XjudokaX's ACT Advice

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

<p>Hi All,</p>

<p>I see a plethora of threads asking for help on the ACT examination. I recently received my February ACT scores, and my highest scores stand as follows: (34 English, 36 Math, 36 Science, 32 Reading, 12 Essay, 35 English with writing) - Composite 35.</p>

<p>Here is my take on how to prepare for the ACT: </p>

<p>I haven't found any of the ACT books other than the official "Red Book" (The Real ACT Prep Guide) to be of much use. If you're aiming for a 34+, you can't really use the "gimmicks" found in most test books. The story is different for other score goals, however. Here is my advice in a nutshell:</p>

<p>English section:</p>

<p>Read the entire English section in the red book (it's quite short). Then take practice tests, and look at the ones you got wrong or guessed correctly until you understand why you got them wrong. The English section really comes down to two things:</p>

<p>1) (For mechanics questions): Be cheap with your words. If you are presented with the choice between a long sentence and a short sentence that do not differ in meaning and are both grammatically correct, then the shorter sentence is ALWAYS correct.
2) (For usage questions): Each time you read an English passage, keep the answer to the following question in mind: "In one sentence, what is this about?" If they ask you anything else, the answer is usually given in the question - or heavily hinted at. Just use your instincts, the English section usually is not about being tricky, but rather just following rules.</p>

<p>Mathematics:</p>

<p>There are no real tricks for mathematics. The trick is to learn math well. I didn't prepare for this section because I am have studied some advanced mathematics. </p>

<p>Tips:
(1) Take the hardest math classes your school offers (or that you have access to period).
(2) Take the AMC/AIME/USAMO. They will make this look easier. And from my experience, that's always a good thing. </p>

<p>If don't want to take the aforementioned tests, but just want to study them, look here:
AMC</a> 8 Problems and Solutions - AoPSWiki
AMC</a> 10 Problems and Solutions - AoPSWiki</p>

<p>If my previous advice doesn't work for you, I recommend studying the following topics (which are by my knowledge the only things that appear on the ACT):
-Pre-Algebra
-Elementary Algebra
-Intermediate Algebra
-Coordinate Geometry
-Plane Geometry
-Trigonometry
(I defer to SparkNotes here ACT</a> SparkNotes Test Prep: ACT Math Subjects)</p>

<p>Reading: Go through the passages one-by-one. (I do it in the order presented. Do it in another if you like.)</p>

<p>You have about eight minutes per passage (and then three left over to bubble, erase, use for hard questions, etc.) I recommend using about 4 minutes to fully read the passage. After each paragraph, ask yourself "In one sentence, WHAT IS THIS ABOUT?" (Just like my advice for the English section, but in each paragraph, not just once for the whole essay). Then go to the questions. If you can't answer a question in about 20 seconds, skip to the next one, then come back to it later (but before you move on to the next passage). Any time you have not used up your 20 second allotment per question but think you have answered it, go into the text to find evidence for your answer.</p>

<p>Science: Don't read anything you don't have to. Skip directly to the questions. If you don't understand what a question is asking, read anything that looks relevant until you understand the question. This section is just about reading graphs and using common sense in science. As far as definitions, I believe you only need to really know the following things:
(1) Strictly Increasing - a sequence of numbers in which each number is bigger than the previous one
(2) Strictly Decreasing - a sequence of numbers in which each number is smaller than the previous one
(3) Proportional - two quantities which behave similarly, namely when one increases, the other one does too, or when one decreases, the other one does too.
(4) Inversely Proportional - two quantities which behave differently, namely when one increases, the other one decreases, or when one decreases, the other one increases.</p>

<p>Essay: Write as much as you can, as long as you are using good lexicon. Also, note the one difference from the SAT: address both sides of the issue (by rebutting arguments the other side might make, and don't stress over vocabulary... too much.) I remember my essay was 7 paragraphs long, but essentially content-less. Use one paragraph for an introduction, one for a conclusion, and three to five paragraphs for examples (or counter-examples).</p>

