Welcome to ACT Boot Camp
Before the testing day

Pack before going to bed
* Pack bottle water & snacks, mint gum, silent watch,
several sharpened, no. 2 pencils, calculator & fresh
batteries

Get a GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP!
*You are paying for this test AND it could earn you
money for college or a spot in a competitive
program…make sure you are mentally alert!

Eat a good breakfast
*Protein for breakfast (eggs, sausage or bacon) is better
than a sugar-filled breakfast of pop tarts or pastries!
Welcome to ACT prep!
ACT English/Reading
The Basics: English

75 questions, 45 minutes, 5 passages 15 questions each passage
Usage/Mechanics:
Punctuation:
13%
Grammar/Usage:
Sentence
Rhetorical
Strategy:
Structure: 24%
Skills:
16%
Organization:
Style:
16%
16%
15%
Tips: English
9
minutes per section / 25 questions
every 15 minutes
 Check
the end of the passage for the
 Read
that question before reading the
passage
 Quickly
skim the passage first, then go to
the questions.
 Read
the whole sentence, not just the
part underlined.
Tips: English Continued
 Be
careful that you don’t correct an error
by making another error.
 Once
you choose an answer, reread the
sentence with your new answer to make
sure it makes sense.
 Know
It’s & Its/Their & There/Your &
You’re
 Punctuation
 Appositive
-/,/;/:/
phrases – proper noun first,
appositive phrase off set with commas
Tips: English Continued

Between/among, fewer/less, number/amount,
many/much

Strategy for Ordering
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

No Change is correct 18%-21%

Omit is correct over 50%

NO Redundancy – when in doubt choose the shortest
answer
MATH TEST PREP
60 QUESTIONS/60 MINUTES
(1 question per minute)

Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra
24 Questions

Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry
18 Questions

Plane Geometry/Trigonometry
18 Questions
MATH TIPS

Draw a picture if one is not provided. Figures given
are not drawn to scale, so mark them with given
measures or symbols.

Know the following translations: of means multiply
and per means divide.

Know the area and perimeter formulas for triangles,
rectangles, and circles, and how to find the volume
and surface area of a box.

If a problem is given in terms of fractions, decimals, or
percents, consider using an alternate form to find the
answer.
MATH TIPS

If the question and/or answer set are given in terms of
variables only, substitute simple numbers to help
determine the answer.

Most answers are listed from least to greatest, so you
can use a technique called backsolving to find the
correct answer.

Do not overuse your calculator! The test is written so
that every problem can be solved without a calculator.
Set up the problem in your test booklet first and take a
moment to consider what a reasonable answer would
be before using the calculator.
ACT Reading Strategies
On the Testing Days…
R elax
A ttitude
• breathe 
• do exactly what directions
ask
• stay positive
• remember - this is for you
Focus
• be like a shark -- keep moving
• answer every question
T hink
• seek best answers
• do what your brain does best!
Now, let’s focus on the
ACT Reading Test…
• Read 4 Passages
• Answer 40 Multiple Choice Questions
• In 35 Minutes (≈ 8 1/2 min. / passage)
The ACT Reading Test assesses a student’s ability to
• read and understand the lines
• read and understand between the lines.
***Each reading passages represents
a different type of text:
I. Fiction (a novel or short story excerpt)
II. Social Science (an informative piece from
anthropology, business, economics, history, political
science, psychology, sociology, etc.)
III. Humanities (a “personal” or informative piece from
the arts, literature,music, philosophy, etc.)
IV. Natural Science (an informative piece from biology,
chemistry, geology, medicine, physics, technology,
zoology, etc.)
ACT Reading Test Questions
Ask Students To…
• determine main ideas
• locate & interpret important details
• understand sequences of events
• make comparisons
• determine cause/effect relationships
• make generalizations / conclusions
• analyze the passage's mood or tone
Pay attention to
• names, dates, titles, theories
• italicized terms
General Tips/Strategies

Read the questions first but don’t read the
answers.

Within each section, answer the easy questions
first…don’t waste time on questions that are
too difficult!

Questions are NOT presented in order of
difficulty. SKIP difficult questions and come
back later (circle these in test booklet).

Mark the number of the question by the
paragraph or line numbers. Refer back to the
passage as needed.
General Tips/Strategies Continued

Process of Elimination is key! Narrowing down
answer choices before taking an educated guess
improves your chances of getting the answer
correct!
Easy Questions
 These
questions will ask you about one
word or phrase. Do them first!
 These
questions will contain line numbers
that tell you exactly where in the passage
you need to look
Medium Questions

Strengthen/Weaken Questions:
Example: “If true, the author’s argument would be most weakened
by…”
or “The author’s argument would most likely be strengthened…”
*ACT wants you to either provide more evidence to support the point,
or contradictory information to attack the point.

