Capstone: Test Day

This is Unit Twenty-Three of ACT Preparation, the capstone: test day. Twenty-two units built the skills of four sections; this unit puts them into the format, the timing and the order of attack you will meet on the day. One rule governs it: every question gets an answer, and every answer comes from a method, not a hunch. By the end you will be able to state each section's timing and why every question deserves an answer. To pace a section. To handle the special question types and guess well. To follow a plan for each section. And to work full sets in test-day format.

Eight entries on the test's format and the rules of play.

The sections and their timing.

ACT 2201 The Sections and Their Timing

The ACT has three required multiple-choice sections: English, fifty questions in thirty-five minutes; mathematics, forty-five in fifty; and reading, thirty-six in forty. Science, forty questions in forty minutes, is optional, and every question has four choices. A calculator is permitted in mathematics only.

Guessing.

ACT 2202 No Penalty for Guessing

Section scores count only correct answers, so there is no penalty for guessing, and a blank is a certain miss. A blind guess among four choices is right one time in four. Guess as late as you like, but before time is called.

Questions that do not count.

ACT 2203 Unscored Questions

Each section includes some unlabeled field-test questions that do not count: English has fifty questions, of which forty are scored. There is no way to tell which, so never skip a question on the theory that it might be unscored.

Pacing.

ACT 2204 Pacing

Set a pace: subtract the minutes for reading passages, then divide the rest by the number of questions, aiming a little faster. Allowing ten of reading's forty minutes for the passages leaves fifty seconds a question. Pacing keeps one hard question from eating the rest.

The order of attack.

ACT 2205 Easy Questions First

Answer the questions you can do first; when one stalls, guess, flag it, and return if time remains. Flags must be cleared within the same section's time.

Best answer, or correct answer.

ACT 2206 Best Answer and Correct Answer

English, reading and science ask for the best answer, so read every choice; mathematics asks for the correct answer, so work it out, then find it. Two English choices can both be grammatical while one fits better. In math, if your answer is missing, reread the question.

No Change.

ACT 2207 No Change Is a Real Answer

Many English questions offer No Change. Decide how the underlined part should read first; if it is already best, No Change is the answer. It is neither a trap nor a safe default.

NOT and LEAST.

ACT 2208 NOT and LEAST Questions

When a question asks which choice is NOT or LEAST acceptable, three choices work and the answer is the one that fails: among three contrast transitions and one cause word, the cause word. Mark the NOT or LEAST before reading the choices.

Six entries on plans: a time budget, an educated guess, and a method for each section.

A time budget, step by step.

ACT 2209 Budgeting Time in a Section

Take the section's minutes and questions, subtract reading time and divide the rest, then set a halfway checkpoint. For a science section with six passages, two minutes each leaves twenty-eight minutes for forty questions, about forty-two seconds each, and three passages with about twenty questions done at twenty minutes is on pace. A checkpoint is a warning: if behind, speed up on easier questions rather than abandoning a passage.

An educated guess, step by step.

ACT 2210 Eliminating to an Educated Guess

Note how the choices differ, eliminate what a rule or the passage rules out, choose from the rest, flag, and move on. Four choices that differ only in what joins two clauses leave the semicolon, once the splice, the run-on and an unearned but are gone. Eliminating even one choice raises a blind guess from one in four to one in three.

An English question, step by step.

ACT 2211 An English Question From Start to Finish

Following the ACT guide's own approach: read the whole sentence and its neighbors, decide how the underline should read, find your version or No Change, and reread with it in place. In "the volunteers, who arrived early, was given the best spots," the subject is volunteers, so "were given." Rereading catches a choice that fixes one error and makes another.

A math question, step by step.

ACT 2212 A Math Question From Start to Finish

Mark what is asked, solve by the fastest sound method, find your answer among the choices, and check it. A shirt costing $24 after a twenty percent discount had an original price of $30, since 0.8 times $30 is $24. A choice of $28.80 comes from adding twenty percent to $24, a predictable slip that deserves a second look.

A reading passage plan.

ACT 2213 A Reading Passage Plan

Read the heading, read the whole passage noting each paragraph's point, answer each question from the lines it points to, and in a paired passage answer each passage's questions before the questions on both. Margin notes such as cause, objection and author's view find lines in seconds. Skimming saves minutes and costs answers.

A science passage plan.

ACT 2214 A Science Passage Plan

Following the ACT guide's tips: read all the text and every figure first, note each experiment's design, summarize each viewpoint in a line, and answer from the passage, adding background knowledge only where it leaves a gap. Notes such as "experiment one: light varied, water fixed" make design questions quick. No calculator is allowed, so estimate with friendly numbers.

Four worked sets, one per section, each invented for the course and set in test-day format.

An English passage, worked.

ACT 2215 An English Passage, Worked

In an invented passage about a river cleanup, the first sentence joins two sentences with a comma alone, a splice, repaired with "and." "Has grew" needs the participle, "has grown." "Their first effort collected forty bags of trash" is already right, so No Change, and so is "in addition," which adds a further activity. A sentence on the river's length does not belong, because the paragraph is about the cleanup's growth. Read the full sentence, treat No Change as real, judge additions by focus, and pace about forty seconds a question.

A mixed math set.

ACT 2216 A Mixed Math Set

Six invented questions, each solved by one move after the right recognition. Three times x minus four equals 2x plus one gives thirteen. The line through one, two and three, eight has slope three. X squared minus x minus six factors to three and negative two. Legs nine and twelve form a triple, so the hypotenuse is fifteen. Two red marbles without replacement from four red and six blue: four tenths times three ninths, two fifteenths. And twelve is fifteen percent of eighty. Recognition is the skill these six share; check each answer against its question.

A reading passage set.

ACT 2217 A Reading Passage Set

In an invented passage about an old canal, the central idea is that the canal built the towns, even after its traffic fell. The detail: traffic fell by half within a decade of 1850. The perspective: "a clean defeat" is some historians' view; the author's is that the canal had already done its work. The structure moves from what visitors see, to what the canal was, to its decline, to the author's reinterpretation. And "work" most nearly means accomplishment. Answer from the lines, keep each view with its speaker, and read each passage once, well.

A science research summary set.

ACT 2218 A Science Research Summary Set

In an invented study of a solar panel, experiment one varied the angle at noon, with time, direction and weather controlled, and output rose to a peak of sixty-six watts at forty degrees, then fell. At thirty degrees, output would fall between sixty-two and sixty-six, about sixty-four. At forty degrees, noon output exceeded nine o'clock output by twenty-six watts. And to test dust, keep the angle and time fixed and compare a clean panel with a dusty one. Name the variables, describe the whole trend, change one factor at a time. That completes the course.

Look at what you can now do. You can state each section's timing, and you know a blank is the only certain miss. You can pace a section, take the easy questions first, and check your progress at a halfway mark. You can handle best-answer, No Change, and NOT questions, and eliminate to an educated guess. You can follow a plan for every section: decide, find and reread in English; mark and check in math; read once, well, in reading; and note the design in science. And you can apply all of it in test-day format. Every question gets an answer, and every answer comes from a method.