The ACT does not penalize students for guessing. If you leave an answer blank, you have a 100% chance of getting it wrong. If you guess, you have a 20-25% chance of getting it right.
I am amazed at how many students leave answers blank on the test. All you have to do is make a small mark in the bubble. What is the worst thing that can happen? You get it wrong? You can’t be any more wrong than you already are if you don’t answer.
SKIM PASSAGE
You will be asked to answer questions that pertain to approximately ¼ to 1/3 of the passage. That means if you spend time reading each passage word for word, you will be wasting time concentrating on 2/3 to ¾ of the passage which you will not be quizzed on. Why spend time working on information you do not need for the test. As a result, you need to learn how to skim the passage and pull important information out of it in a short amount of time. Do you want to practice this? Read a magazine or newspaper article and time yourself. Let’s say you give yourself 6 minutes to read a full feature article in a magazine – yes pull out a real paper magazine and choose a long article and time yourself reading it. At the end of the time, see how far you got and how much you can share about the article with someone else. Do you know what it said? Can you tell the main points of the article? When taking the ACT, you have 4 minutes for each reading passage. After that time, you should stop reading or be finished. Don’t gather every detail. Skim it and find the main points as if you were in a race to uncover a buried treasure and the map is your reding passage providing the information for it. If you spend too much time reading the map, you won’t leave enough time to dig up the treasure. Learn to find the info quickly and move on.
WRITE MAIN IDEAS IN THE MARGIN
Once you find a main idea, write it down in the margin. You'll need it later. If you do this for every paragraph, you'll wind up with a nice little outline of the passage. T. his way, when you get a question that doesn't have a line reference, the main ideas will be in the margin, like the table of contents for a book, telling you exactly where to go.
Writing out all your main ideas does take up time, but it's especially important when you first start trying the strategy. You might struggle with it. It takes some practice before you get good at it, and writing everything down helps. The more practice tests you do, the easier it will become.
TIME YOURSELF
Practice questions and time yourself. Just as you timed yourself reading the passage, time yourself answering the questions too. Gauge a 40:60 ratio for timing yourself. In other words, if you were to
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allow yourself 10 minutes per passage, then you spend 4 minutes (40%) of the time reading the passage and 6 Minutes (60%) answering the questions. If it takes you longer than your allotted time, then you are taking away time on another passage which might be easier. Therefore, move on to another passage after the allotted time and come back to that one later to finish. The key to these tests are maximizing your time.
SKIP PASSAGES TO INCREASE TARGET SCORE
Let’s say you have been practicing and you just can’t seem to master completing a passage in the 9-10 minutes time frame that is expected. It looks like you have no chance of finishing. Should you rush it and risk making a careless mistake? Or should you skip passages? You could actually hit your target score easier by skipping a passage. Choose your passages carefully and if you spend the time needed to efficiently answer most of the questions without guessing, you could increase your score.
This principle is can vary but use this as a guideline.
1. If you skip one passage, this gives you 10 minutes per passage. If you skipped 2 passages, you would have 15 minutes per passage. How does that translate to your score though and will it hurt too much by skipping an entire passage?
2. If you were to get most of those right with no guessing on the unanswered questions, you could look for a target score of 29-32 for the section out of 36 possible points. If you guessed on the blank passages, you could have a target score of 25-28 out of a possible 40.
SKIP BLACK HOLE QUESTIONS
Often times you will come across passages that will drive you crazy. They lead you on a chase and seem to give you hope that you will soon find the answer only to be disappointed as you search and search.
It can be a detail about something that seems to elude you as you skim through the passage. It could be about a main idea that you thought you saw I the passage but can’t seem to find now.
You search and search and the clock ticks and ticks. You find yourself being sucked into the gravitational pull of your pride as you become more and more determined to find the answer that escapes you. Drop it and move on!!!! Don’t let this black hole suck you into failing the rest of the exam. Save it to the end if you have time and stop worrying about it. There is too much to do in a short amount of time to let that one problem consume you.
