YantiPants’ Comprehensive Guide to ACT Success

[YantiPants]

<p>YantiPants’ Comprehensive Guide to ACT Success </p>

<p>INTRODUCTION: </p>

<p>Hey everyone, YantiPants here again. I have posted a few ACT tips as well as other bits of helpful advice on these forums earlier, however I felt it was time for me to put together a more comprehensive ACT guide. In my opinion, this serves as a very useful read for anyone going through and preparing to take the ACT, anytime from the next day to 4 years from now. The advice here is a compilation of not only my own personal experience, but things I have read and found useful when I was preparing (for instance Jeandevaches guide posted on these same forums), as well as advice from many top high scorers that I have talked to myself. Because this is meant to be a more comprehensive guide, it goes through a lot of the basics of the test that you might already know. If this is the case, feel free to skip to the sections that are relevant to you. Here I want to not only talk to you and make you familiar with the test, but ensure that you get the perfect combination of advice and practice materials in order to ensure that you have ALL YOUR BASES COVERED.</p>

<p>And a bit of a background: I took the September 2012 test and scored a perfect 36. I am also a National Merit Scholar and scores a 2230 on the SAT, so obviously while I am a pretty solid test taker my expertise lie with the ACT. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions that you feel weren’t addressed here. </p>

<p>BASICS:</p>

<p>WHY</p>

<p>-Used for college admissions along with other factors such as grades, extracurricular activities, and essays
-Used for scholarships</p>

<p>BREAKDOWN</p>

<p>-There are 4 different sections on this test: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science
-There is also an optional 30 minute Writing section. I recommend you take this because some colleges require it and it can’t hurt you too much: it isn’t factored into your overall score and colleges care more about your college essay than this.
-About 3 hour and 45 minute test
-Registration fee includes 4 score reports to colleges...you should probably use this if you are confident in your score
-Administered September, October, December, February, April, and June of every year
-I recommend taking it at least once or twice junior year and then going from there based on your score</p>

<p>SECTIONS</p>

<p>English
75 multiple–choice questions
45 minutes
Tests grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and rhetorical skills</p>

<p>Math
60 multiple–choice questions
60 minutes
Algebra I and II, geometry, and some trigonometry</p>

<p>Reading
40 multiple–choice questions
35 minutes
Four passages (prose fiction, social studies, humanities, and natural sciences) with 10 questions per passage</p>

<p>Science
40 multiple–choice questions
35 minutes
Questions on science-based passages presented with graphs, charts, tables and research summaries</p>

<p>Writing
Writing test is optional*
1 essay
30 minutes</p>

<p>BRING</p>

<p>-The essentials to bring are normal #2 pencils (at least 2-3), a calculator, and your registration ticket
- You will also want to bring water, snacks, and a watch
-Make sure your watch does not go off during the test</p>

<p>SAT vs ACT</p>

<p>-SAT is considered a test of your aptitude, or your ability to learn
-ACT is considered an achievement test, or an ability of more of what you have learned
-Different people favor different ones
-Many people say that the ACT is more prevalent in the Midwest and the SAT is favored on the West Coast; while this may be true to some extent usually colleges look at both equally
-Take practice tests for both, use PLAN and PSAT scores to decide which ones you want to take
-We recommend taking both</p>

<p>PSAT</p>

<p>-Shortened version of the SAT that is taken by juniors all across the country
-Not emphasized much in the high school curriculum and by school, but it is more than just a practice for the SAT
-Used for National Merit Competition and Scholarships, and can be asked for in summer programs and other activities
-If you prepare for this, you are in good shape for the SAT
-Still not as important because colleges don’t specifically look at this test</p>

<p>Always remember, practice tests are a man’s best friend.</p>

<p>Everyone cramming for this test in the next week or two, realize how much you study for this test in the last weeks can shape the next 4 years of your life. Make the sacrifice. Put in the work.</p>

[YantiPants]

<p>IN DEPTH SECTION REVIEW</p>

<p>ENGLISH</p>

<p>English has no order to difficulty. The shortest, simplest answer is usually the right one. This is because the ACT makers like to throw in a lot of extra junk to confuse you. Usually, you don’t add punctuation either. Either you leave it alone, change it (from a comma to a semi-colon, for instance), or take it out. </p>

<p>It is also pretty critical to know active vs. passive voice. If an answer is in the passive voice, it’s almost always wrong. Passive voice is basically when the object comes before the subject. So for instance, “I made this guide” would be active and “this guide was made by me” would be passive. Generally passive voice includes the word “by” in it, so this is a huge indicator something is wrong.</p>

<p>Other than these fairly general rules for the section, most of the other things can be learned solely by ear. If your read things out loud, you should be able to sound almost everything out. Some things, however, aren’t so easy are important if you are trying to get a score about a 26. These, in particular, are the 9 most important and obscure English rules I tried to remember when prepping:</p>

<p>1) Each is one body <---- pneumonic for remembering pronoun singular agreement</p>

<p>Sentences that have “each” or words that end in “-one” or “-body” should be treated as singular.
Example 1. Each of the boys IS going to the dance.
Example 2. Everyone get out HIS OR HER notebook.
Example 3. Everybody needs to bring HIS OR HER textbook to school.</p>

<p>2) In phrases that have “Either…or” or “Neither…nor” the verb has to agree with the second subject. </p>

