SAT ACT Testing Strategies

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SAT ACT Testing Strategies
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Table of Contents

• SAT
• Test-Taking Strategies
• Pacing and Timing
• Guessing
• General Math Strategies
• Special Algebra Based Strategies

• ACT
• ACT Mindset
• 10 Strategies For Mastering the ACT

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SAT
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Test-Taking Strategies

• Before the Test
• Learn the directions for all six question types.

Become familiar with the directions for the
different types of questions. This will prevent
you from losing time reading the instructions.
You will feel more confident and less likely to
make careless errors.
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Test-Taking Strategies
Guessing Penalty Lose ¼ of a point for every
incorrect answer

• During the Test
• Eliminate Choices
• Know When to Guess

If you dont know the correct answer, try
eliminating. Its easier to find wrong answers
than right. Eliminating will help you work
through the problem and hopefully arrive at one,
the correct answer.
Whenever, you can eliminate choices, you should
guess even if you can only eliminate one. This
will increase your chances of getting the answer
right despite the guessing penalty!
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Test-Taking Strategies

• Dont Spend Too Much Time on Any One Question
• Be Careful

All questions are worth the same number of
points. So if you cant get an answer to a
question without spending a lot of time go to the
next one. If you are absolutely clueless on a
question (you cant eliminate one answer) skip it
and come back if time.
No matter how frustrated you are, dont pass over
questions without reading them. Consider all
choices. You could lose points on easy questions
through careless mistakes.
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Test-Taking Strategies

• Be Careful (cont.)
• Answer all easy questions first

• Answer the question asked
• Always read all the answers before choosing
• Check that your answers make sense
• For math questions, check you work from the
  beginning.
• Try to work at an even steady pace!

Be sure to answer the easy questions before
tackling the more time-consuming questions. You
will know the location of the easy and hard
questions by knowing your test.
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Test-Taking Strategies

• Use your test booklet as scratch paper
• Check your answer sheet regularly

• Mark each question that you dont answer so you
  can easily come back
• Put a line through choices you eliminate
• Mark sections, sentences, and word in reading
  passages
• In math, make drawings to help you figure them
  out. Mark key info on graphs, drawings, and
  diagrams as you figure.

Check your question number and answer sheet every
few questions to prevent losing your place on the
answer sheet. Also check your answer sheet every
time you skip a question.
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Test-Taking Strategies RECAP

• Before the Test
• Learn the directions
• During the Test
• Eliminate choices
• Guess when you can eliminate
• Dont spend to much time
• Be careful
• Answer all the easy questions first
• Use your test book
• Check your answer sheet regularly

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Pacing and Timing

• Keep Moving
• Questions Arranged from Easy to Hard

Dont spend so much time puzzling out hard
questions this will cause you to lose time for
easier ones. Remember to do the easy ones first
and then come back to the hard ones.
The questions on the SAT are organized from easy
to hard except for the Critical Reading
questions. If you find that the questions of one
type are getting too difficult, quickly read
through the rest of questions to see if there are
others you can answer. Then go to the next group
in that section. (Again, this does not apply to
the Critical Reading questions)
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Pacing and Timing

• Spend time on the questions that you have the
  best chance of getting right
• Keep track of time during the test

Some questions take longer than others to answer.
Spend the time on the questions you are more
likely to get right like the ones you can
eliminate answers on.
The SAT includes 7 sections requiring 3 hours.
You should develop the habit of occasionally
checking your progress through the test, so that
you know when you are ¼ of the way through, ½ way
through, and have 5 minutes left. If you finish
early, check your answers and erase stray marks
on your answer sheet.
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Pacing and Timing

• Know which questions are best for you
• Remember that all questions are worth the same

After much practice, you will know which question
type you are best at. You might want to begin
with that type of question within each section.
If you choose this option, carefully mark your
test book and answer sheet so that you may come
back to the skipped questions later.
The score value for a correct answer is the same
regardless of the type of question or difficulty.
So go through the entire section answering
questions you know or can answer quickly and
skipping questions that need more time.
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A Recommended Approach to Pacing

• Set up a schedule for progress through each test
  section
• Begin to work as soon as the testing time begins.
  Keep your attention focused on the test.
• Answer questions you are sure of first, mark
  those you are unsure of.
• Go back and try questions you skipped using
  guessing strategy.
• In the last few minutes, check your answers.
• Check your answer sheet for stray mark and that
  all erasures are clean.

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Pacing and Timing RECAP

• Keep moving
• Questions are arranged from easy to hard
• Spend time on the questions that you have the
  best chance of getting right
• Keep track of time during the test
• Know which questions are best for you
• All questions are worth the same

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Guessing

• Guessing on the SAT when youre not sure of an
  answer is a good idea if you have an effective
  strategy.
• Understanding how the test is scored will help
  you develop an effective strategy for the
  multiple-choice questions and for the math
  questions that are not multiple choice and for
  which you supply an answer. Each correct answer
  on the SAT is worth one point.

