DON’T READ THE PASSAGE
One reason science passages take so long is that reading the passages is a burden. They're long, they use confusing words, and they discuss complex issues that can go completely over your head. But most questions on the ACT simply ask you to retrieve or analyze the data on the tables and figures, so you don't need a deep understanding of the concepts involved.
When you first get to a new passage, don't read it. Dive into the questions. You can get a lot of questions just by matching the values and key words given in the question to the same values and terms in the figures. We realize that sometimes it can be scary to jump into the questions without knowing what the passage is about. If you like, you can skim it to get a sense of what going on, but do so quickly. Just get a general sense of what's going on. If you don't understand some concept or detail, skip it and move on.
Obviously, not every question will just rely on looking up numbers; sometimes you will have to read and understand the content of the passage. But when that happens, you can always go back. Don't try to absorb all the information from the beginning-worry about that information when you need it, when you're asked about it. You don't have a lot of time on this test. Don't spend time trying to understand something unless a question asks you to understand it.
One slight exception here is the Conflicting Viewpoints passage. These passages tend to be more text-heavy and use far fewer tables and figures than the other passage types. Instead, they present several different hypotheses and explanations for a given set of facts and circumstances.
For questions on these passages, you will generally need some understanding of the difference between the various hypotheses. But often you just need a bare understanding of what the hypotheses are-the main ideas. These passages are written in clear, direct language, so the main idea is usually given in the first sentence. So just underline the first sentence of each viewpoint. Skim or ignore the rest. That should give you a good summary, and you' II be ready to start the questions.*
USE TARGET NUMBERS
Our general rule for the ACT as a whole still applies: accuracy is more important than bulk. This is the idea behind Target Numbers: only do a certain number of questions and guess randomly on the remainder. That way, you'll have fewer questions to do in the same amount of time. Therefore, you'll have more time for each question, you'll have a better chance of being accurate on the ones you do, and you'll get more points overall.
On the Science Test, that means it may be to your benefit to skip an entire passage. The following table shows you the target scores you can get if you skip I or 2 entire passages on the Science Test
Target Scores
Notes Skip 1 Passage Skip 2 Passages Get all questions right, plus guesses on skipped passages. 29-31 25-28 Get I wrong question on each passage you do. 25-26 22-24
The scores listed here are approximations. These are not guarantees; they're goals. Here are a few things to keep in mind about this table:
• As always, you must never leave any questions blank. The above calculations assume that you guessed randomly on the questions you skipped and got about 25% of them right These numbers may vary depending on how lucky you were in these guesses. Remember: there is no penalty for guessing There is no possible drawback to guessing randomly on questions you skip.
• The first row in the table shows the high end of what you can achieve, assuming you get all the questions you do correct, plus a few random guesses. But you probably won't get I 00% of them right The second row shows what your scores will look like if you miss 1 question in each passage you do.
• The scores are shown as ranges because different passages have different numbers of questions, so the total number of questions you skip may vary. If you skip more questions, you have a lower maximum possible score, but you'll have more time to get the questions you do.
1. In the Skip 1 column, the low number assumes you skip a Conflicting Viewpoints (7 questions) and the high number assumes a Data Representation (5 questions).
2. In the Skip 2 column, the low number assumes you skip a Conflicting Viewpoints and a Research Summaries (7 + 6 = 13Q) and the high assumes two Data Representation passages (5 + 5 = 10Q).'
• Remember that each test form has its own particular scoring table. We computed these figures by looking at past real tests and finding the average final score for a given raw score. But the scoring table for the real ACT you take will vary. A raw score of 30 (that is, getting 30 questions right) might give you a final score of 25 on one test but a final score of 27 on another test
To repeat: these numbers are not exact. They are approximations.
So how many passages should you skip? Think about your starting score and your goal. For example:
• Say you're currently getting around a 17 on the Science Test. You can skip 13 questions over 2 passages, get a bunch of questions wrong, and still get a 22, a 5-point score increase. That's great!
• Say you're getting a 21. You could skip 1 passage, miss 5-6 questions, and end up with a 26. You could skip 2, but you would have to be sure you get most of them right to get up to that range.
• Say you're getting a 25. You can skip I passage, get nearly all of them right, and get a 30. If you want to get above a 30, you need to do all the passages. But you may consider doing the passages in a different order in order to maximize your chances.
So which passage should you skip? There are a few possibilities:
DON’T BE AFRAID TO SKIP PASSAGES
This is the easiest method to remember. Don't worry about the content or structure of the passage, just skip the last one. While the ACT does not release information about how it orders individual questions on the Science Test, our anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that passages (not the
questions) are ordered by difficulty. That is, the last passage often features the most complicated reasoning, unconventional graphs, or difficult subject matter. So that might make it a good passage to skip.
1
UNDERLINE WHICH FIGURE OR TABLE YOU NEED
Most questions will specify which table or figure you're talking about. Underline the figure's name in the question and find it in the passage. Make sure you're looking at the right figure when you answer the question.
Q: Do I have to do this? Like, do I have to actually underline it?
YES. You have to actually underline it.' If this seems unnecessarily specific and meticulous, you're half right. Yes, it's meticulous, but it is entirely necessary. So much of the test is just about locating the information you need, so you must be doubly, triply, and quadruply sure that you do so accurately. Careless mistakes can and will happen.
Q: What if the question lists two figures?
Underline both of them: you'll probably need both! One of them might wind up being more important than the other, but both should be relevant.
Q: What if the question doesn't list any figures or tables?
This does happen. Sometimes instead of listing a figure, the question will say something like "Based on the information provided". That is usually a clue that the information you need will be in the introductory paragraphs, not in the figures and tables.
