The Reading Portion of ACT

Quick Tips and Strategies

The Reading Test Includes

• One Prose Fiction passage with ten questions

• One Social Sciences passage with ten questions

• One Humanities passage with ten questions

• One Natural Sciences passage with ten questions

The Timing

• You need to answer 40 questions in 35 minutes

• The gives you just under nine minutes for every passage

The Directions:

• DIRECTIONS: The passage in this test is followed by several questions. After reading the passage, choose the best answer to each question and fill in the corresponding oval on your answer document. You may refer to the passage as often as necessary.

What you SHOULD Do:

• Pre-read the passage• Skim through the passage

– Get a sense of the gist or main idea of the passage

– See how everything fits together to support that main idea

• Don’t read slowly!• Don’t get bogged down

with details!

Mark Up the Passage: ABC

• Abbreviate margin notes• Bracket key sentences• Circle key words and phrases

– Look for transitional words• however,• therefore• on one hand. . . On the other hand

You Already Know How to Do This:

• Main Idea = THESIS STATEMENT

• Topic Sentences = the sub-ideas that are covered in each paragraph

For Example: The Introduction

•  How should the law treat a mentally disturbed person who commits a criminal offense? Should individuals whose mental faculties are impaired be held responsible for their actions? These questions are of concern to social scientists, to members of the legal profession, and to individuals who work with criminal offenders.

Topic Sentences

• Over the centuries, an important part of Western law has been the concept that a civilized society should not punish a person who is mentally incapable of con-trolling his or her conduct.

• The McNaghten Rule was adopted in the United States, and the distinction of knowing right from wrong remained the basis of most decisions of legal insanityfor over a century

• During the 1970s, a number of state and federal courts adopted a broader legal definition

• The problem of legal responsibility in the case of mentally disordered individuals is currently a topic of intense debate

• Despite the current controversy, actual cases of acquittal by reason of insanity are quite rare

Consider the Question Stem

• Quickly look at the basic questions– Look at ONLY the questions– Don’t even consider the answers

• Identify what is being asked

Three Main Types of Reading Questions

• Specific Questions– Detail

• Ask about what is stated in the passage– Vocabulary-in-Context

• Asks the meaning of a word in context– Function

• Asks why a word, sentence, or example is used

• Inference Questions– Read between the lines– Draw a conclusion

• Big Picture Questions– Ask what the point of the whole passage is

The Questions:1. One of the author’s main points about

the legal concept of responsibility in the passage is that:

2. Based on the passage, the primary purpose for the 1970s redefinition of insanity proposed by the American Law Institute was to:

3. From information in the third and fourth paragraphs (lines 35–58) it can reasonably be inferred that the legal definition of insanity was changed in the 1970s after:

4. According to the explanation provided in the fourth paragraph (lines 43–58), use of the word appreciate in the phrase “to appreciate the wrongfulness” (lines 48–49) instead of know implies which of the following?

5. The passage indicates that the McNaghten case became the basis for future decisions about legal insanity because:

6. The passage states that McNaghten wanted to kill the English prime minister because the Scotsman thought that he:

Refer to the Passage

• Zone into what you need to read in order to answer the question

• Remember to read around any lines given in the question stem.– Answer may be above or

below the actual lines cited.

Answer the question in your own words• Do this BEFORE you look

at the answer choices• Don’t get bogged down

reading every possible answer!

Match Your Answer with One of the Choices• Avoid trying to see if any

other answers “look right”• Remember: other answers

are there to confuse you, so don’t think about them any more than you absolutely have to.

Let’s Review the Five Steps:

1. Pre-read the Passage2. Consider the Question

Stem3. Refer to the Passage4. Answer the Question in

Your Own Words5. Match Your Answer with

One of the Choices

Other Tips• Find and Paraphrase

– Never read and remember• Skip Around

– Look at those topic sentences– Zone in on the most likely portion

to FIND your answer• Skip questions you don’t

understand– If you can’t figure out the big

picture, by answering the details you might clarify the big picture

Tips for Specific Reading Passages• The tips above work for 3 of

the 4 passages– Social Studies– Humanities– Natural Sciences

• Fiction is different!

Focus on the characters

• Who are these people?– What are they like?– How are they related to each

other?• What is their state of mind?

– Are they angry? – Sad? – Reflective? – Excited?

Focus on the characters

• What’s going on?– What’s happening on the

surface?– What’s happening beneath

the surface?• What’s the author’s attitude

toward the characters?

• Most of the passages focus on one person or are written from the point of view of one of the characters.– Figure out who this main character is– Pay special attention to what he/she is like

• Read between the lines to determine unspoken emotions and attitudes– A momentary frown– A pointed or sarcastic comment

• Spend more time reading the Prose Fiction passage– The questions go faster than the other

three reading sections.