GET OVER YOURSELF
Don’t go into the ACT thinking you will enjoy yourself. It is not designed to be entertaining or fun. If you want to be entertained then go to a concert on a Saturday and forget about college. There is too much
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riding on your scores so take it seriously and work hard at it. Think of it this way. How hard would you work for a month if it produced a $16,000 payoff at the end? That’s how much a few extra points are worth for your ACT.
DON’T LEARN – READ
You are not there to learn new information. That’s what school is for. You will learn plenty of information in college. Don’t get wrapped up in the subject of the passage or the information from the passage. Just answer the questions and do it quickly. If you want to learn more about a subject in the reading section, google it after you finish the test and read all the articles you can about it. Just don’t waste precious time when the clock is running.
DON’T MEMORIZE
Do not worry about spending your time memorizing anything in the passage. It will be there for you when you read the question. You will not need to pull it from memory because it is right there on the page for you. You are not being tested on memorized knowledge. You are being tested on reasoning skills. Reasoning doesn’t require any memorization – especially when the information is provided for you.
SKIP HARD SENTENCES
Many sentences will have difficult language or added confusing metaphors which can trip you up. If you get the main idea, you don’t need to understand the difficult language or meaning of a complicated word. Just focus on the main idea and what the passage is trying to tell you. If it shows up in the question, then go back to it. Otherwise – forget about it!
CHECK FIRST AND LAST SENTENCES
The first and last sentences of a passage often tell you what the passage is about. To help get an understanding of the passage start there. If it isn’t in the first or last sentence, it will be close by so go a little further into the paragraph if it is not evident right away. These sentences either introduce the main idea or wrap up the main idea. Many of the questions can be answered just with this limited knowledge.
LOOK FOR TRANSITIONAL LANGUAGE
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Hello David, I just wanted to tell you I think you are the most caring and loving boyfriend I have had…. David is encouraged and excited about this phrase…right?…until
However, I have found someone else and I am breaking up with you.
Not what David expected. One little word changed the entire meaning of the passage.
Transitional language can change the entire meaning of a passage and take you in a direction you had not anticipated. Therefore, when skimming a passage, you may think you know where it is going but a transitional word such as but, however, in contrast, etc. can change the anticipated main idea of the passage.
LOOK BACK AT THE PASSAGE
We told you not to worry about the details when reading the passage. Now that you're actually asked about the details, you can worry about them. Luckily, you don't have to rely on what you remember about the passage. This is an open-book test. You can look it up.
Some questions will give specific line references. Those are easy. Once you read the question, before you do anything else, go back to the passage and check the line reference. If they ask you a question about line 35, go back to line 35 and see what it says, before you even look at the choices.
Don't just read the literal line mentioned in the question: read the whole sentence that includes that line. Most sentences stretch over a couple of lines, and you'll need the full sentence to understand the context.
Keep in mind, however, that even if the question gives you a line reference, it might not tell you exactly where the answer is; it might just point you to the ballpark. If you don't find the answer in the line you're given, check one sentence before or after the line reference to get a more robust context.
ANTICIPATION
Okay, you found the information in the passage. Now what? Now you can see what those lines say about the question. Try to answer the question yourself before looking at the choices. We call that anticipation - you're anticipating what the answer is going to be. Then look at the choices and see which one most closely matches your anticipation. Remember: all the information you need to answer the question is in the passage. That's why we look in the passage, not in the choices, for our answers. When you go back, think about what the lines say and what they mean. Try to paraphrase the lines in your own words. Sometimes the right answer will be a direct quote from the passage-it's awesome
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when that happens-but sometimes it won't. Your anticipation should give you the meaning you're looking for. The right answer will have the same meaning as your anticipation, but may be worded differently.
