ACT Reading tips/strats?

<p>Since it seems like most of us bombed the reading, I think we should discuss how we approached it and how it worked.</p>

<p>For me, I read the natural sciences first, then social science, followed by humanities, and then the prose fiction. I didn't get to read the prose fiction past the 2nd paragraph so I bubbled in like 5-7+ answers. Reading them in a different order helps a little bit imo, because if you run out of time, the article that you didn't finish was the one you probably would have done the worst on anyways.</p>

<p>So how do you all approach the article/questions?</p>

<p>I know that i got almost all of them right...not meaning to brag, but here's what i did:</p>

<p>I don't read the passages completely...you'll never finish</p>

<p>I pick out the questions with specifics and line references. I do those first. You can do these without knowing anything about the topic at hand. While i do these questions, i get an idea of what this passage is actually about.</p>

<p>Then i look for paragraph questions, or a question that will be in a certain area of the passage (because by now, im familiar with the layout)</p>

<p>Then i finish up, and the main idea questions are easy.</p>

<p>I go in order as the articles come.</p>

<p>And another note...on some of the articles, you can get some of the answers without even reading the passage, if you have some background knowledge...this is hardly EVER true for the SAT</p>

<p>I read all of it completely and I finnished with five minutes to spare. I bomb it when I don't read it all. (was the prose one the first one?) I read it very quickly, digesting it the second my brain notices I'm reading it. Than when I need to reference the text, I can, and I already know where specifics are at, and I generally know what it's about that way. But lolok1214 does it completely different from me which proves that it's kind of an individual thing</p>

<p>yeah i guess it is invidividual. Actually, come to think of it...on the PLAN test i did your strategy. But it hurt my head so i tried something else. works better on my head :)</p>

<p>how do u speed read prose fiction? that's VERY HARD, because each author has unique purpose and style and hiding things and crap like that</p>

<p>science, social studies, humanities is posible to speed read</p>

<p>i agree, prose is tough to speed read. Fortunately many of the questions are very general or very specific.</p>

<p>I'm not speed reading per se.</p>

<p>do you think you should first tackle the prose first before the other sections because the other sections you can speedread/outline quickly/better bg info?</p>

<p>hmmm...I never even thought of going out of order, but generally you should start with the easiest, and prose is usually the hardest. Like on the sat math or sat2 math2c you don't do the problems from #50 to #1 because they become increasingly more difficult. You save the tough stuff for last</p>

<p>I am a high school student in Asia and English is a foreign language to me. My score TOEFL iBT is 93(the toal score is 120), with the reading score being 29(the total score is 30). I felt pleasant for the reading score and I found great confidence to crack the ACT reading. When I took TOEFL reading, I could read smoothly. When I was taking the ACT reading training this week, however, I found it extremely difficult, especially the fiction and the humanity parts. Additionally, the time is limited in ACT…I could finish one more passage…
So, how do you all improve your reading skill everyday? How do you deal with the test when you face the fiction and the humanity parts?</p>