<p>For thos of you who took the ACT test on April 8., what was your strategy going in to the reading section...was it successful?</p>
<p>come on people...I see some high scorers? did you guys read the passage first or just go to the questions?</p>
<p>I just went right through. I read fairly quickly so I just read the passage and went right through the questions... Sorry its not much of a trick.</p>
<p>Same as Neb...just keep practicing. I got a 34 on reading.</p>
<p>I got a 36 on the reading, btw, and I just did a little ACT practice but alot of SAT practice... It seemed to me like the SAT reading was harder and more convoluted so the ACT became that much more accesible.</p>
<p>The ACT reading IS much easier....A lot more straightforward, I think...</p>
<p>I got a 33 in the reading, so I'm really not on the high end of the people here, but in my defense, I might have gotten a 34 if I hadn't made a dumb mistake involving leaving an answer blank, forgetting to come back to it, and then noticing that I left it blank while in the Science section and just filling in an answer at random....</p>
<p>Here's what I did.... I first read the passage and underlined/marked what I deemed particularly important parts of the passage (don't bother taking notes...its too time-consuming...just underline....) Then I jumped right into the questions and answered all the "attention to detail" questions while the story was still fresh in my mind while referring back to the text when necessary... Then I jumped to the main idea questions. Since I had already read the story and even checked back for specific details on a few questions, I hardly had to go back to the text for any of the main idea questions, which saved time. </p>
<p>I didn't do the passages in order either... I remember when I took the ACT in April, for some reason I had difficulty understanding the first passage...And after a minute, I just decided to skip it and go to the next passage (which I found much easier). After going through the other three passages, I went back to the passage I had initially skipped and, for some reason, it seemed to make a lot more sense...</p>
<p>I think it really is to your benefit to not do the passages in order if you are better in certain areas... For example, the ACT always has a science passage, so if you are particularly good at the science section of the ACT, then maybe you should skip ahead and get the science passage of the reading out of the way...</p>
<p>A girl I know was in a room where another kid did that and got kicked out. Oh, the walk of shame...and the wasted money...and having to explain to parents why there won't be a score report in a few weeks. I would cry.</p>
<p>Anyway, I got a 34 on the reading. I have no tricks. I just pace myself at ten minutes per passage, read the whole passage and do everything in order. I also circle questions I'm not sure of and come back to them in my extra time. They usually make more sense after I put them out of mind for a bit.</p>
<p>Well, I got a 36 in reading.</p>
<p>I just read it and answered the questions. I read really quickly and just absorb it. I'd practice with SAT questions, cause they tend to be much harder. It seems like the AP Language is similar, too.</p>
<p>I always read the passage first. It saves me time (or it feels like it) and I have a clearer idea of where things are.</p>
<p>i'm pretty good at ACT reading</p>
<p>I got a 27 and 28 in Reading, having to rush through the last passage. This time I read and answered faster (going with my instinct) and got done with time to spare. We'll see if that worked best for me...</p>
<p>Katho11- how do you pace yourself at 10 min/passage when you have four passages and 35 minutes?</p>
<p>It's a psychological thing. I don't spend a full ten minutes on each passage, obviously. See, if I allow myself ten minutes instead of eight, I feel much more relaxed and actually work faster. On this last one I had about five minutes to look back on a few questions that I didn't feel sure on. It may be strange, but it works really well for me.</p>
<p>my act on april 8 was cancelled and it is now on april 22</p>
<p>katho- oh so would you recommend someone like me who has a 27 reading to just spend 10 mins per passage and try to get most, if not all, of the questions right on the first three and then with 3-5 minutes left, make educated guesses on the last passage?</p>
<p>I got a 36 reading on the Feb administration of the act(havent gotten my april scores yet cause my mom refuses to pay if they dont have my writing score up yet...<em>sigh</em>)...my strategy is to quickly read through the passage to get the overall flavor/direction/etc of the piece and then to go into the questions...the questions usually refer back to specific lines within the piece...sometimes I will only read the lines specified by the question...but if Im confused on the answer...I quickly reread the paragraph(if its short) or reread nearby sentences...</p>
<p>Doesn't seem like there is any foolproof strategy for the reading.</p>
<p>You'll find that just about all of the strategies people have developed scored a 36 for -some- people. </p>
<p>It's really all about finding out which one works the best for you.</p>
<p>paki:</p>
<p>Erm, I don't know about that. It's more of a thing I do to trick myself into thinking I'm doing really well by finishing the passages faster than I had planned. </p>
<p>I guess it could work the way you're talking about...but definitely try it on several practice reading sections to see how you do.</p>