ACT Tips and Tricks

1. ACT Tips and Tricks Background Music by Steven Page

2. ACT

3. General Strategies • Take your time • Although you don’t have a lot of time, don’t rush. Careless errors are costly. • Focus • It’s okay to take quick mental breaks. • Answer every question • There is no penalty for getting a question wrong. Guessing can only help!

4. English Test • Timing • 9 minutes / passage • How to prepare? • Re-watch Sentence Pattern Videos • http://www.act.org/qotd/ • “Grammar at a Glance” and “English in a Nutshell”

5. English Test Strategies • Read to get the full context. • Eliminate answers that don’t fix the problem. • Check the new answer. • Answer should be concise, clear, and grammatically correct.

6. English Test Practice She lined up the nose of the open cockpit biplane on the runway's center mark, shegave the engine full throttle, and took off into history. A. NO CHANGEB. mark,C. mark, ColemanD. mark that

7. Reading Test • Timing • 8:45 / passage • How to prepare? • Ignore your prior knowledge. • Practice reading with focus and speed. • Breathe

8. Reading Test Strategies • Read and take notes. • Notes should be brief • Look at the question, find clues. • “According to the author…” • “In line 23…” • Predict the answer. • Predicting allows you to focus your responses.

9. Reading Test Practice Read the excerpted passage on your Notes Sheet, and jot down a note or two in the margin. The passage is an adapted excerpt from Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. In this passage, Esther recounts some of her childhood experiences.

10. Reading Test Practice • Predict the answer to this question. • Be as specific and detailed as you can in your prediction. • It is most likely that Esther thinks of her doll as:

11. Reading Test Practice • Now, match your prediction with the best answer choice. • It is most likely that Esther thinks of her doll as: • her only friend and confidante. • only an amusing plaything. • like a sister to her. • a beautiful toy that is too fragile to touch.

12. Writing Test • Timing • 5 minutes to plan and organize your response. • Thesis • Evidence • Outline • 22 minutes to write your essay. • 3 minutes to proofread. • Use revision strategies.

13. Writing Test Practice • For the essay prompt on your Notes Sheet, do the planning step for the ACT Writing Test. • Read and fully understand the prompt. • Draft a thesis that is clear and unambiguous • Create a Classic Argument Outline

14. Other Tips and Tricks • Fill in every bubble • Chocolate • Eat breakfast • Bring a snack • Sleep

15. 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? In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of view given, or you may present a different point of view on this question. Use specific reasons and examples to support your position.

16. I can remember, when I was a very little girl indeed, I used to say to my doll when were alone together, “Now Dolly, I am not clever, you know very well, and you must be patient with me, like a dear!” My dear old doll! I was such a shy little thing that I seldom dared to open my lips, and never dared to open my heart, to anybody else. It almost makes me cry to think what a relief it used to be to me when I came home from school of a day to run upstairs to my room and say, “Oh, you dear faithful Dolly, I knew you would be expecting me!” and then sit down on the floor, leaning on the elbow of her great chair, and tell her all I had noticed since we parted.