<p>What are the best strategies, for attacking the ACT Reading section? </p>
<p><strong><em>I'm having trouble finishing the section.</em></strong></p>
<p>** DO NOT read the questions first**. You need to quickly read the passage first, then move to the questions, then refer back to the passage.</p>
<p>If you can’t answer a question, skip and move on. Chances are that the answer will pop up in another question.</p>
<p>Don’t look for things that aren’t there! If it asks you “which of these is addressed in the passage,” the answer will usually be pretty explicit. </p>
<p>Process of elimination. Probably the most important part of the whole test. </p>
<p>Answer the easiest questions first! This will give you the maximum amount of points. Then go back to the hard questions.</p>
<p>Don’t be afraid to skip around passages. If you don’t know the answers, go to another passage. There’s some psychological phenomenon which allows you to more easily think up answers subconsciously, though I forget what it’s called.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much it. Good luck!</p>
<p>When I first took the ACT, reading was my worst subject (I too had trouble finishing). Through some work, I got a 36 on it.</p>
<p>A lot of what ^ said. I like the ACT because the answers were more grounded than the SAT in that there is always some very clear evidence in the passage. Make sure that you start with the sections that you are most comfortable reading first. I find that, in humanities (2nd) and science (4th) I am able to breeze through it pretty quick, since most of the questions reference something explicitly stated in the text. Narrative is my worst, but it really depended on how much I could relate to the text. I’m a pretty bad reader.</p>
<p>Start with what you are good at, and practice the section that takes you the longest. By the time I took the ACT, I had practiced narrative enough that I felt comfortable moving in the correct order of passages. All questions are worth the same, and its not worth spending a couple minutes answering one question wrong when you could spend those couple minutes answering lots of questions correctly.</p>
<p>For me I always found myself a good reader so I was able to quickly read the passage and maintain the information. If you still have time I’d suggest you began to read some news articles online everyday to hone your reading skills.</p>
<p>Actual test wise I’d never skip around passages(thats just me) but instead I would read through the passage and mark interesting statements,info or big words. After finishing I usually could retain alot of the info so I didn’t need to go back and reread. The questions that I needed to look back often were near my underlined areas making finding the info very easy.</p>
<p>I love the strategy of reading the paragraph and line specific questions first and answering them, so chances are you will have read most of the passage just by looking for answers. It’s worked wonders for me (3 consecutive 36’s in reading), and especially so because you don’t have to speed read the entire passage hoping to memorize it all.</p>
<p>i too have a problem on the reading portion. I got 35 in math, 33 in english, 32 in science…
but a stinkin 23 on the reading… the questions were pretty easy, i just didn’t have the time to read through the last passage and answer them. ):</p>
<p>here’s something my english teacher told me. “SPEED reading isn’t about how fast you can read the text. it’s about how fast you can understand it.” </p>
<p>so even if it takes you a little longer to understand it, don’t rush. it’s better to read it through once and understand it then to read it fast multiple times.</p>
<p>Agree with ^. Quickly read the passage first, but make sure the speed is just slightly faster than complete comprehension. You can always read into the passage closer when you’re referring back to it when answering questions. I received a 36 in reading.</p>
<p>^ Agreed as well. 36 Reading here, and the trick is to 1) not read the questions before reading the passage (it takes up time) and 2) read at a brisk pace that allows for basic comprehension, not in-depth analysis. Go through the questions, and always verify your answer with the text. Some answers will seem like they would “fit” and make sense, but there’s only one that is completely correct based on the text.</p>
<p>With reading everybody has a strategy that works best for them. Here are the strategies I’ve tried in order of most favorite to least favorite (but your list might be different.)
- Read the introduction paragraph, each topic sentence, and the conclusion
- Read the whole passage, then answer all the questions.
- Find the questions that have a specific line reference, answer those first, then you should have enough of an idea about what the passage is about then answer the other questions.
- Read the questions first, memorizing the key words, then read the passage and underline the key words so you know exactly where to look later
Note: most of these strategies encourage jotting little notes in the passage so you have a better idea of where to look when answering questions.
My suggestion is to try these out and see what works for you. the best reading strategy is the one that gets YOU the highest score.</p>
<p>I took the test as a freshman and got a 34 on the reading. I read the passages at a comfortable pace, then I read and knew all the questions.</p>
<p>^^ If you did get a 34, why are you strolling around here anymore?</p>
<p>ok, I have been able to raise my score by a couple poitns in the last couple of days. Everything you need is in the passage. You should be literally able to point to the evidence! Since there is a huge time restraint, I circle those questions where I used my knowledge of the story, but did not find where the evidence was exactly. Then with my spare 3-4 minutes, I go over those questions and make sure I got them right. Seems to work for me =)</p>
<p>
Some of us continue to choose to help others with our strategies and methods.</p>
<p>My advice is…seriously what i learned from the princeton book it helped me to get a consistent 34-36 (with a whole lot of practice though)
Alright so basically what you do first is
- go through the questions and underline the key words… like Marsha, train, art, marsha and friends, etc. words that aren’t “question typical”.
- go through/skim the passage looking for those key words, underline them. (don’t have to be too accurate here, just skim and underline)
- Read the passage while making sure you focus on the key words (usually that’s where the questions are contained)
- Go and answer those questions! (if you need to go back do so!)
This may sound complicated, but it really helped me to cut down my time to about 5-6 at max 7 minutes per passage. This strategy in my opinion is very effective because - It gives you a strategy and an approach to the reading section in turn instilling confidence in you (very important).
- You don’t waste time on useless info
- Just trust in it, it works! BUT make sure you practice practice practice!</p>
<p>saxguy5151 - what was your score before you started to get between 34-36? Also, which practice tests did you use, and how did you do on the real test for the reading portion?</p>
what do you mean by question typical?
My biggest tip is to remember that ~80% of the questions refer DIRECTLY to a SPECIFIC sentence or paragraph in the passage. The answer will either be verbatim or close to verbatim to what’s found in the text. I’m used to multiple choice questions that are asking for interpretation, comprehension, deeper understanding, etc…but seriously, the ACT is checking that you can quickly and accurately find info from the text.
Yeah I got a 36 reading and I read the passages quickly enough to understand them for the general idea questions then just got the specifics from the questions since you have to go back anyways
This thread is from 2011.