The ACT is used by many colleges to determine admission. Your ACT is important to colleges for two reasons. First, your ACT score shows that you’re academically prepared for college. Second, your ACT score, if you’re admitted, will be incorporated into a college’s annual ACT statistics.
A college’s reputation among its peers, and prospective students, is in part based on the published ACT scores of its students. Schools including Harvard, Stanford and other top universities are often associated with excellence because of the high ACT scores of the students they admit.
Taking the time and putting forth the effort to improve your ACT score will go a long way toward getting yourself into the college or university of your choice. Combine a high ACT score with a good GPA and you’ll qualify for entry into top colleges and universities. However, the ACT can be particularly important if you didn’t get the best grades in high school. A high ACT score can make up for a low GPA.
If you were to score a perfect 36 on the ACT, but only graduated high school with a 3.0 GPA, it’s quite likely that admission officers would think your high school classes were just too hard and that you’re still smart enough for college.
So should you try to improve your ACT score? Most definitely. Can you improve your ACT score? Most definitely. The ACT is made up of four sections. These include science, reading comprehension, math, and English.
Below we’ll explore proven study strategies and tips that will improve your overall performance on the ACT as well as your performance in each individual section of the test.
Contents showThe following are general strategies for improving your overall performance on the ACT. These tips and strategies can be applied to all sections in the ACT.
The ACT tests you on knowledge you’ve accumulated over the course of your high school career, so there’s no point in cramming. The day before the test, relax, go watch a movie and then get a good night’s sleep. Staying up the night before the test and studying will only stress you out and cause you to be tired the next day.
Become familiar with the structure of ACT before test day. During your test prep, learn and review the directions for each of the sections on the test. When you arrive at the test you’ll already know what is going to be required in each section of the ACT. This will save valuable time during the test which can be spent working on questions.
Answer the questions you’re sure you know the correct answer to first. Put a mark in your exam booklet next to each question you skip so you can quickly find them later. After answering all the easy questions, go back and tackle the more challenging questions.
Your ACT test booklet is yours. After the test it will simply be thrown away. So don’t worry about making sure it remains in pristine condition throughout the test. Use it to your advantage. Write in it, cross out wrong answers and use it to do scratch work. Work out problems and jot down key information you’ll need to answer certain questions in your test booklet since it is permitted.
Your ACT answer sheet is scored by a machine that isn’t able to distinguish between a correct answer, a stray mark, or a careless doodle in the margin. Make sure that your answer sheet is free from any stray marks. Follow the directions given carefully as you mark correct answers on your answer sheet.
On the ACT, there is only one correct answer to each question. Even if it appears as if there are two correct answers, you can only choose one answer – so select the best answer to each question.
Typically, easier questions on the ACT precede harder questions. In this way, the ACT gets progressively more difficult as you work through each section. Keep this in mind as you move through the test answering easy questions first and then return to answer more difficult questions.
If you’re faced with a challenging question for which you don’t know the correct answer, just make an educated guess. Try to eliminate as many incorrect answer choices as you can and then select the answer that makes the most sense. There is no point deduction for wrong answers – so any answer is always better than no answer at all.
Do not spend too much time on any one question since there is a time limit for completing the test. It is best to limit yourself to 1 to 2 minutes for the harder questions and no more than 10 to 20 seconds on the easier questions. The ACT consists of 4-5 small mini-tests that are timed. Pay close attention to how much time remains in each section, so you will not have to rush at the last minute to complete each test. We recommend bringing your own stopwatch to the test to keep track of time.
Never assume you know what a question is asking until you’ve read it in it’s entirety.Sometimes students will provide an answer they recall from a similar question from a practice test. Read the words to each question carefully.
Don’t change your answers unless you’re sure you made a mistake. More often than not your first answer will be the correct answer.
Let us say it one more time. Practice, practice, practice! There is no substitute for practice.
The English section of the ACT is a 75-question, 45-minute test. That’s an average of just over 35 seconds per question, so you’ll need to work pretty fast in order to complete this section. This section of the test is always the first section presented on the ACT so be ready to take it right away.
