1. Reading Love it or hate it, well, it is not going anywhere..

2. The Breakdown… ACT – you need to read to find answers. And read fast. University – you need to read a lot in order to discuss; in fact, you will need to read a lot of stuff that you really could care less about. But you also will read about stuff that is interesting and/or life- changing. Life – people who read have better, longer lives. You read more. You learn more. You talk about it. People think you are smart. Before you know it, you are elected mayor. You also can read things like, beware of dog, or the back of the Clorox bottle that says don’t drink this or you will have a clean dead body. See – live longer.

3. The Reading Section is… 4 passages 10 questions each 40 questions total (if this caught you by surprise, please study the math section some more) 35 minutes Roughly 9 minutes per passage and the ten questions that follow it

4. The Reading Section is… Not what college is going to be like Your teacher is not going to say read your Micro Economics book for 35 minutes and answer 40 questions. In real-life situations, you will have time to mull things over. ACT only gives you a little time to snipe some answers.

5. 9 Groovy ACT Tips from Fox Valley Lutheran High School 1. Before reading the passage, skim the questions and underline a key word or phrase in the question. The key word should identify the topic of the question. If you don’t immediately spot something to underline, go on to the next question. Do not look at the answers at this point. 2. In general, do NOT read slowly and carefully; you don’t have enough time to do so. On the other hand, don’t read so fast that you don’t understand what you are reading. In general, push yourself to read a little faster than you usually do (AKA skimming).

6. 3. Your goal is to understand the main idea or topic of each paragraph and the organization of the passage. Try to get a good overall picture of what the passage is about and where information is located in the passage. Underline main ideas and keywords in each paragraph. If you don’t spot any, write a word or two in the margin that indicates the paragraph’s topic. This will help you quickly find information when you answer the questions. 4. On average, spend 3-4 minutes rapidly reading or skimming a passage.

7. 5. Skimming techniques: a) Read the first sentence of each paragraph at your normal pace. The first sentence is usually the main or topic sentence. It gives you an idea of what the paragraph is about. b) Speed up your reading pace for the middle part of the paragraph. c) Don’t worry about the details such as names, dates, and explanations. Read through these rapidly. Read over examples rapidly. However, underline any words that match those you previously underlined in the questions. d) Read the last sentence of each paragraph at your normal pace. The last sentence is often a concluding or summary sentence that helps you further understand the main point of each paragraph.

8. 6. Don’t get hung up on words you don’t know; skip them and keep on reading. If you must figure out an unknown word in order to answer a question, use context clues to figure out the meaning of the word. For context clues, read the sentence and preceding and following sentences. 7. For the Reading Prose Fiction passage, do not focus on the first sentence in each paragraph. Read it all at the same pace. You should take more time to read this type of passage than the others. Focus on the characters and feelings (underline these).

9. 8. When you take practice ACT tests, time yourself when you read the passages. If you are taking more than 4 minutes, you need to pick up the pace. 9. Many of the questions in the Reading and Science tests are inferential comprehension questions; that is, the answers are not directly stated in the passage. In such instances, stop and think about the full meaning of what the paragraph or passage says. In other words, you need to put together the information in the passage to come up with the answer. Words or phrases that indicate the question is inferential include “It is reasonable to conclude... ;” “The author’s purpose in writing... ;” “It is reasonable to infer... ;” “The main purpose of the paragraph... ;” “The passage indicates...” When you see these cue phrases, don’t reread everything trying to find a direct answer; it isn’t there. Instead try to make sense of the passage and draw a logical conclusion.

10. ACT Tips from Princeton Review This ain’t high school. You are not reading to understand it, discuss it, and write a five paragraph essay about what you think your teacher wants you to write about. Just get enough of it to answer the questions and move on.

11. Feel free to forget everything you read after thirty-five minutes. Don’t read to remember – read to find answers.

12. Recommended Techniques 1. Attack the passages in the order that best suits you. 2. See through the camouflage that hides correct answer choices. 3. Identify incorrect answer choices and eliminate them quickly. 4. Answer questions without really reading the passage. 5. Put all of these techniques together to approach every passage and question with a step-by-step strategy that leads to the correct answers.

13. Choose Your Enemies Wisely There are four passages: ◦ Prose Fiction (excerpts from short stories and novels) ◦ Social Sciences (history, economics, psychology, political sciences, and anthropology) ◦ Humanities (art, music, architecture, and dance) ◦ Natural Sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, and physical sciences)

14. Take Note When you work practice tests, take note of which section you breeze through and which ones slow you down. It is fairly easy to see which ones are which on the test, so attach them in the order that is best for YOU.

15. Don’t Bring Baggage The ACT, your ACT score, and the college you are applying to don’t care how you feel, think, or respond to the readings. They only want the answers. If the topic is something you feel strongly about, don’t think about it. If the reading section doesn’t say something, that you ‘know’, don’t let it affect your answer. Only answer with what they give you.

16. Prose Fiction Prose fiction passage is almost the opposite of the natural science passage. It tells a fictitious story and is supposed to be packed with hints about characters and their motivations. Fiction passages are primarily concerned with the following five things: who, what, when, where, and why.

