ACT Reading
35 Minutes – 40 Questions
Some General Hints…
· You have 9 minutes to read and answer the questions for each passage. Use your pencil or finger to keep yourself on track.
· You receive points for answering the questions, not reading the passages. Read efficiently without hurrying through the questions.
· Read actively – underline topic sentences, main ideas, important names and terms. Make brief notes (a few words) so that you can easily locate information when answering the questions. Think of the reading section as an open-book test, and with your notes you should be able to locate information quickly.
· Do not get hung up on big or technical words. Remember – the test is testing your comprehension of the passage, not your knowledge of the subject.
· If you feel you have found the correct answer, choose it and move on.
· If you have difficulty with a particular question, cross out all of the bad choices, pick one of the remaining, and move on. It is wiser to give up a point in the middle of the test rather than to have 5 minutes left for the last ten questions.
· However, if you have 5 minutes to answer the last ten questions, don’t panic. Do not read the passage but go right to the questions. Answer “detail” questions or specific paragraph or line-reference questions. Answer as many other questions as possible and make sure every circle is bubbled (pick that letter and go).
· Do not skip questions thinking that you will come back to it later. Choose a letter, bubble it in, and then, if you have time, you can come take another look. (Circle it in the test booklet)
Never leave an ACT question blank!
Prose Fiction: The Passage
· Consider the characters (who are the characters? what are their roles? how does the author depict them?) / problems (what is the central conflict?) / resolutions within the passage.
· Identify the key relationships between ideas or people.
Prose Fiction: The Questions
· As with the rhetorical questions in the English section, make certain you know what is being asked. What are the key words? Underline them.
· Read each question and identify which section the question refers to. Look for the clue words that will help you locate the answer in the passage.
ü Note that the answer to the question is often immediately before or after the sentence referred to in the question
· Answer as many questions as you can without going back to the passage. Trust yourself. Or eliminate the answers you know are wrong (the ones that do not mesh with the tone or purpose of the passage), and go back to the passage to find the specific detail questions.
· Answer ALL the questions – if you are still not sure of the correct answer after looking back at the passage, eliminate bad choices by using these general rules:
a. Extremes and generalizations – watch out for words like only, never, always, none. They can make an otherwise correct answer choice incorrect because they are absolutes. Also be aware of generalizations about a topic or a group of people, or any choice that is too positive, too negative, or in some way extreme in tone.
b. Not mentioned – look out for answer choices that sound good but are not mentioned or supported in the passage. It doesn’t matter if a choice is “true” in the real world; what does matter is whether it is true in the passage.