ACT Test

Preparation
 GHS practice ACT
On March 12, all freshmen and sophomores
will take a full-length practice ACT at GHS
All juniors will be taking the actual ACT that
day at GHS as well
Scores will be given back to you the same
week
The experience will be very similar to taking
the actual ACT
 What is the ACT?
The ACT is a college and career readiness exam
based on the curriculum you have been taught from
elementary through high school.
The exam takes three hours and 30 minutes to
complete and is scored on a scale of 1–36.
The test consists of four required subject tests (with
an optional writing test): English, mathematics,
reading, and science. Your composite score is the
average of your four subject test scores.
 Tests on the ACT

English Math Reading Science

75 questions 60 questions 40 questions 40 questions
45 minutes 60 minutes 35 minutes 35 minutes
College readiness benchmark
scores

English Math Reading science

18 22 22 23
 Tennessee schools
School 25% 75%
Belmont 24 29
Lipscomb 23 29
Tennessee Tech 21 28
UT 24 30
Vanderbilt 32 35
MTSU 20 25
 Other Tennessee Schools
School 25% 75%
Univ. of Memphis 19 25
Austin Peay 19 24
Cumberland 19 23
East Tennessee state 19 26
Carson Newman 20 26
Rhodes College 27 32
Union University 24 30
 Vol State specifically
School 25% 75%
Vol State 17 21

Test Scores/Placement
•Math
ACT score placement
1-12 Non-credit remedial
13-18 Remedial + college level
SAILS or BRIDGE COLLEGE LEVEL
19-36 COLLEGE LEVEL
 Vol State Cont’d
Reading
ACT score placement
1-18 Remedial
19-36 College level

Writing/English
ACT score placement
1-17 Remedial + college level
18-36 College Level
 Tips for Test Taking
Day of the Test
Get a good night’s sleep for 2 days prior to the test (at least!)
Eat a balanced breakfast of protein and carbohydrates that
will maintain your energy level for 4 hours
Don’t do anything different than your normal routine. If you
get up and work out every morning…do that. If you drink
coffee every morning, do that. If you don’t…don’t start it the
day of the test.
Answer Every Question
 REMEMBER THIS!!!!!
The ACT does not penalize you for
guessing incorrectly. Always Always
guess. If you can’t figure out a
problem at once, use the skip-and-
Guess-
return strategy. If you return to the Always!
problem and are still stumped,
guess.
 mark it up
A blank ACT booklet is a sad
ACT booklet-the more you jot
down, underline, and circle,
the better!
-Underline the main idea while
reading.
-Put an “X” next to specific
details that you may need to
remember.
 To reiterate…..
Write all over your test
booklet- it’s OK!

Annotate: underline, circle,

take notes, ask questions,
answer them, sketch, underline,
etc.
 Skip and Return.
On a timed test like this,
saving a minute is huge. Skip
difficult questions and go to
the easier ones. Come back to
the hard questions when you
have time.
ENGLISH TEST
Day II Notes
 ACT English Information

75 multiple choice questions; 45 minutes , 36 seconds per

question
Question given in conjunction with a passage
Focus is on: Sentence Structure, Grammar and Usage,
Punctuation, Rhetorical Skills
 Don’t forget about “no change” and
“delete”
Most questions offer a “no
change” and “delete” as an
answer choice. Many first-time
test takers feel that a “real”
answer is required. This is not
necessarily true.
 Practice
After the battle, the A. NO CHANGE
winning army took B. , and she was pretty
control of the city C. --pretty as she was.
and the general D. DELETE the
wedded the city’s underlined portion.
young and beautiful
princess-- she was
truly pretty.
 Avoid Extremes
Beware of extremes. It’s harder
to support extreme answers
than moderate ones.

For example: all, every, only,

always, never, absolute,
impossible, inevitable, etc.
 Eliminate Choices

If a choice sounds absurd, contains a

clear grammatical error, or is completely
unrelated to the passage, cross it out.
You will be 25% closer to guessing the
correct answer with each choice you
eliminate!
 Shorter is Sweeter