17. Social science and Humanities These are a cross between natural science and prose fiction. Often, the author has views about the subject and you might be asked to draw inferences about them. You also might be asked questions about details.

18. Natural Science These readings are filled with lots of details and technical descriptions. The questions usually follow the text pretty closely and require you to make few inferences. Just because you are good at science doesn’t mean that you will be good with these – and the reverse is true.

19. Why Triage Reading? If you do the easiest passages first, you will have finished them before time runs out. If time is running out and you triaged your reading passages, that means you are guessing on the parts that were the most difficult.

20. So, let’s say I hate them all… If you think all of these are terrible, you need to still order your passages to save time – Look at the topic – if it seems ‘user- friendly’ do it first. If it is historical, it usually means the passage is in chronological order. If you have recently studied it, then you can eliminate answer choices easily.

21. Question: What about the questions? If you can’t triage the reading passages, take a look at the questions and the answer choices. Do the questions point you to a specific line? Do the questions refer to dates? Proper nouns? Italicized words? Is the question straightforward? Or is the question longer than the last book you read at school?

22. Camouflage (if it wasn’t for spell check…) Are the following statements the same: ◦ Rationally conceived idea ◦ Concept born of reason

23. It’s called paraphrasing… Yes, they are the same – and this is where the ACT trips up a lot of students. An answer will change the wording of the passage – that way the correct answer will have the same meaning, but not the same words. And often to trick you, they will present a wrong answer using many of the same words.

24. Try this on for size… Regardless of personal religious belief, no true student of history can emerge from study without a scholarly appreciation for the significant role of religion in the development of human civilization.

25. Answer choices 11. Which of the following represents the author’s belief regarding religion and the study of history? a. Many historians develop a deep suspicion of totalitarian societies and the way in which they abuse human rights. b. Most historians have a profound distaste for ancient documents and torn papers.

26. Answer choices 11. Which of the following represents the author’s belief regarding religion and the study of history? c. True historians develop an appreciation for the role of religion in the course of human development. d. Few historians develop insight into the manner in which political leaders gain power.

27. The right answer? C is the right answer. This answer features the author’s words and accurately reflects his meaning. A,B, and D have nothing to do with the passage. The ACT is not going to be this nice.

28. The ACT nerds decided to play ‘Let’s hide the answer’ game… ACT questions will reword, or camouflage, the answer. You need to be on the lookout for answer choices that don’t seem right because the author’s sentences have been reworded.

29. Answer choices 11. Which of the following represents the author’s belief regarding religion and the study of history? a. Few historians have gained a complete appreciation for the development of religion. b. Historians should not allow their personal religious beliefs to affect the historical conclusions with which they emerge.

30. Answer choices 11. Which of the following represents the author’s belief regarding religion and the study of history? c. Serious historians regard religious belief as an important force in man’s social evolution. d. A true student of religious history should not ignore a general study of human development.

31. *&%$ Well, the answer is still C. But that gets confusing. …no true student of history can emerge from study without a scholarly appreciation for the significant role of religion in the development of human civilization. Serious historians regard religious belief as an important force in man’s social evolution.

32. Just what did they do? ‘serious historians’ = ‘true student of history’ ‘important force’ = ‘significant role’ ‘man’s social evolution’ = ‘development in human civilizations’

33. See Through It Learn to recognize camouflage and see through it. You need to: ◦ Read each passage ◦ Think about what it means (carefully) ◦ With the meaning in mind, read the answer choices ◦ Find which answer is equal to the author’s statements

34. Distracters The evil geniuses that live in an abandoned warehouse that make the test are great at making wrong answers look right. In order to trick you, make you lose scholarship money, and to try to fill the void where they have no soul, they use techniques to ‘get you.’

35. Warning Have you ever noticed that the prettiest animals in nature are the ones that will mess you up? Nice animals are camouflaged. They have to hide because they are nice and the bad animals like to eat them. The mean ones are brightly colored and say – I don’t care if you see me. Just try it. If you have ever thought fire ants are cute because red is your favorite color, well, you can relate. The same goes for ACT answers that are so pretty and nice. Be careful. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.

36. Warning Watch out for extremes. As an American, you like extremes. ◦ I hated that movie. In fact I tried to kill myself just so I didn’t have to finish watching it. ◦ I love those headphones. ◦ I never spend more than five hours on Facebook. ◦ I always study for math. The evil ACT trolls know you are programmed like that and take advantage of it – be careful of words like ‘always’ and ‘never’

37. The Four Horsemen Distracters 1. Deceptive Answers 2. Switches (not the kind your grandmom whips you with) 3. Extremes 4. Answers that are too ‘Nice’

38. Deceptive Answers Distracters use words from the original passage to say something that the passage does not. Example: Tom loves going to the movies with Mary. Does not mean: Tom fell in love with Mary at the movies, Tom and Mary love movies, Tom and Mary generally enjoy seeing movies about love.