<p>The only thing there is to do is to take practice tests-- and lots of them. I recommend going through the tests in the red book first, and then moving on to the SparkNotes tests (available freely online at: SparkNotes:</a> ACT: Test Center).</p>

<p>Link to Amazon for ACT Red Book: Amazon.com:</a> The Real ACT Prep Guide (The only guide to include 3 Real ACT tests) (9780768919752): ACT: Books</p>

<p>Total cost of ACT Preparation: $0.56 </p>

<p>I hope this helped. Let me know if you have questions.</p>

2

<p>thanks… great tips</p>

3

<p>wow, thanks for the tips!
But I think the whole thing would be pretty much free if you go to your local library instead.</p>

<p>I really like how you wrote a plan on how to pace yourself on the Reading section cause I really needed help on that.</p>

4

<p>Bump - I see people posting generic “how can I do better on the ACT” threads daily, so perhaps this might help them.</p>

5

<p>this is amazing! thanks so much! just read this now after posting a new thread. For the writing what kinds of prompts does one usually encounter? Besides what you have stated here what else could I do to ensure a great essay score?</p>

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<ol>
<li>What kinds of prompts does the ACT writing section have?</li>
</ol>

<p>In general, they tend to be less “idealistic” than SAT prompts. It seems to me that the ACT prompts tend to characterize two views on an issue, and ask the test-taker to choose one.</p>

<p>Example prompt (from ACT’s website):</p>

<p>Educators debate extending high school to five years because of increasing demands on students from employers and colleges to participate in extracurricular activities and community service in addition to having high grades. Some educators support extending high school to five years because they think students need more time to achieve all that is expected of them. Other educators do not support extending high school to five years because they think students would lose interest in school and attendance would drop in the fifth year. In your opinion, should high school be extended to five years?</p>

<p>What I remember my prompt to be approximately:</p>

<p>Should teenage driving be dependent on having a certain GPA in school? </p>

<ol>
<li>What else can you do to ensure a great essay score.</li>
</ol>

<p>I said it before, and I’ll say it again: write a lot. Length is extremely important in these essays. </p>

<p>However, to actually answer your question, I would make sure that you know exactly what is desired by ACT. The comments from ACT on my essay are included below, and are probably sent to everyone who receives a 12 on the essay:</p>

<p>Your essay addressed the complexity of the issue by fully responding to counterarguments. Your essay effectively supported general statements with specific reasons, examples, and details. Your essay showed a good command of language by using varied sentences and precise word choice.</p>

<p>Now the other thing you can do (like I did) is to find an essay that received a 12, and memorize its “structure” for use when you take the exam. Since almost all ACT essay prompts follow a general structure (e.g. Group A thinks that X is a good idea, Group B thinks X is a bad idea), you can quite easily develop an essay “formula”, adapting from preexisting essays.</p>

<p>Take for example the 6 (of 6) essay listed at [ACT</a> Writing Test : Sample Essays](<a href=“ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT”>ACT Test Preparation | Test Prep Resources | ACT) or [ACT</a> SparkNotes Test Prep: A Sample ACT Essay?Up Close](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)</p>

7

<p>this is great, good job xjudokax.</p>

8

<p>I see people asking about [ACT-SAT</a> Concordance](<a href=“http://www.act.org/aap/concordance/]ACT-SAT”>The ACT Test for Students | ACT) frequently as well. </p>

<p>Table 1
Concordance between ACT Composite Score and
Sum of SAT Critical Reading and Mathematics Scores
SAT CR+M (Score Range) ACT Composite Score SAT CR+M (Single Score)
1600 36 1600
1540–1590 35 1560
1490–1530 34 1510
1440–1480 33 1460
1400–1430 32 1420
1360–1390 31 1380
1330–1350 30 1340
1290–1320 29 1300
1250–1280 28 1260
1210–1240 27 1220
1170–1200 26 1190
1130–1160 25 1150
1090–1120 24 1110
1050–1080 23 1070
1020–1040 22 1030
980–1010 21 990
940–970 20 950
900–930 19 910
860–890 18 870
820–850 17 830
770–810 16 790
720–760 15 740
670–710 14 690
620–660 13 640
560–610 12 590
510–550 11 530</p>

