ACT Reading tips- How do I beat the clock?

<p>I've taken 2 untimed practice ACT tests and have gotten 35 on reading both times. Only problem is, I take 40 min to complete the section. Any tips on how to finish in 35 min or less? thanks.</p>

<p>Read questions. Look for line references in questions. Read those lines. Answer question.</p>

<p>This won’t work for questions asking about tones though. That’s probably one of the quicker ways.</p>

<p>I have the same problem as the OP. I got a 31 and 28 on reading on my first 2 ACTs respectively, I never bothered taking practice tests because I figured there’s no point. You just read 4 passages and answer questions, pretty straight forward. But the time really screwed me over on my 2nd ACT. So I decided to actually study and practice the Reading this time. Well I literally just got a 26 on a practice test -_-. The time screwed me over big time as I got 0, 2, 5, and 4 wrong for the respective passages. </p>

<p>One tip I know is to figure out which passages your best and worst at, so you can do your best passage first and your worst one last. The idea behind this is that you’ll most likely be rushed in the last passage, so it’s better off to have to rush on a passage where you’re more likely to get some wrong anyway.</p>

<p>Learn how to read quickly and actively. Use your pencil, and as you scan the passage the first time around, move your pencil along and underline things that you think would make good questions. You should spend three minutes MAX doing this.</p>

<p>Look at the questions. Answer the ones that ask about summarizing the passage or tone first (while the message of the story is still fresh in your head). Then, move on to the other questions with the line references.</p>

<p>I did this and moved from a 29 to a 33 in reading.</p>

<p>Unless you are not already accustomed to speed reading (which you could work on practicing), I would suggest flipping through all four passages and doing them in order of what interests you the most. Many find the prose fiction and the humanities passages the easiest, but do the ones first that make the most sense to you. By doing this, you can insure that you can answer the passages that you do first perfectly and leave whichever passage last that you don’t understand as much. </p>

<p>By doing this (combined with speed reading) I am getting 34s-35s on reading.</p>

<p>I’m not much of a speed reader, but I can get by with a 33-34 on the reading passage just by reading the first and last sentences of every paragraph because they pretty much summarize what the paragraph is about. After the first sentence, I just VERY quickly skim through the rest of the paragraph, underlining one or two things that may be important. All the passages except the prose should follow this format. As for the prose, I’m still working it out.</p>