1. Get to know the ACT and SAT
Test Taking 101
Get to know the ACT and SAT

2. What type of knowledge do each test?
The idea (in theory, at least) is to provide colleges with one common criterion that can be used to compare all applicants.
These are standardized tests meant to show schools how prepared you are for college by measuring key skills like reading comprehension, computational ability, and clarity of expression. Because so many students take the test, it also provides schools with data about how you compare to your peers nationwide.

3. Test structure: ACT Science 40 multiple–choice questions 35 minutes
English 75 multiple–choice questions
45 minutes
Tests grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and rhetorical skills
Math
60 multiple–choice questions
60 minutes
Algebra I and II, geometry, and some trigonometry
Reading
40 multiple–choice questions
35 minutes
Four passages (prose fiction, social studies, humanities, and natural sciences) with 10 questions per passage
Science
40 multiple–choice questions
35 minutes
Questions on science-based passages presented with graphs, charts, tables and research summaries
Writing (optional)
1 essay
40 minutes

4. Test Structure SAT Reading Writing and Language Math Essay (optional)
52 multiple–choice questions 
65 minutes 
Passages or pairs of passages (literature, historical documents, social sciences, and natural sciences)
Writing and Language
44 multiple–choice questions
35 minutes
Grammar, vocabulary in context, and editing skills
Math
58 multiple–choice questions (broken up into a 20-question No-Calculator section and a 38-question Calculator-allowed section)
80 minutes (25 minutes for the No-Calculator section; 55 minutes for the Calculator-allowed section)
Algebra I and II, geometry, and some trigonometry
Essay (optional)
1 essay
50 minutes
Read a passage and explain how the author builds a persuasive argument

5. Scoring and scores SAT ACT Total Score (400–1600)
Math Section Score (200–800)
Evidence-based reading and writing (EBRW) Section Score (200– 800)
ACT
On each section of the ACT, the number of correct answers converts to a scaled score of 1–36. 
ACT writing
If you take the ACT Plus Writing (which will ask you to write an essay), your writing will be evaluated by two readers. Both readers score your essay on a scale of 1–6 in four different areas. From there, ACT translates your scores to the 1–36 scale.

6. Scores continued

8. ACT vs SAT

9. ACT vs SAT: Time

10. Practice!

11. Check answers

12. Common Mistakes

13. Mistake Type #1: Time Crunch
Out of all the questions you missed, how many of these "ran out of time" questions are there? If the majority of your missed questions happened because you were running low on time, you may have a time management issue.

14. Time strategies
One of the best strategies for students scoring in the 500 range is to just guess on the hardest questions. In fact, because of the way the SAT is scored, you can actually guess on up to 25% of the multiple choice questions and still get a 600.
Overall, practice can help you get faster at taking the SAT/ACT, and the more high quality practice questions and tests you do and take, the more comfortable you'll be.

15. Time continued
 If you run out of time to answer all of the questions, continue answering questions, but mark the questions for which you needed the extra time. Afterwards, you can go back and categorize the questions you needed extra time for and sort them into the remaining three categories of errors.

16. Time continued
How many questions did you get right with extra time, as compared to questions you answered correctly during test length? If your scaled scores differ by more than either 50 points on any section of the SAT, or by more than 4 points on any section of the ACT, then you have a time management issue.

17. Basic Time strategies
Complete strategy above to see if you have a time issue
If you do check out next slide
If you're already scoring in the 700 range, and you know time management is not the issue, chances are you just need to up your speed (whether for one particular type of question or overall).
For every section, you should calculate your own time per question.
The key here is that during the test, if you find yourself spending more than your target time goal, you need to skip that question. You want to avoid getting sucked into wasting time on a question. On these points every question is worth the same point, and at your level every point counts. Therefore, your goal should be to answer as many questions correctly as possible.

18. Pacing
Both tests present you with a ton of questions and, despite its three-hour length, not that much time to answer them.
As you take the test, you will probably feel some pressure to answer quickly.
Getting bogged down on a single question is not a good thing. But rushing isn’t any good either.
In the end, there’s no real difference between answering very few questions and answering lots of questions incorrectly: both will lead to low scores.
What you have to do is find a happy medium, a groove, a speed at which you can be both accurate and efficient, and get the score you want. Finding this pace is a tricky task, but it will come through practice and strategy

19. Setting Your Pace
A perfect score on the ACT is not a 36, it’s the score that gets you into the colleges of your choice. Once you set a target score, your efforts should be directed toward achieving that score.
In setting a target score, the first rule is to be honest and realistic.
Base your target score on the schools you want to attend, and use the results from your practice tests to decide what’s realistic.
If you score a 20 on your first practice test, your target score probably should not be a 30. Instead, aim for a 23 or 24.
Your scores will likely increase on your second test simply because you’ll be more experienced than you were the first time, and then you can work on getting several extra problems right on each Subject Test.

