Getting Ready for the ACT
ACT English
ACT Reading
ACT Writing
Test Strategies
Mrs. G. Stone
Spring 2016
ACT Components
English – 45 minutes for 75 questions
 Reading – 35 minutes for 40 questions
 Writing – 40 minutes for one prompt
 Math – 60 minutes for 60 questions
 Science – 35 minutes for 40 questions

What does the ACT really test?

Content
◦ Grammatical ability (English section)
◦ Reading Comprehension (Reading and Science
sections)
◦ Mathematical skills (Math section)
◦ Essay writing

Strategy (how well you can do on a
TIMED TEST)
CONTENT
ACT English Content

Usage and Mechanics
 Punctuation, Grammar, Sentence Structure, Usage,
Agreement
 What you need to know: comma, period,
semicolon, colon, and apostrophe usage,
subject-verb agreement, pronoun-antecedent
agreement, clauses.

Good site for review:
http://blog.prepscholar.com/the-complete-guide-to-actgrammar-rules

Good site for practice:
http://www.grammar-quizzes.com/puncsum.html
ACT English Content

Rhetorical Skills
 Strategy, Organization, and Style
 What you need to know: how to make a passage
clearer, how to judge an author’s purpose, how to
cleanly transition between one paragraph and
another, how to assess tone and identify
words/phrases that add to a passage’s tone.

Good site for review:
http://study.com/academy/lesson/types-of-rhetoricalskills-questions-on-the-act-english.html (video)

Good site for practice:
https://benchprep.com/act/act-prep-by-mcgraw-hill1/practice-questions/english-rhetorical-skills-style-8
CONTENT
Other Helpful Sites for ACT English
Mistakes to avoid:
http://blog.prepscholar.com/the-8-most-commonmistakes-you-make-on-act-english
10 Grammar Rules You Must Know:
http://grockit.com/blog/top-10-grammar-rules-beatact/
Basics about ACT English section:
http://studypoint.com/ed/act-english/
Video Tutorials (Grockit):
http://grockit.com/blog/act-study-guide-english/
CONTENT
ACT Reading Content

Four passages:
◦ Prose Fiction
 (What you read every day in English class)
◦ Social Science
 (on topics in Psychology, Sociology, or Education)
◦ Humanities
 (Personal memoirs or letters, art, music, etc.)
◦ Natural Science
 (nonfiction writing about Science)
CONTENT
ACT Reading – Prose example
She had appeared there first, in Newland Archer’s boyhood, as a brilliantly
pretty little girl of nine or ten, of whom people said that she “ought to be
painted.” Her parents had been continental wanderers, and after a roaming
babyhood she had lost them both, and been taken in charge by her aunt,
Medora Manson, also a wanderer, who was herself returning to New York
to “settle down.”
Poor Medora, repeatedly widowed, was always coming home to settle
down (each time in a less expensive house), and bringing with her a new
husband or an adopted child; but after a few months she invariably parted
from her husband or quarrelled with her ward, and, having got rid of her
house at a loss, set out again on her wanderings. As her mother had been a
Rushworth, and her last unhappy marriage had linked her to one of the
crazy Chiverses, New York looked indulgently on her eccentricities; but
when she returned with her little orphaned niece, whose parents had been
popular in spite of their regrettable taste for travel, people thought it a pity
that the pretty child should be in such hands.
Pretty much what you read in your English
classes, right?
CONTENT
ACT Reading – Social Science
example
The quality of almost pyramidal solidity characterizes another great
enterprise of the Napoleonic period, the codification of French law. The
difficulties of this undertaking consisted mainly in the enormous mass of
decrees emanating from the National Assemblies, in political, civil, and
criminal affairs. Many of those decrees, the offspring of a momentary
enthusiasm, had found a place in the codes of laws which were then
compiled; and yet sagacious observers knew that several of them
warred against the instincts of the Gallic race. This conviction was
summed up in the brief statement of the compilers of the new code, in
which they appealed from the ideas of Rousseau to the customs of the
past: “New theories are but the maxims of certain individuals: the old
maxims represent the sense of centuries.”
Tough looking, but not impossible…pick
the parts you know! Don’t get hung up on
words that you’ve never seen before!
CONTENT
ACT Reading – Humanities example
Certain reviewers believe that the novel Madame Bovary, an example of a
well-crafted and provoking book, has an unusual and subversive theme
that undermines its own medium: in short, these critics say that
Flaubert’s remarkable piece of fiction is in fact a cautionary tale about the
dangers of reading novels. As evidence, they point to its unsympathetic
protagonist, Emma Bovary, who lives in books, romanticizing the simplest
aspects of daily life—eating rich food, buying expensive clothing—as well
as her relationships. Constantly dissatisfied with real life, she becomes
cruel, dull-witted, and shortsighted, caring only about immediate physical
gratification and material possessions.
A little bit easier to understand, but still
dense…Again, pick out the parts that you
know and go with it!
CONTENT
ACT Reading – Natural Science
example
The American psychologist Professor Henry Ladd has devised a rigorous
method of testing this hypothesis. It consists in acquiring the habit on
awakening in the morning of keeping the eyes closed and retaining for
some minutes the dream that is fading from the field of vision and soon
would doubtless have faded from that of memory. Then one sees the
figures and objects of the dream melt away little by little into phosphenes,
identifying themselves with the colored spots that the eye really perceives
when the lids are closed.
This is Science all the way…If you are
good with Science, this is the passage you
should feel most comfortable with.
CONTENT
So what’s the best way to answer
ACT Reading passage questions?
Question strategies:

