Hey guys so i am a junior and i will be taking the ACT for the very first time and i really want to get it out of my way i have 3 months to practice but i do not usually have time to practice since i go to school and i have to do one thing after another but i have been taking practice test and reviewing but i can say that my weakest point is on time management and i mostly take a lot of time on all of the practice test i do not know how to read the passage faster in a way that i could retain information and for the science section it is confusing to me and i keep wasting time PLS HELP i promise that i am into this i am into working hard but i just need advice on how to make a study schedule and how to do better on practice test also how to approach the reading and science passage so i can not take time
@bsdfn11 It is good you are already starting. My daughter also has very little free time between school, activities and work (and you do have to have some fun!). When homework is done I hate to make her add on ACT study. Time is also an issue for her on math and science.
She is taking the test in two weeks and is about done with For the Love of ACT Science book. Some of the things they tell you are to look for the “locators” in the question and go back to the passage with purpose. For example, skim the passage to get an idea of what it is about but then go straight to the question and look for “locators” like “Figure 1” or “Table 2” or “according to the passage”. Then you know exactly where you need to go back and look. Then check the question for other items like units of measurement, terminology like pH, or another key phrase that pinpoints what you are to look for.
For example, just today she did a practice test just on the conflicting viewpoints style passages. One question related to which students thought gravity was a factor in the experiment. Without reading the passage, I scanned each of the 3 students’ viewpoints and found the word “gravitational pull” in each one. Reading each full sentence containing that phrase revealed clearly that Student 1 thought it had an effect and Students 2 and 3 stated it did not have an effect. There are many times I can answer the question without reading the whole experiment just by looking at the Figure the question refers to, or by looking for a key word.
For Reading I have seen it advised to not even read the passage first. Go straight to the questions, look for a key word or a paragraph or section that the question directs you to and see if you can answer without reading the whole thing.
Another strategy is to answer all of the questions you can get quickly, and then when you have finished the majority of the test, go back and work on the ones you skipped. Then at least you have not spent a huge amount on one section and left to guess on a bunch at the end. (Just don’t get off on which line you are marking answers, and make sure to circle in your test book which ones to come back to.)
You can try these things and see if it helps. Good luck and even fitting in a little bit of practice here and there is better than nothing!
Have you tried a SAT practice test? The SAT does not require as fast a pace to finish the test.
The ACT on line prep (there’s a modest annual fee) was helpful to my child.