<p>Table 2
Concordance between ACT Combined English/Writing Score
and SAT Writing Score
SAT Writing (Score Range) ACT English/Writing Score SAT Writing (Single Score)
800 36 800
800 35 800
770–790 34 770
730–760 33 740
710–720 32 720
690–700 31 690
660–680 30 670
640–650 29 650
620–630 28 630
610 27 610
590–600 26 590
570–580 25 570
550–560 24 550
530–540 23 530
510–520 22 510
480–500 21 490
470 20 470
450–460 19 450
430–440 18 430
410–420 17 420
390–400 16 400
380 15 380
360–370 14 360
340–350 13 340
320–330 12 330
300–310 11 310</p>

<p>The way this works is you compute an SAT CR+M score range from an ACT Composite, and then an SAT writing score range from your ACT English + writing score. </p>

<p>For example, let’s use my scores: Composite 35, English with writing 35. </p>

<p>My SAT CR+M score range is 1540–1590, and my SAT Writing score range is 800.</p>

<p>Thus my SAT score range is 2340-2390.</p>

9

<p>Last bump, just trying to help people out. I won’t touch this thread again unless I get questions. :)</p>

10

<p>Great post! I printed it out for reference. Thanks! One question about timing and it may be hard for you to address since the test is probably easy for you but would you say like in the english section (my worst) would you circle the question if you are not sure and move on if you are stuck. Not spend too much time on a question. Get in a rhythm and keep moving but if you have more time go back to the circled question?</p>

<p>Also, in the Math section (my best) have you heard that the questions are arranged easiest to hardest? Is that generally true. I guess that would help with timing and how much time to spend on a problem.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

11

<p>

</p>

<p>That is way excessive for prepping for ACT math. Really, the ACT math is about solving problems quickly with minimal mistakes; the problems themselves are not that elaborate or tricky. In that respect, simply taking practice tests (at the ACT math level) is the best preparation, to increase your speed.</p>

<p>

No, really. I think this is kind of a given.</p>

<p>I get annoyed with some of the advice on reading and science sections. Some people do better going to questions first, while others do better reading the passages first. Apart from obvious time-management strategies (like not taking too much time on any single question), I feel like the reading and science sections are more up to individual preferences, rendering much of the reading/science advice not that applicable. The best way to improve any of the sections is simply practice tests, and going over the answers. There is no shortcut or magic reading strategy.</p>

12

<p>

</p></li>
<li><p>It’s perfectly fine to circle questions and come back to them in the English section. However, I do not suggest that you finish a passage without answering any questions. In other words, do the passages as a whole, but the questions in whatever order you wish.</p></li>
<li><p>I haven’t heard this, but now that you mention it, I would say yes. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>If you are having time trouble on the math section (or any section, really), I think it might be worth trying to take the test with a few less minutes than you actually have to train yourself to pace properly. E.g. practice the English section with 42 minutes, Math with 55 minute, etc.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>That’s your opinion-- and that’s fine. However, the goal of taking the ACT (or any standardized test) is to get into your preferred college (graduate school, etc.) Having a serious score on such a competition would greatly assist you. This was the method I used to practice. It worked for me, but that doesn’t mean it will work for everyone. When I am faced with a challenge, I prefer to try something harder, so I can appreciate how “easy” the challenge is in the first place. </p>

<p>

</p>

<p>If you don’t like it, don’t use it. I’m not forcing my advice on anyone- it worked for me.</p>

14

<p>Thanks for the tips. I’m focusing on studying for the May SAT and I paid for the April ACT so I might as well wing it and see how I do. I’ll pretty much do the SparkNotes tests + 1 or 2 red book tests.</p>