Inference Questions
Inferences are NOT directly stated in the text and MUST be true
based on what you read

“Except” Questions
Find the answer that is NOT supported by the passage…use POE
Hard Questions

“Big Picture” Questions
*You must understand the point and purpose of the passage.
*Always save these for last.
Examples:
“The tone of the author can best be described as…”
“The main point of the passage is that…”
*Saving for last means you have already referred back to the passage
several times and should know the main point/tone by then.
ACT TRAPS
Deceptive language
(answer could sound true or be related to the passage,
but does not answer the question)
 Extreme words
(best, never, must, most, worst, totally, always, only,
cannot, all, …etc.) When you see these words,
eliminate the answer.
 True statements that are not supported by the passage
BE ALERT! ACT LOVES to use this to trick you!
 Half wrong/half right
READ ENTIRE ANSWER…ACT is testing to make sure you
read the entire answer choice before selecting your
answer

A Nonfiction Strategy:
1.
Underline
title & author
for clues to
topic.
2.
Closely read
1st ¶ for
author’s
thesis.
What does
s/he want
you to know,
think, or
believe?
4.
Read 1st
sentence of
other ¶s.
Mark key
words. Skim
rest of ¶,
looking for
impt. info.
3.
Closely read
last ¶ to verify
thesis.
Reader should
now know
author’s main
point.
1.
A Fiction Strategy:
2.
Read the 1st
column to
identify
Read the 2nd
column to
identify
• setting
• attempted
solutions
• characters
• the problem
Read with
a pencil in
hand!
*** don’t
expect a full
solution
Regardless of the reading passage…
• Mark the text / underline / annotate.
• Expect the text to be uninteresting -make yourself think & read!
(After all, it’s only 35 min.)
• When answering questions, only go back
and reread the passage when a line
number appears in the item.
• Trust your impressions of the text.
• Pace yourself -- work smarter.
Final Tips
A
shorter answer is USUALLY better than a
longer answer
 REMEMBER to use POE (process of
elimination) to improve your chances of
getting answers correct
 Look for a theme among the correct
answers…correct answers should all agree
with each other
ACT Science
Reasoning
Basic Format
ACT Science Reasoning Layout
•
You will have 35 minutes to answer a total
of 40 questions
•
There are 7 passages with 5-6 questions
per passage
o 3 data representation passages
o 3 research summary passages
o 1 conflicting viewpoint passage
ACT Science Reasoning Tips
•
You do not need to know a lot about
science!
•
You will need to be able to:
o Read & interpret graphs, charts, tables,
diagrams
o Understand how experiments work
o Make conclusions about different
viewpoints
ACT Science Reasoning Tips
•
•
•
•
•
Answer every question. You will not be
penalized for a wrong answer.
Eliminate choices. Make an educated guess.
Answer the first couple of questions for each
passage. They tend to be easiest.
Know how to recognize the 3 different types of
passages
Skim through all the science passages before
you answer any question. Start with the type of
passage you feel most comfortable.
ACT Science Reasoning Tips
•
•
Mark up the test booklets
o Order of Difficulty: most of the passages have
questions in increasing difficulty but this does not
always hold. But usually if you are stuck on the
last question of a passage and time is running
out, then guess and move on.
Pace yourself. Do not spend more than 30 seconds
on a question. You have only 5 minutes for each
passage.
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation
Passages: Strategies
What is this question about?
•
You must understand and evaluate
information from tables, graphs, charts
and diagrams.
How to Recognize It?
•
Data representations will not have any
other heading except for the passage #.
4 Chart Questions to Ask
Yourself when looking at the
diagrams
1. What does the figure represent?
2. What do the labels tell you?
3. What are the units of measurement?
4. What are the patterns in the data?
3 Step Strategy
1.Highlight
key words in the
question.
2.Analyze the figure(s) by asking
yourself the 4 strategic questions.
3.Find all questions about the figure
and answer those first.
What are the different types of
questions?
• What do you know?
• Underline keywords which tell you what you
know
• Tells you: name of diagram, data point or trend
known, title of column or axis for known data
point or trend
What are the different types of
questions?
• What do you need?
• Circle keywords which tell you what you
need to find out
• Wants you to tell: the label of a specific
column, row, or axis or info you need is a
data point or trend.
What are some keyword clues?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Directly proportional…
Inversely proportional…
Ratio…
Consistent…
Most likely…
Expect…
Respectively…
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation:
Understanding Diagrams
Quick Review of Tables &
Figures
• Line graphs…
