There is no test more important to you at this time in your high school career than the ACT. You are in a global competition for scholarships outside of Louisiana. You are in a statewide competition for TOPS (as long as we have TOPS.) Needless to say, you are feeling the pressure of doing your best and it is my responsibility (and joy) to help you to reach your goal. (My goal is YOUR success.)
You will reap the benefits if you choose to take these suggestions into consideration and make them a part of your test preparation. These suggestions are most specific to the mathematics part of the ACT, but can be useful in other parts of the ACT and on other tests.
Before the ACT...
1. Rest well.
2. Eat well.
3. Low caffeine and "good" sugars only.
4. Prepare daily for at least one part of the ACT. I suggest that you prepare for the math test daily and one other part.
5. Mark all answers in your test booklet and either "bubble" by open pages or at the end of the test. This helps you to save many seconds.
6. Show work or thoughts, even if a question is one you choose to skip and come back to.
7. Remember: ACT is grading for CORRECTNESS, and questions are NOT weighted by difficulty. So, it's okay if you skip or guess on a difficult question.
8. Just as important: You MUST try to get all the "easy questions" right. "Easy" questions should be every question for which you have received a passing grade in a course you've completed.
For mathematics...
1. Go through the ENTIRE test, answering the questions for which you do not need to do any work. This varies by student. However, every student has between 5 and 15 questions that you can look at and know the answer. Example: (The radius is 3; what is the circumference? We should be able to approximate mentally to know that the answer is a little greater than 18 and pick the answer choice that is a little greater than 18 -- without a calculator.) The reason this strategy is important is because the ACT is a TIMED test. If you have to take more than a minute on several questions, that is weighing on your mind and affecting how you read other questions. By SAVING SECONDS on the easier problems, when you have to take more time a question, you have buffer of time and have relieved your mind of some stress.
2. Notice that the numerical responses of the answer choices are either in ascending or descending order. This is to your advantage when working from an answer backwards. PICK the middle choice (C or H) and work backwards. If the middle choice is not the answer, then you should be able to determine whether to go UP or DOWN the choice list, based on the answer you got when you worked backwards. THIS IS POWERFUL. If the middle choice is not the correct answer, you have increased your probability from 1 out of 5 (20%) to 1 out of 2 (50%) in one step.
3. When a question asks you to simplify an algebraic expression (usually a rational expression with variables in the numerator and the denominator,) unless you are really fast at factoring and cross-cancelling, pick an easy number that does NOT make the denominator equal to 0. Substitute that number into the given algebraic expression and into the responses until you get the same numerical answer for both. This method is timely but you should have saved seconds in suggestion # 1 and # 2.
4. Let's say you are wanting to score a 24 on the ACT math test. That means that you should have a "raw score" of 38 or 39 questions answered correctly. Give yourself a mental buffer of 5 more questions, 44 questions CORRECT. Do you see how answering "45 questions correctly in 60 minutes" helps you to be a bit more calm than thinking "I have to answer 60 questions in 60 minutes?" In other words, think of what composite score you need/want and work from that score to your raw score NEEDED. POWERFUL.
5. Use your calculator but use it wisely. Every keystroke is time away from your next correct response. Follow order of operations very carefully because ACT will put the most common incorrect responses as answer choices.
6. ACT is notorious for asking "simple" questions in an unusual way. So, read the question part of the problem, look at the answer choices, THEN go through the wordy part of the problem as needed. Sometimes the choices help to simplify your thinking processes as to what to do.
7. I looked at the act.org website. You should too. Don't be discouraged if you don't know everything on the math part of the test. The test is geared toward 1st semester seniors, for obvious reasons. So, taking the test as a junior gives you an advantage: If we can get the score you need on the school-administered test, then you can relax a bit. If you need to take it again, the experience of taking it early only strengthens your ability to perform better the next time you choose to take it. That being said: You need to think about the college(s) you plan to attend and what scores you need on the ACT. No pressure NOW, but lots of pressure in December if you are still trying to get that required ACT score. So plan ahead. Time flies when you're having (too much) fun.
ACT Practice Problem Sets
This link will take you to the act.org website. There are FIVE sets of practice problems for you to complete. Each set has 12 problems. Complete one set per week, keeping the date MARCH 1 in mind. When you click on the letter of your response, you will receive immediate feedback with an explanation.
Free ACT Math Test Practice
This link will take you to a practice test with 60 questions. Time yourself. See how many questions you can complete in 60 minutes. Remember the goal is to get 45 questions correct in 60 minutes. (This will give you a math composite score of 24.)
