The ACT

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The ACT

• Last Minute Tips and Strategies

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Did you know..

• you can earn a 20 on the ACT if you get 2 out of
  3 questions right. Thats 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.

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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 (Well
  review some later in the presentation.)

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If on the English test, you usually get done
EARLY

• STATEGY FOR YOUStick 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.

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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 youre
  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. Dont just look at the one
  sentence the question is about.

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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).

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THE STRATEGIESA review

• LEAVE NO ANSWER BEHIND
• There is no penalty for guessing
• DO NOT LEAVE ANY ANSWERS BLANK on the ACT
• 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.

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• 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

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• 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.

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• 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.

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PUNCTUATION WORDSA review

• 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 doesnt 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
  (students)

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• 3. HOMONYMS (These will be on the test)
• Its it is
• Its it owns
• There is a place (like where and here)
• Their shows that a group of people own something
• Theyre 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.)

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• 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)

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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.