• Tables…
• Scatter plots…
• Vertical line graphs…
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation:
Understanding Experiments
Key points in an experiment
• Independent variable
• Dependent variable
• Control
In some questions, you will be asked
about the design of the experiment
• How does changing the design change the results?
• How does changing one part of the design change
another part?
• Explain why parts of the design were performed
• Identify the figures that illustrate the design
• Identity problems in the design (confounding
variables)
• Identify a new experiment that would give more info
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation: Creating
Graphs
Things to consider when
creating a graph:
• Sketch a graph and look for it in the answer
choices.
• Determine which values are greater and
lesser and ELIMINATE those which do not
match
• Examine how much greater or how much
lesser each data point is in comparison to
those nearby
Using Information from 2 Tables:
• Use the 3 Step Strategy to determine
correct data point, trend, or label from 1st
figure
• Use info from 1st figure to apply the 3 Step
Strategy on the 2nd figure
• Match your results to the answer choices
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation: Solving
Equations
Strategy:
• Read text around equation and
write down what each variable
means
• Find the values of each variable
and plug-in
• Match results to answers
ACT Science
Reasoning
Data Representation: Final
Tips
•
The figures are more important than the
text
• Refer back to the figures often. Never try
to answer questions based on your
memory.
• You don’t have to understand everything
about a data rep passage. If you can
answer the 4 Chart Questions, you’ll have
enough info to answer many of the
questions.
•
You gain points by answering
the questions, not by
understanding every scientific
fact in the passage.
• Ignore all the technical jargon.
ACT Science
Reasoning
Conflicting Viewpoints:
Strategy
3 Step Strategy:
• Summarize & scan the passages- Annotate
in the margins: What is the writer’s theory?
What evidence does each present
• Answer the easy questions
Details in intro: states the conflict, evidence
already known, and what is agreed by both sides
o Summarize 1 or the others
o Locate supporting details for one or the other
o
• Then answer the harder questions
o
Compares both arguments
ACT Science
Reasoning
Conflicting Viewpoints:
Evaluating Evidence
How to Evaluate Evidence:
• Read the experiment or results and
underline the keywords. Or you can do a
Venn diagram.
• Look for similar keywords in the viewpoint,
and reread the sentence.
• Determine whether the ideas in the
question are the same as or the opposite of
the ideas in the viewpoint.
Supporting & Contradicting
Data:
• Some questions ask you to evaluate
whether a piece of evidence strengthens
or weakens an idea presented in one of
the viewpoints…
Compare & Contrast:
• These questions ask you to determine
which scientist supports a specific idea, or
identify which theory could be
strengthened or weakened by a new
piece of evidence.
Predicting Results:
• Evaluating Evidence can be used for
predicting the results of experiments as
well.
• Simply treat each prediction as if it were
evidence, and compare it to he evidence
in the viewpoint.
ACT Science
Reasoning
Research Summaries
What are they?
• Provide you with descriptions of 2 or more
scientific experiments
• You are presented with the purpose of the
study, the methods the researchers used,
and the results that were found
• You can ID them because they have
headings which say Experiment 1 &
Experiment 2 or Study 1 & Study 2
What types of questions are
asked?
• Some asks about figures
• But some require you to dig deeper to
make conclusions about results using
the data
Strategy: 3 Steps
• Skim introduction quickly to get basic idea
of experiment
• Identify parts of the Scientific Method
including variables
• Answer experiment questions first
o
o
Questions about individual experiments
Compare and contrast both
What is the Scientific Method?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Observation
Question
Hypothesis
Prediction
Experimentation
Conclusion
We can also discuss the
Experimental Design…
•
•
•
•
•
Observe phenomena
Research what is known
Form a hypothesis
Make a Prediction
Design Experiment
Some key terms:
• Outliers:
o
o
data found which defies observed pattern.
Should determine their cause
• Lab Report:
o
scientific paper to communicate data and
results
ACT Resources and Practice links

ACT Free Guide with practice questions


ACT Online Practice by sections


http://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/testpreparation.html
ACT Free PowerPoint by QualPro


http://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/Preparing-for-theACT.pdf
legacy.lmunet.edu/ACTprep/documents/ACTPrep_student_PowerPoint.ppsx
ACT and other online test prep

https://march2success.com/