20. 7 tricks to help with the time crunch
1. Know the Instructions for Each Subject Test
2. Use Your Test Booklet as Scratch Paper
3. Answer Easy Questions before Hard Questions
4. Don’t Get Bogged Down by a Hard Question
5. Avoid Carelessness
6. Be Careful Bubbling In Your Answers 
7. Always Guess When You Don’t Know the Answer

21. Mistake Type #2: Question Comprehension
Always make sure you know what the question is asking before you look at the answers. Often, the SAT and ACT will give several incorrect answer choices that each could be correct if you'd misread the question a particular way.
Question: the normal price for a pair of whippersnappers is $399 . If the whippersnappers are 10% off and the whippersnapper vestibule charges 8.75% sales tax, what is the total sale price of the whippernsappers?
359.10
390.52 C
400.50
433.91

22. How to help
Slow down when reading the question for the first time. Students who leave time to double (or even triple) check their answers sometimes don't bother re-reading the question on their second (or third) time through, which means that if you misread the question the first time, it doesn't matter how many times you double-check your thinking process - you won't be able to correct your mistake. 
Because of this, re-reading the question is important as well, because it allows you to make sure the question is asking what you think it was asking when you go through it again.
write out the information the question provides in simpler form
It might seem redundant, but writing out the information separately not only gets it into your brain, but also prevents you from grabbing the wrong number or unit of measure when you go to plug it into your equation or answer.
If you're concerned that writing everything out will take too much time, underlining the relevant information in the question can also be useful

23. Sample: write it out

24. Sample: underline or notations

25. Mistake #3: Easy Errors
Rushing headlong through answer choices (or problem solving, in the case of some math questions) is often the prime culprit for careless mistakes.
This is completely understandable, as you are taking a timed test, but ultimately it can be counterproductive if you don't have the appropriate backups in place

26. Common Careless Errors
Reading and science: Misreading the question, particularly by not noticing words like "except." 
“On practice tests, I would sometimes lose valuable time by trying to choose among answers that seemed to be all correct, only to realize that the question was actually asking for the one that was INcorrect.”

27. Careless errors cont… Math: Solving for the wrong value.
I cannot stress enough how annoying it is to finish a practice test and realize you solved for the wrong value (particularly since these are often answer choices).

28. Careless errors cont
Writing and Language: Reading through the question too quickly and choosing "NO CHANGE,"particularly with questions at the end of the section.
Don't just select "No Change" if the sentence looks right to you - also make sure you can eliminate all three other answer choices.

29. Action steps
Ask yourself why you made the careless mistakes. Were you feeling pressed for time? Were you actually pressed for time? What can you do in the future to help head this off?  
Make sure you leave yourself enough time to go back over questions - not just going over your work, but redoing questions (especially those you are unsure of).

30. Review practice test answers
Go through your own test answers

31. Reviewing your mistakes
Step #1 in efficient test prep

32. Impulses to avoid
Impulse 1: Focusing on what you did well and ignoring what you did wrong (not helpful).
Impulse 2: Disregarding questions you got wrong because they were just "careless mistakes" (not helpful).
Impulse 3: Focusing on the fact that you got things wrong and ignoring review in favor of self-loathing (popular among some overachievers, and yet...still not helpful).

33. Strategy: Analyze Your Confidence for Each Question
Many times, questions can be sorted into these general categories: Skipped (guessed randomly on), Guessed (through elimination), and (thought you) Knew.
Once you've sorted the questions you missed into these general categories, make sure to review all of the questions you guessed on, including the ones you answered correctly.
Compare these questions with the questions you guessed incorrectly on. Was it just blind luck, a combination of the process of elimination and Pin the Pencil on the Scantron®? Or is there a difference between the way you approached the guessed questions you got correctly and incorrectly?

34. Strategy: Understand the Reason for Missing Each Question
Sort the questions by the fundamental reason you missed them. Don't just think, "Well, I got that one wrong." That's not useful in figuring out where you're really making mistakes.
I find that nearly all mistakes fall into four categories:
Time Issue: You were pressed for time.
Question Comprehension Issue: The question was too complicated, you weren't exactly sure what it was asking, or you were tricked by the question.
Procedural/Content Issue: You didn't know how to find the answer to the question, or didn't know the material the question covered.
Careless Error: A.k.a. careless mistakes, a.k.a. stupid mistakes, a.k.a. the most frustrating mistakes of all.

35. For next time… Review your mistakes Naviance Khan academy
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