Countdown to the ACT: Guessing StrategyDay 6 Guessing Strategy

What do you do when you have questions you don’t understand, you don’t have time to answer, or you know that you always get wrong? 1. You may hear rumors about different ways of dealing with these types of questions:

a. “Choose C. It is usually the answer.” NO!b. “The longest answer is usually right.” NO!c. “The answer choice with the word in it that I don’t know is usually correct.” NO!If any of those tricks actually worked, they would be saying that the test isn’t valid. If that were the case, then no one would accept the score. The ACT gave 5.8 million tests between 2014 and 2016. They are pretty confident that it is valid. Therefore, don’t rely on these tricks because they will end up tricking you.

2. In a valid test where sections are scored individually (like on the ACT), the number of correct answer choices are constant in each answer position. Test makers don’t want anyone choosing one letter and getting a score significantly higher than anyone else who did that. Let’s use this information to our advantage.

3. As you work through the test, when you reach a question you recognize as one that you miss often, a concept you don’t know, or a question you know will take you too long to answer, simply dash it and keep going. Your goal is to get through all questions in the section with every question answered correct.

4. You will only receive a 5 minute warning on each section. When you hear it, you should allow yourself only 2-3 more minutes to work before you stop to choose your guess letter.

5. When you reach your last 2 minutes, stop. At this point, we want to find the answer position that would be our best guess letter choice. Since all of the filled in bubbles represent correct answers and since we know that the number of correct answers in each position (A&F, B&G, etc.) is very similar, if we count the number of correct answers in each position, the one with the lowest number will show us what the test is recommending for your guess letter. This is why you can’t decide prior to the test what your guess letter will be; let the test tell you.

6. If you count above, you should get the following totals: A/F - 12, B/G - 12, C/H - 10, D/J - 8, E/K - 10. In this case, the test is telling us (based on our correct answers) that our best guess letter would be D/J. Therefore, at this point, you want to find your dashes and fill them in with D/J and then erase your dashes.

7. Does this work? If I randomly choose an answer to any question on this section, I would get approximately 20 percent correct because I have a 1 out of 5 chance of choosing the correct answer. This guessing strategy, however, typically yields 30-40% of correct responses. The more accurate you are, the better the guess letter.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpDay 7 Reading Ratehttps://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdfPages 32-39

For this day, you will need to supply each of your students with a copy of the reading passage on pages 34 and 35 and a practice gridding sheet on page 64. This will be a timed exercise to help students determine their accurate rate of reading, upon which to build their strategy for the reading section.

For today, you are going to determine the best questions to attempt during the time that you are given. The ACT Reading questions are in four levels. The Level 1 questions look for Specific Detail.

Specific Detail questions can be found because they utilize keywords, such as describe, illustrate, state, makes clear, or they use the phrase “According to the passage.”

Project page 39 for the class to see.

Looking at this page of questions, we can find the Specific Detail questions by looking for these words. You can see in question 34, “The passage makes clear” which tells you that the answer for this question is right IN the passage; all you have to do is find it.

In question 38, “The passage points to” again tells you that the answer is IN the passage.

“As described in the passage” in question 39 also indicates that the answer is in the passage.

These are questions that you should answer because they simply take finding the answer in the passage.

In addition to these, you should identify those questions that you believe you can find accurately in the least amount of time.

We are now going to test to see the correct number of questions for you to pursue. You can go at a snail’s pace and try and answer every one of the questions you come across; however, if all of your guess letters wind up on the same passage, they won’t be very accurate because we know all the questions with one passage never all have the same answer. Therefore, it is wiser for us to spread our correct answers across the four passages.

Hand out passage #3 from pages 34 and 35 as well as a grid sheet. Set a timer for 8 minutes and 30 seconds.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpDay 7 Reading Rate

I am going to start the timer. Read your passage and answer the questions. Be sure to bubble them on the grid sheet. We will correct them when time is up. Start the timer. Have the students read and answer the questions until time is up. Then score the questions with the students. The answers are

31. A 32. G 33. A 34. J 35. D 36. H 37. B 38. J 39. A 40. H

Have the students calculate the number they got correct during the time and set that as a goal for the number they will answer on each passage. If they focus on answering only half of the questions on each passage and get those correct, they would have a score that places them above 65% of the students in the US.

Given your accurate rate of reading, it is best to focus on answering a fewer number of questions correctly to ensure the best return on the guess letter. Then, if you have time left after answering that number of questions on each passage, return to the passage you understood the best and answer more questions.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpDay 8 Best Way to Read? https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdfPages 32-39

No one right way to read the passage on a timed test exists. Therefore, you should utilize the style of reading that will ensure your highest degree of accuracy when answering the questions. However, what if that strategy you choose takes way too long, forcing you to hurry through the questions and lose accuracy? Or you read the passage and get to the end, only to say to yourself, I have no idea what I just read, causing you to have to go back and re-read the passage. In either case, you probably need to look at a more efficient reading strategy.

