<p>hey, i was thinking about taking my first ACT exam soon, and i was reading that the english section of the ACT has 75 questions..in which you have to do it all in 45 minutes, isnt taht pretty tough? i havent taken a practice test yet, but i was just wondering how hard it is to pace yourself on that section.</p>
<p>any advice on pacing for it? thanks :D</p>
<p>It's definitely an intimidating ratio of time to questions, but in all honesty, you actually have plenty of time. The ACT designers have already helped you out quite a bit by lining up the questions with the parts of the passage they correspond to, so it's very easy to answer questions as you read.</p>
<p>You have 45 minutes for 75 questions, meaning you can spend exactly 36 seconds on each question (including reading the relevant parts of the passage). Consider that many of the questions simply ask about basic grammar (e.g., should it be "its" or "it's"?) -- it doesn't take but 5 seconds to answer these. Others are more challenging in that they require you to consider the essay as a whole; don't worry, though, because the fact that you can answer the grammar ones so quickly will give you much more than 36 seconds for the more challenging rhetorical ones.</p>
<p>The first time I was exposed to an ACT english test (we took a practice one in my English class; it wan't on an actual ACT test), I went at a pace that I thought was extremely slow. I was convinced I wasn't going to finish in 45 minutes. Turns out I finished a minute early and only missed three (giving me a 34), which I couldn't have achieved had I not taken my time to understand the passages fully.</p>
<p>oo really?? that's a HUGE relief to hear :) . do u know like if the long passages in which u talk about are as long as some of the SAT long reading passages?. or are they longer than taht??</p>
<p>thanks for the reassurace!!</p>
<p>I haven't taken the SAT, so I don't know what its English test is like. If you want to see a complete sample ACT test, check out this PDF document:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf</a></p>
<p>It includes all four tests -- English, Math, Reading, Science -- as well as a scoring guide at the back. That should give you an accurate idea of the length of the essays on the English test.</p>
<p>yup..thanks, got that earlier</p>
<p>Yeah, they're right. When I took the ACT, I was REALLY worried about the English section, since there are so many questions in such a relatively short time period, but most of the questions are easy. Usually I finish with 10-15 minutes (I am not exaggerating) to spare so I have time to check. Let me give you a hint. Make sure you note the tense that each passage is written in (the tense should remain as consistent as possible). The English section often asks questions with answers that are seemingly correct until you realize that all the preceding sentences are written in a different tense.</p>
<p>It's the science section's time/question ratio that you should be worried about...</p>
<p>oo thanks for the advice!!</p>
<p>??..the science section is hard for pacing as well???</p>
<p>The science section sucks in my opinion. For me, at least, it's the most difficult to finish in time, whereas the English test is the easiest. It's not that the questions are difficult (many of them are actually stupidly easy), it's that</p>
<p>1) it takes me longer to read some of the science passages because they're packed full of minute details; and</p>
<p>2) it sometimes takes a while to sift through all the data you've given to extract the relevant bits to answer a question.</p>
<p>In my opinion, the science test is just another reading test where all the passages happen to be extremely dry nonfiction with plenty of graphs for your enjoyment.</p>
<p>oo..i see</p>
<p>thanks for ur opinions!!</p>
<p>the math is the hardest for pacing for me.
There is really plenty of time for english.</p>