The Act Test favors short,

concise answers. Think
about which answer choice
says the most in the fewest
words; chances are, that’s
the correct answer! About ⅓
of the questions on the
English portion require you to
scout for redundancy and
relevance.
 practice
After the loss, my F. NO CHANGE
coach patted us all G. losing a few games.
on the back, H. losing games, as
reminding us that well.
there are no true J. losses.
wins without losing
games too.
 Practice answer
After the loss, my F. NO CHANGE
coach patted us all G. losing a few games.
on the back, H. losing games, as
reminding us that well.
there are no true J. losses.
wins without losing
games too.
 Read and Answer as You Go
For the English portion of the ACT, read only
one paragraph at a time and then answer the
corresponding questions to that paragraph.
Don’t read the whole\passage at once; you
will have to go back and re-read specific
lines. also, don’t skip reading; you will have to
read to understand the main idea of the
passage to answer some questions.
MATH TEST
Day III notes
 ACT Math Information
60 multiple choice questions; 60 minutes
1 minute per question!
Focus is on: Algebra I and II, Arithmetic, Geometry,
Trigonometry
7th-11th grade math
Challenge: Wording in the questions, not the math itself
Only four Trigonometry problems: 2 can be done without
having even learned Trig!
 ACT Math Strategies
Know how to estimate- this will improve your efficiency and
score!
Learn how to use a calculator – graphing functions and
matrix problems
Be sure to eliminate the wrong answers
Follow your personal order of difficulty – start with your
easiest section
Read the question carefully – they predict where students will
misread the question– you can count on that answer as being one of
your choices – they do this to trap students
 Math tips
 Use the test booklet for scratch
paper.
 Remember your formulas.
 One minute per question
◦ Faster on easy questions
◦ Skip questions that take too
much time
◦ Guess if you run out of time
Pre-algebra
Pre-algebra continued
Elementary Algebra
Intermediate Algebra
Intermediate Algebra
Coordinate Geometry
 Coordinate Geometry
◦ A line goes through points A(2, 3) and B(4, 5). You
should be able to find the following:

◦ Parallel lines have the same slope. Perpendicular

lines have inverted (Negative inverse) slopes.
Plane Geometry
 Plane Geometry

Circles
 Plane Geometry

 Lines in a plane

 What do we know about a and b in both of these

cases?
 Plane Geometry

 If an angle is greater than 90, it is obtuse.

 If an angle is less than 90, it is acute.
 If an angle is 90, it is a right angle.
 TRIANGLE: SUM OF ALL ANGLES = 180
 SQUARE AND RECTANGLE: SUM OF ALL ANGLES
= 360
READING TEST
Day IV notes
ACT Reading Information

40 multiple
choice questions;
35 minutes, less
than 1 min to
answer each
question
 ***Each reading passages represents
a different type of text:
I. Fiction (a novel or short story excerpt)
II. Social Science (an informative piece from anthropology,
business, economics, history, political science,
psychology, sociology, etc.
III. Humanities (a “personal” or informative piece from
the arts, literature,music, philosophy, etc.)
IV. Natural Science (an informative piece from biology,
chemistry, geology, medicine, physics, technology,
zoology, etc.)
 Reading
Answer the easy questions first…don’t waste time on
questions that are too difficult!
Questions are NOT presented in order of difficulty.
SKIP difficult questions and come back later (circle
these in test booklet).
Refer back to the passage as needed
Process of Elimination is key! Narrowing down
answer choices before taking an educated guess
improves your chances of getting the answer correct!
 Easy questions
These questions will ask you about one
word or phrase. Do them first!
These questions will contain line
numbers that tell you exactly where in
the passage you need to look
Reading tips
 Choose general over specific
General answer
choices are much more
likely to be correct than
specific choices. The
more specific and
detailed the choice, the
less likely it is to be
supported by the
passage.
SCIENCE TEST
Day V notes
 ACT Science Information

Basic understanding of the scientific method will

help you
Not much science knowledge is needed – it is more about
deductive reasoning

Read and understand charts and graphs

Science Strategy: Opposites – when you encounter 2 answer
choices that are direct opposites, one will almost always be the correct
answer.
 science
Is not testing knowledge of scientific facts
Is testing your ability to solve puzzles, read
graphs and charts, draw conclusions and
inferences by working with facts, evidence, and
data
Don’t let it SCARE you…..
You don’t need to know very much information about the
topics which includes Biology, Chemistry, Physics,
Meteorology, Geology, and Astronomy.
You need to FOCUS on reading Carefully and Thinking
Logically.
Everything you need to know in order to answer the
questions will be given to you in the passages.
 40
Multiple Choice
Questions divided
Into 7 passages

2 or 3 3 or 4 1
Data Research Conflicting
Representation Summaries Viewpoint
Never leave a question blank before
you move on to the next passage
There is no penalty for guessing
It is difficult to come back to a question
once you start a new passage because
you’ll need to reacquaint yourself with
the passage. It is better to at least take
a guess the first time through.
Pace yourself.
• 35 minutes for

• 7 passages
• 5 minutes per passage

You have about 30 seconds for each

question.
GOOD LUCK!!!!
We believe in you!