<p>Example 1. Neither the sailors nor the boy WANTS to go swimming with sharks. </p>

<p>3) Reflexive pronouns such as “myself”, "himself, and “herself” refer back to previously mentioned subjects and cannot be used if you don’t have a subject such as “I” mentioned previously in the sentence.</p>

<p>4) “Fewer” modifies plural words while “less” modifies singular words.</p>

<p>5) “Who” is used for subject and “whom” is used for object. </p>

<p>6) Always use “who” when talking to humans and never “that” or “which”</p>

<p>7) Amount pronouns (none, fraction, percent, etc…) + of
DON’T determine subject/verb agreement, the noun following it does.</p>

<p>8) When 2 nouns posses the same item or idea, the second noun is given the punctuation.</p>

<p>If you need any more coverage of English, check out Sparknotes or Barron’s ACT 36 English Section.</p>

<p>MATH</p>

<p>No guide or amount of advice I put here is a substitute for simply doing a massive amount of problem to practice areas in which you struggle. Time is always a problem, so try to move so quickly. The test goes from easy to hard, so work in order and try to get through the easy questions as fast as you can. However, don’t shortchange the easy questions with time or effort-- the points gained here could be crucial. Because people are worried about time, they tend to rush through the easy questions at the beginning, making simple mistakes that could have been avoided, in order to get to the harder ones at the end. Don’t make this mistake and miss out on easy points due to carelessness. One way to minimize this is to show your work.</p>

<p>If you need any more coverage of English, check out Gary Gruber’s ACT and look at the Math section.</p>

<p>READING:</p>

<p>People have different methods-- some like to read the questions then the passage, some do it the other way around. Some skim then read it through in depth, some just read it once. Experiment until you find a method that both maximizes the score you get and minimizes the amount of time you spend. A big tip here is that correct answers tend to be moderate in both tone and belief. So if an answer choice could be viewed as offensive or extreme, it’s probably not right. Buzzwords to watch out for include “always,” “never,” “perfectly,” and other absolutes like them. An answer choice containing those words probably isn’t right.</p>

<p>SCIENCE:</p>

<p>Science has nothing to do with science and everything to do with reading comprehension and reading charts, tables and graphs. Getting away with basic science skills is fine here, and what you really need to make sure of here is to not make silly errors and work within the time. You generally won’t get a chance to read everything through completely with the huge time crunch there is, so make sure that the questions you answer you do so thoroughly and put your best foot forward.</p>

<p>ESSAY:
The essay is scored out of 12 with two readers scoring it out of 6, and it is not as important since it doesn’t factor into your composite score. Time is a HUGE factor: practice writing an essay in 30 min. Use educated examples in your essay, history or literature is a good idea. Write as much as possible, as there is a bias in grading towards longer essays, and most schools require that you take the +writing option so there is no reason not to.</p>

<p>FURTHER READING:</p>

<p>Was this guide useful? Hopefully so. I’ve spent tons of times combing through ACT material, print, verbal, and online, and I tried to put together everything I could in this guide in order to ensure everyone the best possible success. However the best way for advice to sink in is to hear it again and again and learn to apply it, so for this reason I have included the following links and resources that I strongly recommend you look into in order to make sure you are scoring at a high level (33+):</p>

<ol>
<li>The following guides contain much of the same information as was provided here but stated a little differently and probably a little less comprehensive. If anything, they still serve as pretty good reads. </li>
</ol>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/1071765-jeandevaches-guide-act.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/1071765-jeandevaches-guide-act.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/1325529-act-tips-succeed.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/1325529-act-tips-succeed.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<ol>
<li><p>Read the Barron’s ACT 36 book. It focuses on people aiming for high scores and offers helpful advice, instead of making you wade through pages and pages of useless stuff and having one or two helpful facts like most prep books. I found the English sections especially helpful and if you don’t have time, read just those parts.</p></li>
<li><p>Read the math sections of the Gruber’s ACT book and do practice problems from there. It has a pretty solid math section and covers the important things you need to know.</p></li>
<li><p>Take practice test(s) from The Real Act (red book). It contains official ACT’s released and is the best bet to predict your scores and practice from. It is a good idea to intermingle tests in between going through other material, especially through sections in Grubers or in Barron’s ACT 36. Try taking tests after each step and seeing how you improve. Try your best to take the full test in one sitting without many breaks, even if you have to build up to this goal. If you don’t, the scores you get will probably not be accurate. Take as many practice tests as you can, its the single best way to improve your score. But always REVIEW your results.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>CONCLUSION</p>

<p>Test taking can be natural talent to an extent, but for the most part it all comes down to preparation and applying what you have learned in class, If you can put together some of the rules you learned here with practice problems from Barron’s 36 and The Real ACT, you are easily on your way to getting that coveted 35 or 36 score. </p>

<p>I assure you that your hard work will pay off and you will be satisfied. Money back guarantee </p>

[Scylla]

<p>Thanks, YantiPants. My daughter will be a junior in the fall and will be spending the summer (well, at least SOME of her summer) preparing for taking the ACT in September. I found your comprehensive guide very helpful–thanks for taking the time to put it together for us. </p>

<p>I’m curious…do you find any of the preparation courses helpful? It sounds like most people on this forum don’t think they are worthwhile and that it’s better just to read the recommended books and take practice tests. Thoughts? </p>