Most students use the “Passage First” strategy -- they read the passage, then go to the questions, returning to the passage to check their answers before settling on one choice. While this strategy works well for some, overall it just takes too long and causes lots of students to go into passive reading (you know, when you are moving your eyes over the words but concentrating on something completely different. Therefore, this might not be the best strategy.

Then, most of us had an elementary teacher that, at one time or another, suggested that we read the “Questions First” before we read the passage. While this helps some readers to have a purpose for reading and actually helps their comprehension, for most, this just causes an even worse problem with time because it adds on yet another step to those within the “Passage First” strategy.

What most students need is a way to be more active with the text and to cut down the amount of re-reading that they do. That is where “30-60-90” can come in handy. Since the average ACT or SAT passage is 90 lines long, this strategy uses the following steps:

1. Read the first chunk of the passage (ending at the paragraph break closest to line 30).2. Read through all the questions, completing those whose answers are within the first chunk . These can be

spotted either by number lines, paragraph numbers, or by keywords in the question stems that you know you read in the first paragraph.

3. When looking at the more broad questions, such as “The main purpose of the passage is to”, use the first chunk to rule out answer choices that cannot be correct given the information within that chunk..

4. For those questions that you are unable to answer, try remembering key/unique words so that as you resume reading, you will be able to identify answers for upcoming questions.

5. Repeat process for chunks 2 and 3 (ending chunk 2’s reading closest to line 60 and the final chunk at the passage’s end).

6. If you reach the number of questions that you have identified as your accurate reading rate, then you might not even need to read the last 30 lines of the passage because you will have already answered your correct number of questions.

This strategy can be used on all types of text and allows you not to be overwhelmed by too much text at once, making it easier to locate specific information or proof. If, you cannot determine which questions correspond to which chunk, you might not go faster.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm Up

Day 8 Best Way to Read?

In the “Indexing” strategy (a nonfiction strategy that does not apply to the first paragraph), you will focus on the most important parts of the text--the introduction, the topic sentences of the body paragraphs (typically the first sentences), and the conclusion. This strategy uses the following steps:

1. Read the complete introduction. After finishing the reading, note two or three key words in the margin that will remind you what information is contained within the introduction.

2. Read the first sentence of each body paragraph. After reading each, predict what information will be found in the rest of the paragraph and note that in a word or two in the margin. Pay attention to unusual words or those that might be used in question stems.

3. Read the complete conclusion. Upon finishing, write two or three key words that summarize the main findings in the conclusion.

4. Go to the questions and answer each, utilizing the key words you wrote to locate the paragraphs containing answers to the questions. This will limit the amount of text that needs to be scanned or read to find the answer, helping you to locate the answer faster.

This strategy will help you think more like a question writer and improve your efficiency by having you read only the part of the passage that is required to answer the questions.

Finally, if you are forced to answer questions with a limited amount of time, you may try using “Question to Passage.” This survival strategy consists of the following steps:

1. Choose a question that you think could be answered by reading a limited amount of the text.2. Go to that part of the passage and read/scan for that answer.3. Repeat the steps with each question chosen, reserving the broader-based questions until the end.

Sometimes, you can answer these questions after selecting answers for a few others.

You might find that using a different strategy for each type of passage is necessary; however, this is the process that good readers use. They will vary their strategies for reading based upon the type of reading done.

Trying a new strategy for reading could be the key to achieving efficiency and answering more questions accurately. By practicing these different approaches, you can get yourself ready for the upcoming ACT.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpDay 9 Paired Reading

On every test, one of the four reading sections is a pair of passages. Following the passages are questions for Passage A, questions for Passage B, and questions that apply to Both Passages A and B. Utilizing a specific strategy with these passages will help you retain ACCURACY and EFFICIENCY.

ACT Recommended Strategy - Paired PassageWhen students read both passages and then attempt to answer the questions, the passages intertwine, causing students a lot of unnecessary re-reading. To avoid this and keep yourself both efficient and accurate, you should follow these steps:

1. Read passage A.2. After reading passage A, go to the Passage A questions and answers those that you can. 3. Then move to the “Both” questions. If the answer is true for both passages, then it will be true for

either of the passages alone. You should be able either to answer those questions or narrow the choices.

4. Read passage B. 5. After reading passage B, finish the “Both” questions, if able. If you are not able to finish those

questions, then you should move to the Passage B questions. 6. Answer those that you can answer, or until you reach the number of questions that you have set

for yourself based upon your accurate reading rate.

By keeping the passages discreet, you will be able to move through them faster and with greater accuracy with less re-reading.

Try this strategy using the passage and items in the practice test at https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Preparing-for-the-ACT.pdf on pages 36 and 37. Remind students to use their bubble sheet when they answer.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm Up

Day 10 English and Reading Review

Project the following pages to allow students the chance to practice some of the strategies they have learned.

A new bubble sheet and a printed copy of the Reading passage would be helpful.

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpEnglish Review

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm UpReading

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm Up

Answers:

Countdown to the ACT: Reading Warm Up

English 1. B2. G3. A4. F5. C6. H

Reading11. A12. H13. B14. G15. D16. H17. B18. G19. A20. J