Take each question one by one. Look for/mark
HOT WORDS in the questions.
◦ Directional words (“in the last paragraph,” “Maggie tells
Glenn…,” “Line 4 refers to…”).
◦ Bolded words (i.e. vocabulary, literary term, etc.)
◦ Real question words (i.e. “The author expresses his
opinion on molecular damage by…”
◦ HOT WORDS guide you to the right part of the text.

Predict the answer before you read the answer
choices.
CONTENT
So what’s the best way to answer
ACT Reading passage questions?
Reading Strategies
 Scan the passage. You will not have time
for a close read.
 Use the HOT WORDS in the questions
to point you towards the right places in
the passage.
 Scan the text around the HOT WORDS
to identify the answer.
CONTENT
ACT Reading Tidbits

Every question needs a 100% correct
answer.
◦ What you need to do: Find a way to
eliminate 3 incorrect answers.

Know that each question is trying to trick
you into choosing the wrong answer.
◦ What you need to do: Don’t be a
sucker!

Don’t choose an answer without having
evidence.
CONTENT
CONTENT
ACT Reading Resources
How to Score a 36 on the ACT Reading
section
http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-36-on-actreading-11-strategies-from-a-perfect-scorer
ACT Reading Overview & Info
http://studypoint.com/ed/act-reading/
Video Tutorials (Grockit):
http://grockit.com/blog/act-study-guide-english/
CONTENT
ACT Writing



40 minutes – 1 essay
Grading scale of 1-6
Writing Components:
◦ Ideas and Analysis - Understand and reflect on ideas,
perspectives, and author’s purpose.
◦ Development and Support - Discuss your ideas and
thoughts fully; support your thoughts with textual
evidence.
◦ Organization and Style - Organize your ideas; transition
between sentences and paragraphs cleanly;
◦ Language Use and Conventions - Write with clear and
correct grammatical conventions.
CONTENT
ACT Writing Prompt example
Write a unified, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple
perspectives on the increasing presence of intelligent machines. In
your essay, be sure to:
analyze and evaluate the perspectives given
state and develop your own perspective on the issue
explain the relationship between your perspective and those given
CONTENT
ACT Writing Prompt example
Educators debate extending high school to five years because of increasing
demands on students from employers and colleges to participate in
extracurricular activities and community service in addition to having high
grades. Some educators support extending high school to five years because
they think students need more time to achieve all that is expected of them.
Other educators do not support extending high school to five years
because they think students would lose interest in school and attendance
would drop in the fifth year. In your opinion, should high school be extended
to five years?
CONTENT
ACT Writing structure
1st paragraph = 4 sentences
1. Hook (a question or statement that grabs the reader’s attention)
2. Restate the first point of view.
3. Restate the opposition.
4. State your thesis AND include the type of examples you will use.
2nd paragraph = at least 5 sentences
1. Introduction with a transition
2 – 4. Details about your example
5. A sentence that states how your example SPECIFICALLY supports your thesis
3rd paragraph = at least 5 sentences
1. Introduction to your example with a transition
2 – 4. Details about your example
5. A sentence that states how your example SPECIFICALLY supports your thesis
4th paragraph = at least 5 sentences
1. Introduction with a transition & an acknowledgement of the opposition
2 – 4. Details about your example
5. A sentence that states how your example SPECIFICALLY supports your thesis
STRATEGY
ACT Test STRATEGIES




Don’t spend more than 1 minute on any
question.
Use Letter of the Day (aka “Guess-aquestion”) if you spend more than 1 minute
on any question or if you see that it is too
difficult for you. There is no penalty for
guessing, but there is a penalty for leaving
answers blank!
Become 100% confident with PROCESS of
ELIMINATION.
Choose the clearest answer.
Sources

ACT Reading and English
◦
◦
◦
◦

blogprepscholar.com
actstudent.org
act.org
usnews.com
ACT Writing
◦ compassprep.com