<p>On the reading section how many of you actually read the passages?</p>
<p>is it better to read them, or go for the key words and answers?</p>
<p>I think it depends on the individual. My D got a 35 on the reading part the 1st time she took ACT as a sophomore- her highest score on the test. Last time she took it she prepped with princeton review book. Brought up her other scores (especially English which the prep book really helped her with). But her reading dropped a lot and became her lowest score. She felt not reading the whole passage did not work for her. One thing she especially noticed she answered some questions by reading the lines or paragraph but her answer was not correct in the context of the entire passage. She is planning a retake (for scholarship purposes) and will go back to reading the passage. She is a fast reader though so that probably makes a difference on the approach. Do a couple of practice tests and see which way works better for you.</p>
<p>if it is something you are really into than read it obviously, but if not, your best off "using" a friend</p>
<p>I personally don't see how you could do very well on a test of reading comprehension if you don't do any reading. ;) Too many of the questions deal with the passage as a whole. A friend of mine got a 20 on the Reading section. I asked him what went wrong, and he explained that he didn't read the passages--he spent all his time hunting for the answers to the questions, and ended up not finding most of them, consequently guessing a lot, and ultimately running out of time.</p>
<p>thanks...</p>
<p>anyone else?</p>
<p>The first time I took the ACT's, in October, I read through all of the passages (quickly) before I started the questions. I think it helps to give you a 'big picture' idea as to what's going on, but timing is crucial and you can't expect to thoroughly read each passage and still have time to answer the questions. I would read/skim as fast as I could, and then move on to the questions, looking back as needed. I ended up getting a 35 in reading, btw =)</p>
<p>I read the passages through fairly quickly and then did the in context or specific questions. then I rescanned the parts I needed to for the passage-as-a-whole questions.
I got a 35.</p>