The English ACT is composed of five passages, each followed by a selection of multiple-choice questions. These questions are designed to test your reading comprehension and may ask about specific content (sentences, phrases, concepts, etc.) covered in each passage.
Several questions will test Usage and Mechanics (including grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and usage). Other questions will test Rhetorical Skills (organization, strategy, and style). You’ll receive a score for your performance in each of these two categories.
Punctuation (10-15%) will test your understanding of internal and end-of sentence grammatical conventions. Grammar and Usage (15-20%) tests your understanding of basic grammar rules. Sentence Structure (20-25%) tests your understanding of the relationship between clauses in order to link clauses and form sentences.
The Strategy section (15-20%) is designed to test your ability to choose correct words and phrases within the context of an essay or passage. Organization questions (10-15%) test your ability to organize ideas and choose correct sentence structures within the context of a passage or essay. Style questions (15-20%) will test your ability to select the most appropriate words and sentence structures to maintain or support the style and tone of an essay.
The Reading section of the ACT is a 40-question, 35-minute test that covers four 750-words passages. The four passages include (1) Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative, (2) Social Science, (3) Humanities, and (4) Natural Science.
Prose Fiction and Literary Narrative passages contain excerpts from literary and fiction memoirs. This section will ask you questions about the main theme of the passage, the narrator’s tone and intent, the message of the passage, and which questions are or are not answered in the passage.
Social Science passages typically offer a straightforward discussion of social science topics, including sociology, education, and psychology, among others. You’ll likely be asked questions relating to the main point of the passage, the author’s view, and how information presented supports the subject of the passage.
Humanities passages often come from personal essays and memoirs, and address subjects such as literature, art, philosophy, or media. You’ll likely be asked questions about the tone of the passage and point of view of the narrator.
Natural Science passages are nonfiction passages about science. They may cover a myriad of subjects, including biology, chemistry, technology, physics, or medicine. Questions often focus on specific statements made or details that are supported with evidence from the passage.
Seems daunting? Don’t worry. It isn’t, if you’re prepared. Follow the strategies and tips below to prepare for the Reading section of the ACT.
The mathematics section of the ACT is a 60-question, 60-minute test designed to test the math skills and knowledge you’ve acquired over your high school career. There are eight content categories covered in the ACT mathematics test. These include Number & Quantity (7-10%), Algebra (12-15%), Functions (12-15%), Geometry (12-15%), Statistics & Probability (8-12%), Integrating Essential Skills (40-43%) and Modeling (>25%).
The Science section of the ACT is composed of 40 questions that must be completed in 35 minutes. That means you have just over 50 seconds, on average, to complete each question. Students often expect the Science section of the ACT to be like the Math section, but it’s actually more like the Reading section.
The Science section includes seven passages that cover various scientific topics. Passages often contain charts, graphs, scientific opinions, or experiment summaries. Each of the seven passages is followed by four to seven questions. The key to doing well on the Science section of the ACT is being able to quickly and accurately read and comprehend scientific findings, postulates and data.
The ACT science section is composed of three types of questions: Data Representation (30-40%), Research Summaries (45-55%), and Conflicting Viewpoints (15-20%). Data representation questions will require you to read and understand data presented in tables, read graphs and interpret scatter plots. Research summaries require you to analyze and interpret the results of experiments. Conflicting viewpoints questions are designed to test your ability to comprehend, analyze, and compare two conflicting viewpoints.
While the Science section of the ACT will test your knowledge, it is designed specifically to test science skills. How do you learn these skills? By taking science classes during high school. At minimum, you should take three years of science in high school, including a least one course in biology, physical science and earth science. By the time you graduate high school you should understand how to apply the scientific method, collect and analyze data, and evaluate and test a hypothesis.
The ACT writing test is a 40-minute essay test. This test is designed to measure your ability to write at a high school and pre-college level. This test requires you to (1) analyze and evaluate several perspectives, (2) develop your own perspective, and (3) compare your perspective with those given.
The score you receive on the ACT writing test is not factored into your Composite ACT score. Your score on this test is determined by your skill in developing ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use and conventions.