ELIMINATION AND ELIMINATING NON SENSE – RANDOM, FALSE, IRRELEVANT
Once you have an anticipation, go to the choices and look for one that has the same meaning. Sometimes, you can spot it right away. Great, you’re done! When you anticipate successfully, you can jump right to the correct answer. But it's not always that easy. Sometimes when you go back to the passage, you can't get an anticipation. Maybe you don't understand what the line says. Maybe you understand the line, but you don't understand what it has to do with the question. Maybe you do anticipate, but none of the choices match your anticipation. You may not be able to find a choice that matches your anticipation perfectly. But that’s okay! You can still eliminate choices that are obviously wrong. Remember that three out of four choices are wrong – that’s 75% of all the choices. It’s easier to find a wrong choice than a right choice. There’s often at least one choice that you can tell is obviously wrong, even on the hardest questions. If we can eliminate the nonsense and guess from what's left, we can greatly increase our odds of getting the question correct. If we can get each tough question down to two choices, we'll get half of them right.
You may have difficulty eliminating some choices. But there is usually at least one choice that is obviously wrong. Some choices are totally random – the choice talks about things the passage doesn’t mention. Others are clearly false – they’re explicitly contradicted by the passage. Even on the hardest questions, there’s usually something you know. Seeing that a wrong choice is wrong is often simpler that understanding nuances of the correct answers. It’s easier to spot a wrong choice than a right choice – after all, 75% of the choices are wrong.
There are three main ways that a choice can be wrong:
1. Random - The choice talks about things that the passage doesn't even mention. You'd be astounded to learn how often this happens. (In question 1 above, all three wrong choices were random.)
2. False - The choice is explicitly contradicted by the passage.
3. Irrelevant - The choice is something the author says, but it doesn't actually answer the question.
Here are some tips to keep in mind:
• As before, you should literally cross out the words that make a choice wrong. This will greatly help you keep track of what you're doing.
• You're not looking for the right choice, you're looking for wrong choices. On eve1y question, three out of four choices are wrong. If you think a choice is wrong, there's a 75% chance you're right.
• Again, the key here is to work quickly. Don't spend too much time agonizing over every choice. If you're not sure whether a choice fits, or if you can't find a specific reason to eliminate it, leave it
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in for now. Go through the choices, get rid of the ones that are obviously wrong, and see what you have left.
• Once you get down to two or three choices, you can go back to the passage again to see which is better. If you really can't decide which is better, guess one.
The most important part of elimination is to write stuff down. Don’t do this in your head. Mark up the choices. Cross out the words in a passage choice that make the choices wrong.
Don’t rely on your memory. Your memory is fallible. Write things down.
BEST CHOICE
Remember that every question has only one correct answer. For many questions it will be clear that only one answer relates to the passages, as the others are not mentioned in the passage, or contradict information given in the passage.
However, other questions may have more than one answer option that could potentially be true. Remember you are looking for the best choice, which means the answer that most directly and completely answers the questions, and is most supported by the passage. The best way to ensure that you selected the best answer choice is to make sure you can find a word, line, or selection of lines in the text that support your answer.
GUESSING
You can make a guess at a question, circle it, and return to it later. Once you have attempted all the other questions for the passage you are working on, come back to the question and re-read it to clarify what it is asking. Then, try again to answer the question.
Eliminate any wrong answers, and see if you want to change the answer you originally guessed.
PLUG IT IN
This example also demonstrates another important strategy for words in context questions. You can test each answer choice by plugging it back in to the original sentence to see if it fits. Remember that the correct answer must provide nearly the same meaning as the original word. Compare your choice to the original sentence and ensure it matches the context of the lines above and below in order to be sure of your answer.
