The ACT

Last Minute Tips and Strategies

Did you know…..

you can earn a 20 on the ACT if you get 2 out of 3 questions right. That’s just a 66%!!

hard questions and easy questions are all worth the same (1 point).

to get that 20 you need to get 50 of the 75 questions correct.

Did you know….

the English test has easy questions at the beginning AND the end

you can even get a high score on the English test just by knowing a few rules and strategies (We’ll review some later in the presentation.)

If on the English test, you usually get done EARLY:

STATEGY FOR YOU:Stick with your first choice for most answers, but double check!

HOWEVER, if you have extra time, you might as well go back and make sure you did everything you could to earn every point – NEVER PUT YOUR HEAD DOWN– THESE ARE THE 4 OF THE MOST IMPORTANT HOURS OF YOUR JUNIOR YEAR! (Plus, you can sleep all afternoon!)

Mark the difficult questions in your test book AS YOU TAKE THE TEST.

When you finish, go back and re-read the questions.

If they are questions that ask you to move sentences, draw arrows so you can actually see how the changes would affect the paragraphs.

Read the sentences before and after the underlined portion to make a good decision.

If on the English test, you usually get done right ON TIME: STRATEGY FOR YOU: Make educated guesses!

Use tips you learned in AVID or ACT Prep (letter of the day, shortest is best, OMIT is OK, Leave No Answer Behind)

Use POE (Process of Elimination) to get down to two possible answers, and then pick one.

For example, if there are two choices that are both short, pick between them and ignore the longer, wordy choices. (This is just if you’re rushed.)

Remember: if you have to pick between verb tenses, look at the rest of that sentence AND the sentence before your sentence and match your verb tense to that one. Don’t just look at the one sentence the question is about.

If on the English test you usually have 10-20 questions left when there are 5 min. left:

STRATEGY FOR YOU:

–Focus on the last 5! When you have 5 minutes left, start skimming and just use the strategies: shortest is best, easy answers, OMIT is OK, and letter of the day (for long questions).

THE STRATEGIES:A review

1. LEAVE NO ANSWER BEHIND: There is no penalty for guessing

DO NOT LEAVE ANY ANSWERS BLANK on the ACT

2. LETTER OF THE DAY: If you are guessing because you have

no idea or are out of time, use the same letter for all answers.

Statistically speaking, you are likely to get at least a few of these questions right as opposed to picking a different answer each time & possibly guessing wrong every time.

3. POE STRATEGY: Use Process of Elimination to

make educated guesses. If you look at the answer choices

and can see that one or two are impossible or really wrong, then you can give yourself a 50/50 chance of getting the question right.

4. STRATEGY for CONCISE QUESTIONS: ACT often wants the shortest answer-

ALWAYS READ, but when in doubt or running out of time, pick shortest answer

ACT typically likes short sentences

5. STRATEGY for OMIT: OMIT is OK

If the last answer choice is “OMIT the underlined portion” and you are short on time or unsure, pick it- it is often correct.

ALWAYS read the question, though.Again, ACT usually likes short sentences

NOTE: ACT is starting to catch on to the fact that students know this, so watch out for trick questions.

6. STRATEGY FOR the words “NOT”, “EXCEPT”, and “LEAST”:

They will always be in all capitals and when you see them, you are looking for the opposite of the truth (This is one way ACT tricks you because it is human nature to want to find the right answer, and here they ask for the wrong answer.)

7. STRATEGY for TRANSITIONS: – ACT usually gives 3 transitions with one meaning. The correct one is the opposite of those three.

PUNCTUATION & WORDS:A review

1. COLONS: Two main uses of colons are:

- to introduce a list- before an example- colons replace the

phrases “and it is as follows” or “the following”

2. APOSTROPHES: Words that end in “s” are not always

possessive- if the word doesn’t “own” the word following it, it is PROBABLY not a possessive, so it does NOT need an apostrophe.

ACT tricks you because all of the wrong answers have apostrophes.

Plural words have the apostrophes AFTER the “s” (students’), singular words have them BEFORE (student’s)

3. HOMONYMS (These will be on the test):

– It’s = it is– Its = it owns– There is a place (like where and here)

– Their shows that a group of people own something

– They’re is a contraction of they are

– Than compares two things (He is smarter than a 5th grader.)

– Then tells when something happened (I tied my show, and then I crossed the road.)

4. STRATEGY for Either/Or: – If you see “either” in a sentence, you should see “or” in that sentence too

– Likewise, if you see “neither” in a sentence, you should see “nor” in that sentence too

5. VERBS: – Verbs have different tenses to indicate when things happen

– Within a test passage, they should match (if one thing happens in past tense, they all should)

6. SENTENCE FRAGMENTS:

A fragment is an incomplete sentence.

If the question has a period underlined between two sentences, make sure that neither sentence is a fragment.