ACT Prep BLACK BOOK
This link contains videos for test prep. Register and use the suggestions for all parts of the ACT.
You will reap the benefits if you choose to take these suggestions into consideration and make them a part of your test preparation. These suggestions are most specific to the mathematics part of the ACT, but can be useful in other parts of the ACT and on other tests.
Before the ACT...
1. Rest well.
2. Eat well.
3. Low caffeine and "good" sugars only.
4. Prepare daily for at least one part of the ACT. I suggest that you prepare for the math test daily and one other part.
5. Mark all answers in your test booklet and either "bubble" by open pages or at the end of the test. This helps you to save many seconds.
6. Show work or thoughts, even if a question is one you choose to skip and come back to.
7. Remember: ACT is grading for CORRECTNESS, and questions are NOT weighted by difficulty. So, it's okay if you skip or guess on a difficult question.
8. Just as important: You MUST try to get all the "easy questions" right. "Easy" questions should be every question for which you have received a passing grade in a course you've completed.
For mathematics...
1. Go through the ENTIRE test, answering the questions for which you do not need to do any work. This varies by student. However, every student has between 5 and 15 questions that you can look at and know the answer. Example: (The radius is 3; what is the circumference? We should be able to approximate mentally to know that the answer is a little greater than 18 and pick the answer choice that is a little greater than 18 -- without a calculator.) The reason this strategy is important is because the ACT is a TIMED test. If you have to take more than a minute on several questions, that is weighing on your mind and affecting how you read other questions. By SAVING SECONDS on the easier problems, when you have to take more time a question, you have buffer of time and have relieved your mind of some stress.
2. Notice that the numerical responses of the answer choices are either in ascending or descending order. This is to your advantage when working from an answer backwards. PICK the middle choice (C or H) and work backwards. If the middle choice is not the answer, then you should be able to determine whether to go UP or DOWN the choice list, based on the answer you got when you worked backwards. THIS IS POWERFUL. If the middle choice is not the correct answer, you have increased your probability from 1 out of 5 (20%) to 1 out of 2 (50%) in one step.
3. When a question asks you to simplify an algebraic expression (usually a rational expression with variables in the numerator and the denominator,) unless you are really fast at factoring and cross-cancelling, pick an easy number that does NOT make the denominator equal to 0. Substitute that number into the given algebraic expression and into the responses until you get the same numerical answer for both. This method is timely but you should have saved seconds in suggestion # 1 and # 2.
4. Let's say you are wanting to score a 24 on the ACT math test. That means that you should have a "raw score" of 38 or 39 questions answered correctly. Give yourself a mental buffer of 5 more questions, 44 questions CORRECT. Do you see how answering "45 questions correctly in 60 minutes" helps you to be a bit more calm than thinking "I have to answer 60 questions in 60 minutes?" In other words, think of what composite score you need/want and work from that score to your raw score NEEDED. POWERFUL.
5. Use your calculator but use it wisely. Every keystroke is time away from your next correct response. Follow order of operations very carefully because ACT will put the most common incorrect responses as answer choices.
6. ACT is notorious for asking "simple" questions in an unusual way. So, read the question part of the problem, look at the answer choices, THEN go through the wordy part of the problem as needed. Sometimes the choices help to simplify your thinking processes as to what to do.
7. I looked at the act.org website. You should too. Don't be discouraged if you don't know everything on the math part of the test. The test is geared toward 1st semester seniors, for obvious reasons. So, taking the test as a junior gives you an advantage: If we can get the score you need on the school-administered test, then you can relax a bit. If you need to take it again, the experience of taking it early only strengthens your ability to perform better the next time you choose to take it. That being said: You need to think about the college(s) you plan to attend and what scores you need on the ACT. No pressure NOW, but lots of pressure in December if you are still trying to get that required ACT score. So plan ahead. Time flies when you're having (too much) fun.
ACT Practice Problem Sets
This link will take you to the act.org website. There are FIVE sets of practice problems for you to complete. Each set has 12 problems. Complete one set per week, keeping the date MARCH 1 in mind. When you click on the letter of your response, you will receive immediate feedback with an explanation.
Free ACT Math Test Practice
This link will take you to a practice test with 60 questions. Time yourself. See how many questions you can complete in 60 minutes. Remember the goal is to get 45 questions correct in 60 minutes. (This will give you a math composite score of 24.)
ACT Prep BLACK BOOK
This link contains videos for test prep. Register and use the suggestions for all parts of the ACT.