DECIDE ON A READING TECHNIQUE
Read the passage carefully from start to finish. Don't try to remember every detail. As you read, ask
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yourself, 'What is this passage really about?" You can usually get the general idea in two or three lines (unless you spot transitional language later in the passage)
When finished reading, state the author's main point. Even an incorrect statement gives you an idea to focus on as you work on the questions. Skim the passage for its general idea. Read faster than you normally would to figure out the type of passage it is: fiction, humanities, social science, or natural science. At the same time, try to sense what the author is saying. Read the passage just intently enough to get an impression of its content. Don't expect to keep details in mind. Refer to the passage as you answer the questions. Skim the passage to get its general meaning; then go back and read it more thoroughly. Two readings, one fast and one slow, enable you to grasp the passage better than if you read it only once. During your second reading, confirm that your first impression was accurate. Proceed to the questions.
USE PARAGRAPHS AS CLUES TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND THE PASSAGE
Writers generally take great pains to organize their material. They decide what goes first, second, third. Usually, the arrangement follows a logical order, although sometimes material is arranged to build suspense or to surprise the reader. Most often, though, paragraphs are used to build the main idea of a passage. Each paragraph in some way reinforces the author's point. Sometimes, authors state their main point early in the passage. They use the remaining paragraphs to support what they said at the beginning. At other times, authors reverse the process, writing several paragraphs that lead inevitably to the main idea. Occasionally, a main idea shows up somewhere in the middle of a passage, and, at other times, it doesn't appear at all. Rather, it's implied by the contents of the entire passage. It's so apparent that to state it outright is unnecessary. There's no need to figure out the main point of each paragraph. The point of one paragraph in a difficult passage, though, may provide a clue to the meaning of the whole passage. Understanding the second paragraph, for example, may clarify the point of the first one, and the two together may reveal the intent of the entire passage.
DECIDE WHETHER TO USE AN UNDERLINING TECHNIQUE
Option A. Underline key ideas and phrases. Since you have a pencil in your hand during the test, use it to highlight the important points of a reading passage. When you come to an idea that sounds important, quickly draw a line under it or put a checkmark next to it in the margin. Underlining may be better,
because you'll be rereading the words as your pencil glides along. On the other hand, underlining is time-consuming. Whatever you do, though, use your pencil sparingly or you may end up with most of the passage underlined or checked.
Option B. Don't underline anything. The rationale here is that, without having read the passage at least once, you can't know what's important. Furthermore, underlining takes time and you may be wasting valuable seconds drawing lines under material that won't help you answer the questions. The time you
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spend underlining might better be spent rereading the passage or studying the questions. Anyway, a 750-word passage won't contain so much material that you can't remember most of it when you start to look for answers to the questions.
Option C. Underline answers only. After you have read the questions and returned to the passage, use your pencil to identify tentative answers to the questions. Underline only a word or two, no more than is necessary to attract your attention when you look back to the passage for answers. Consider using checks or other marks; they take less time than underlining but serve the same purpose.
DECIDE WHEN TO READ THE QUESTIONS
Option A. Read the questions before you read the passage. Because it's almost impossible to remember ten, or even five or six, questions about material you haven't read, just review the questions in order to become acquainted with the kinds of information you are expected to draw out of the passage. Identify the questions as "Ml" (main idea), "SD" (specific detail), "lnterp" (interpretation of phrase or idea), and so on. (You can devise your own system.) When a question refers to a specific line number, go directly to the passage and mark that line with a check or asterisk. Better still, write the number of the question in the margin (e.g., #3, #8, etc.). Later, when you read the passage, you'll know instantly that you must read that line attentively because it may give you, or at least strongly suggest, the right answer.
When you know the questions beforehand, you can read a passage more purposefully. Instead of reading for a general impression, you can look for the main idea of the passage, seek out specific details, and locate the meaning of a phrase or idea. Exercising this option requires you to become familiar with the varieties of questions typically asked on the ACT, an effort that could save! You precious time during the test itself.
