you know are wrong. This improves your odds from 25% to 50%. With a chance at a right answer, about half of your guesses on the test will be correct, and your score will be about a 19, which is an average score on the ACT.

Multiple Choice: You Already Have the Answers When you look at any ACT multiple-choice question, the answer is already right there in front of you. Your job on each question is to find the right answer. Because the answer is right there, you have three methods you can use to try to determine the correct answer: Think of the right answer before looking at answer choices. Look through the answer choices and pick out the one that is correct. Look at the answer choices and eliminate wrong answers until there’s only one answer left (POE).

What the English ACT Tests Sentence sense (rhetoric)—order of ideas, logic, smoothness, purpose, placement: 1/3 ASK: Does it make sense in the passage?

What the English ACT Tests Economy —relevance, redundancy, conciseness, wordiness: 1/3 (that’s why you should choose the shortest answer when guessing) ASK: Is it needed? Can it be said in fewer words?

What the English ACT Tests Technicality —grammar, punctuation, syntax (sentence structure, awkwardness): 1/3 LISTEN—ASK: Does it sound right?

The ACT English test includes: 11 organization questions rhetoric 12 strategy questions rhetoric / economy 12 style questions economy / rhetoric 12 grammar and usage questions technicality / economy 10 punctuation questions technicality 18 sentence structure questions technicality

How the Reading and English Test Strategies Differ: Reading: Skim the section, reading for general meaning, and make quick, brief notes in the margins. English: Pay close attention to the underlined parts and all surrounding text.

The Day of the Test You must bring the following items to the test center on the day of the test: Your admission ticket Photo ID or a letter of identification Unless a test proctor recognizes you, you will not be allowed in the test room without appropriate identification. We also suggest that you bring the following: Number Two pencils A calculator. You should bring the calculator you normally use (preferably with an extra battery). You don’t want to get stuck searching frantically for the right buttons on an unfamiliar calculator. A watch. Your test room may not have a clock, or the clock may not be visible from where you’re sitting. Since the test proctors only call out the time five minutes before the end of each section, you have to rely on yourself to know how much time remains. A snack, to keep up that energy. Lucky clothes. Why not?