39. Switches Sometimes answer choices take the truth and switch it around – what comes first? History or science. Example: Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of its history and then in terms of the science up on which it was founded. Example: Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of the science on which it was founded, and then in terms of its history.

40. Switches Example: Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of its history and then in terms of the science up on which it was founded. Example: After Professor Thorne describes the scientific aspects of technological breakthrough, he explains the historical context in which the breakthrough was made.

41. Kill Switch When you see deceptive answers, eliminate them. If you see answers that are opposites, one of them is probably the correct answer

42. Example Answers Question….. F. Important in that it shows certain propositions to be true. G. Important in that it shows certain propositions to be false. H. Less precise than most scientists believe. I. Extremely misleading to those who fail to question its premises.

43. Extremes Watch out for answers that use always, invariably, never, etc. These are extremes. Other words: completely, perfectly, and absolutely. Extremes are normally wrong because they are debatable. If I say, ‘My mom makes the world’s best peach cobbler,’ your grandmom might walk up and punch me in the face.

44. What is the difference? Look at the following two answers – one with an extreme and the other without. Patients who are chronically depressed never enjoy their lives. Patients who are chronically depressed have difficulty enjoying their lives.

45. Answers that are just too nice… You ever hear of Billy Tipton? Don’t judge a book by its cover. Usually this type of distracter doesn’t have much to do with the topic – but you probably will agree with it. Example: A) the scientists concur that the reaction is affected by external temperature changes. B) External temperatures are affected by the scientists’ reactions. C) Puppies are just darn cute and if you pet them you just feel happy. D) Everyone should recycle to make the world a better place.

46. Too Nice Examples The voting public knows its own best interest. Structure is important, but it should not be imposed in such a way as to stifle creativity. The ideal society is one that allows for individual difference, but at the same time creates a people united in interest. All people have a right to live and die with dignity.

47. Why is life so hard? Reading on the ACT is difficult because it is usually an excerpt from a larger work. You are just thrown in the middle of it and have to figure out what it is about. So how do you find out what it is about?

48. 1: Look for lead words (30s) Look at the questions (not the answers) Underline any lead words Example: ◦ Jeremy Bentham probably would have said that lawyers: ◦ Lead words -> Jeremy Bentham, lawyers.

49. …and if there are no lead words Skip it.

50. Now you practice… 1. Which of the following conclusions is drawn by the passage? 2. As discussed in the passage, Quentin Bell believes that historians and critics:

51. 3. The author expresses the idea that: 4. According to the passage, academicism and mannerism: 5. It can be most reasonably inferred that the author believes that:

52. 6. According to the passage, Renoir differs from Daleur in that: 7. According to the passage, Cezanne’s work is characterized by: 8. According to the sixth paragraph, the author implies:

53. 9. In the author’s view, the phrase “modern sculpture” means sculpture that: 10. According to the author, subjectivism affected Rodin in which of the following ways?

54. 2: Scan the Passage for Lead Words (30s) Look for the lead words that you found in the questions. Don’t read. You don’t have time!!! If you find a lead word, underline it.

55. How does this help? It keeps you from reading all of the excerpt. You identify the areas of the passage that more than likely have the answers in it. The answer isn’t always in the same sentence – read around your underlined words

56. 3: Skim and Scribble (60s) In the margin of each paragraph, scribble a few words that describe the main idea. Skim = fast. So fast that you feel like you aren’t going to comprehend the passage in detail.

57. Look for ‘trigger words’ Trigger words show that the author is going to declare something. ◦ Despite, however, in spite of, nonetheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, yet, but, ironically, notwithstanding, rather, unfortunately, therefore, hence, consequently ◦ These show something is going to change. ◦ ‘You know, I really like you and you are nice, unfortunately I think we should just be friends.’

58. Anyone like Trance Music? Loops. Do steps one through three over and over with each question. That should put you at 40s per question. Just in case you forgot, here is the loop:

59. 1. Go to the first question that points to an answer. Read it carefully. If it’s relatively clear, make sure you remember the question before you go back to the passage. If the question is confusing, reword it so that you know what you’re looking for. 2. Return to the appropriate portion of the passage 3. Read it carefully. Formulate your own answer and jot it down. 4. Go back to the question and pick the answer choice that most resembles your answer.

60. Some questions don’t fit the mold What is the author’s attitude? How does she feel about… These questions usually have answers that are a list of words that are all the same type (noun, adj, adv) My advice – look at the adj in the story and get a feeling for it. Make a good guess. Move on. Forget about it.

61. Vocab in Context The word ‘honest’ in the third paragraph most likely means: ◦ Truthful ◦ A fair amount ◦ Abe Lincoln’s first name ◦ The most hone Be CAREFUL – if it was ‘an honest wage’ then ‘honest’ would not match ‘truthful.’

62. EXCEPT I like all of my friends, except… Skip exception questions and save them until the end. If you do these last, you will have read most of the passage before you get to it and may know the answer. Look for lead words in these questions.

63. Roman Numerals 1 and 3 only. 1 only. 2 only. 4 only.