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Guessing

• Multiple Choice
• Student-produced-response math questions

When you are unsure of an answer, eliminate all
the answer choices you know are wrong and guess
from the remaining ones. The more choices you
can eliminate, the better your chances of
choosing the right answer. Random guessing will
lower your score. If you cant eliminate any
choices move on.
For math questions that are not multiple choice,
fill in the best guess. You lose no points for
incorrect answers on these problems. If you have
no idea how to approach the problem, move on for
the sake of time.
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General Math Strategies

• Draw a diagram
• Look at a specific case
• Plug in numbers to find a pattern

Drawing a diagram can help you visualize a
problem situation and organize the important
facts.
If a problem does not give specific numbers or
the actual dimensions of a figure, consider a
simple instance using easy numbers.
You can solve some problems by substituting a few
test values for a letter that stands for a number
until you discover a pattern.
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General Math Strategies

• Choose a convenient starting value when none is
  given
• Make organized lists
• Redraw figures to scale

If you need to figure out how a quantity changes
without knowing its beginning value, choose any
starting value that make the arithmetic easy.
Carry out the computations using this value.
Then compare the final answer with the starting
value that you chose.
Some problems can be solved by making a list and
then discovering a pattern.
If a figure that accompanies a question is
labeled Figure is not drawn to scale, then
redrawing the figure to scale may reveal a fact
that the test makers are trying to hide.
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General Math Strategies

• Subtract areas to find the area of a shaded
  region
• Work backwards
• Solve a simpler analogous problem

The SAT may include a question in which two
geometric figures overlap and you are asked to
find the area of the shaded region between the
figures. To find the area of the shaded region,
subtract the area of the smaller figure from the
are of the larger figure.
When you only know the end result of a
computation and want to find the beginning value,
reverse the steps that led to that final result.
You may be able to solve an unfamiliar problem by
simplifying it so that it becomes an equivalent
problem that is easier to solve.
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General Math Strategies

• Adopt a different point of view
• Account for all possible cases
• Test numerical answer choices

A word problem typically directs your attention
to a particular unknown quantity. Changing your
point of view by considering a different but
related quantity may help you to discover a
simple way of solving the problem.
Solving a problem may depend on breaking it down
so that all possible cases are considered.
When each of the answer choices for a regular
multiple choice question is an integer, you may
be able to find the correct answer by plugging
each of the possible choices back into the
question until you find the number that works.
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General Math Strategies

• Change variable answer choices into numbers

If you dont know how to find the answer to a
regular multiple-choice question in which the
answer choices contain letters, substitute simple
numbers for the letters.
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Special Algebra-Based Strategies

• Write an algebraic equation
• Combine or multiply systems of equations
• Account for all solutions of higher-degree
  equations

Problems that compare quantities lend themselves
to algebraic solutions. First identify the
base quantity and assign a variable. Come up
with an equation that relates the quantities
using the variable.
When two or more equations are given, you may
need to combine or multiply them.
Dont forget that a second-degree equation has
two solutions, a third-degree equation has three
solutions, and so forth.
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Tips For Scoring High

• Check that your calculator is in good working
  order before test day
• Be aware that a solution involving many steps is
  probably not the right way to tackle the problem
• Use the test book as a scratch pad

• Be sure to find the quantity that the question
  asks for
• Before solving, look at all 5 answer choices
• Avoid random guessing
• Try to make reasonable guess on grid-in questions.

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ACT
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The ACT Mindset

• On the ACT, if you understand what a question is
  really asking on the test, you can almost always
  answer it.
• The key in all ACT questions is taking control.
  Take the question and wrestle it into a form you
  can understand.
• ACT questions are puzzles to solve, not quizzes
  so dont think Can I remember? Think Let me
  figure this thing out!
• GUESS on impossible questions rather than wasting
  time

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10 Strategies For Mastering ACT

• Do Question Triage
• Put the material into a form you can understand

• If the questions looks comprehensible and
  reasonably doable, do it right away.
• If the question looks tough and time-consuming,
  but ultimately doable, skip it, circle the
  question number and come back later.
• If the question looks impossible, forget about
  it. Guess and move on, never to return.

• One of your best strategies for taking control is
  to reword the material into a form you can handle
  better.
• Mark up the Test Booklet
• Reword the Questions

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10 Strategies For Mastering ACT

• Ignore Irrelevant Issues
• Check Back

Its easy to waste time on ACT questions by
considering irrelevant issues. Just because an
issue looks interesting, or just because youre
worried about something, doesnt make it
important.
The ACT is not a test of your memory. All of the
information you need is in the test itself.
Dont be afraid to refer back to it.
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10 Strategies For Mastering ACT

• Answer the right question
• Look for the hidden answer

The ACT test makers often include among the wrong
choices for a question the correct answer to a
different question. Under time pressure, its
easy to fall for one of these red herrings,
thinking that you know whats being asked for
when you really dont.
On many ACT questions, the right answer is hidden
in one way or another. An answer can be hidden
by being written in a way that you arent likely
to expect. Also, many ACT questions have more
than one possible right solution, though only one
correct answer choice is given. The ACT will
hide that answer by offering one of the less
obvious possible answers to a question.
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10 Strategies For Mastering ACT

• Guess Intelligently
• Be careful with the answer grid

An unanswered question is always wrong, but even
a guess may be right. On the ACT, a guess cant
hurt you, but it can help. Always guess every ACT
question you cant answer. Never leave a question
blank.
Your ACT score is based on the answers you select
on your answer grid. Even if you work out every
question correctly, youll get a low score if you
misgrid your answers. So be careful!
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10 Strategies For Mastering ACT

• Use the letters of the choices to stay on track
• Keep track of time

On the ACT the even-numbered questions have F, G,
H, J (and, in math, K) as answer choices, rather
than A, B, C, D (and, again, E in math). A common
mistake is to accidently answer a row above or
below. Pay Attention!
During each subject test, you really have to pace
yourself. On average, English, Reading, and
Science questions should take about 30 seconds
each. Math questions should average less than one
minute each.
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TOP 10 ACT Strategies RECAP

• Do question triage
• Put the material into a form you can understand
  and use
• Ignore irrelevant issues
• Check back
• Answer the right question
• Look for the hidden answer
• Guess intelligently
• Be careful with the answer grid
• Use the letters of the choices to stay on track
• Keep track of time