Option B. Read the questions after you read the passage. With the passage fresh in your mind, you can probably answer two or three questions immediately. On other questions, you can eliminate one or two obviously wrong choices. Just "x" them and forget them. With a few questions and choices eliminated, direct your second reading of the passage to the remaining questions. You'll read still more purposefully if you note the question types beforehand, as suggested by Option A.
Option C. Read the questions one by one, not as a group. After reading the passage, start with the first question and answer it by referring to the passage. Then go on to the next question. This approach is slow but thorough. It's comfortable, too, since you needn't keep large amounts of information in mind all at once, just a question at a time. Don't be a slave to the order of the questions. If you can't answer a question, skip it for the time being and go on to the next one. Go back later if you have time. Whatever you do, don't even think of answering a question before reading the passage from start to finish. Misguided students first read a question, then start to read the passage in search of an answer. Before they know it, time runs out, and they're far from finishing.
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SUSPEND YOUR PRIOR KNOWLEDGE
Occasionally, a reading passage may deal with a subject you know about. Because all the questions are derived from the passage in front of you, all your answers should be, too. Cast aside your prior knowledge and read both passage and questions with an open mind.
IDENTIFY EACH QUESTION BY TYPE (REFERRING OR REASONING)
With experience you can learn to spot question types quickly. Without getting bogged down in making small distinctions, label each question by its type. Usually, the wording of a question will tell you whether you can find the answer by referring directly to the passage or by using your reasoning powers. Questions that ask what a passage indicates, as in "What does the second paragraph indicate about ...? ", are almost always referring questions. Other referring questions can often be recognized by their straightforward wording and by certain tag phrases such as "according to the passage, ..."
"the passage clearly indicates ... "
"the passage says ..."
The words used in reasoning questions vary according to the intent of the questions. Those that begin with something like "On the basis of information in the passage, which ...? " are usually reasoning questions, which can also be identified by such tag phrases as
"infer from the passage that ..."
"the passage implies that ..."
"the passage suggests that ..."
"probably means that ... "
"one can conclude that ..."
"the main idea ..."
"the main thought ..."
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"the primary purpose ..."
With a little practice you can easily learn to identify referring and reasoning questions. Once you know how to distinguish between them, you can vary your approach to find the right answers. For example, when a question asks you to identify what the author of the passage says, you'll know instantly that you are dealing with a referencing question and that you should search the passage for explicit material. In contrast, a question that asks about the main thought of a passage calls for a different approach, perhaps rereading the passage's opening and closing paragraphs and inferring the author's purpose.
Identifying your strengths and weaknesses will enable you to practice the skills needed to boost your score. If, for instance, you repeatedly stumble on questions that ask you to reason out the main idea of a passage, you may be reading the passages too slowly, paying too much attention to details to recognize the main flow of ideas. The problem can be remedied by consciously pressing yourself to read faster.
On the actual test, answer first the types of questions you rarely get wrong on ACT practice exercises, perhaps the main idea questions or those that ask about specific details. Then devote the bulk of your time to the types that have given you more trouble. The order in which you answer the questions is completely up to you. You alone know which question types you customarily handle with ease and which types give you trouble.
ANSWER GENERAL QUESTIONS BEFORE DETAIL QUESTIONS
General questions usually ask you to identify the author's point of view or the main idea of the passage. A reader with a good understanding of the whole passage can often answer general questions without rereading a word. That's not always so with detail questions. When you're asked for a specific fact or for an interpretation of a word or phrase, you may have to return to a particular place in the passage to find the answer. That takes time, and, since speed is important on the test, it makes sense to get the easier questions out of the way before tackling the more time-consuming ones. Some people claim that broad questions are harder than questions about details because you need to understand the whole passage to answer them. Don't believe it. They're neither harder nor easier. As with so much in life, it all depends on how strong you are at understanding and comprehending main ideas when you read .... In any case, the first five questions about a reading passage are usually detail questions. The general questions come later.
ASSIGN READING BOOTCAMP STRATEGIES EXERCISES 1 and 3