Also, sometimes a passage will only have one figure or table. In those cases, the figure or table often won't be listed in the questions. They'll assume you know where to go.
For Conflicting Viewpoints passages, rather than listing the name of a table or figure, questions will specify which students or scientists they're asking about. If a question doesn't name a student or scientist, it's often because the point of the question is to ask which student or scientist would agree or disagree with a piece of information. For these questions, continue on to step 2.
UNDERLINE KEY WORDS
Look for words that give you information you need to answer the question. These are words that tell you what you know, or what you want. For example, if the question is:
- According to Table 1, when the chamber had a temperature of 10°C what was the volume of nitrogen?
I notice that you already underlined "Table I". Well done.
The words that tell us what we know are "temperature" and "10°C". We want the "volume" of "nitrogen".
These are all key words that tell us where in Table I to look. When you find words that look like they will help you, underline them. You will need these words later.
- According to Table I, when the chamber had a temperature of 10°C what was the volume of nitrogen?
Don't worry about what these words mean yet. We're just identifying which words are important. We don't care what they mean yet. For example, if the question is:
* Well, okay, you don't have to underline. If you want, you can circle it instead.
According to Table 1, when the chamber had a tinstaffle of 10 gorr, what was the gravilax of flextane?
You probably don't know what these words mean. That's because we made them up. But we can still tell that "tinstaffle", "10 gorr", "gravilax", and "flextane" are the key words. We'll go to Table 1 and look for those words.
Q: How do you know if a word is a key word?
Some students get a little too happy with underlining. Don't underline everything in the sentence, just the key words. Questions will often be padded with extra words that don't actually help you find the answer.
Anything that sounds like an Important Science Word (like "volume" or "capacitance" or "propanoic acid") might be a key word that helps you. Ask yourself: what do you know, and what do you want? Find any information in the question that might help you when you go back to the figures.
Certainly anything with a number attached to it is potentially important. But not every number winds up being important. Sometimes questions give you extra information that isn't necessary to solve the question.
For example, the example question above mentioned "the chamber had a temperature of l 0
°C." That seems important. But if everything in Table 1 is at 10°C, that information doesn't actually add anything new. In that case, we'd just want to find the volume of nitrogen, period.
Ultimately, the point is to try to highlight the important information and ignore the filler. You won't always know right away what the important stuff is, and some things you underline may not be important in the end. But you'll get better with practice.
Q: This question is total nonsense. ‘I’m really confused. What do I do if I can't find any key words? If the question is too confusing, try reading the choices. Sometimes the question will be densely phrased or will rely on a deep understanding of the passage, but the choices are a simple list of values or statements.
Look for key words in the choices: units, names of variables, or anything that might help you figure out where in the passage to look.
Q: That didn't help Now What?
Go on to step 3. Look in the figure or table. Check the labels in the relevant figure to see if they match any words in the sentence. Look at the labels on the axes, the headers on the table, the names associated with different lines in the graph, or any other words that appear. If that still doesn't help, certain types of questions have to be done in different ways. See the discussion of question types below.
BACKSOLVE ON MATH RELATED PROBLEMS
As we said in the four-step method, many of the questions involve going back to the passage, looking up the information we know, and matching it to the information we have.
But we can also work the other direction. Start with the choices, look up those values in the passage, and then see which one matches the information given in the question. For example:
- In Experiment 2, the gases in tanks 3 and 7 had the same pressure at which of the following temperatures?
A. 30°C
B. 450C
C. 60°C
D. 75°C
Obviously we can't actually do this problem since we don't have the results of Experiment 2 handy. Regardless, we can tell that one way to do this problem is to look at the figures associated with Experiment 2 and find the temperatures at which the tanks had the same pressure.
But what if it's not that easy? What if the data in Experiment 2 is spread across two figures? It may be hard to compare tanks 3 and 7 directly. So instead, we can work directly off the values in the choices. Look up the pressure of tank 3 at the temperatures listed and write them next to the choices. Then do the same for tank 7 and see which choice gives the same values. Something like this:
3
Backsolve can show up all over the test on all sorts of different question types. It may or may not be faster than looking up the values directly. More often than not, it takes about the same amount of time to do it in either direction, so ultimately it comes down to whatever you're more comfortable with. So if you're having trouble dealing with the information in the question, try using the choices instead.
GUESSTIMATE
On the Math test, the idea behind Guesstimate was that we can learn a lot by looking at the figure. Well, half of the Science Test involves nothing more than looking at figures! Practically everything we do with figures is a kind of Guesstimate. We look at the picture, look at the numbers on the picture, and find the values we need.
Like Guesstimate on the Math Test, when you look at figures on the Science Test, you do not have to be exact. Look at the figure and get a range of possible answer for the value you need. This point looks like it's between 40 and 50. Look at the choices and eliminate anything that's not between 40 and 50. If more than one choice works out, then you can go back and try to be more precise. Where between 40 and 50 is it? Is it right in the middle, like 45? Closer to 40, like 42? Closer to 50, like 48? How can you tell?
Visually. Look at the picture and see where the point is.
Obviously, if the data is in a Table instead of a Figure, you're not going to be able to solve it visually. And when you look up a value on a table, the exact number you need is already written down for you. However, even with tables there are times when you should approximate. For example, inferred data questions ask you where on a table a new point would occur. These questions don't ask for precise numbers, just ranges of values. Whenever possible, start with broad values and get more precise only when necessary.
* Because there's no algebra on the Science Test, Plug In, sadly, will not help you much
ASSIGN SCIENCE BOOT CAMP PRACTICE EXERCISE #1
https://www.capstoneadvising.com/bootcampscience