THE ACT TEST Austin English 11

What’s on the Test?????? in English 1.45 minutes – 75 items 1.Tests you knowledge on: Punctuation USAGE & GrammarMECHANICS Sentence structure (40 ITEMS IN ALL)

What’s on the Test???? StrategyRhetorical Skills Organization (35 items in all) Style About 2 or 3 questions on each passage will be style, organization, or strategy items. These items are indicated by a special box instead of by an underlined part of the sentence. On these questions, you need to read the test as if you were editing it.

What’s on the Test in Reading 35 minutes – 40 items Tests your ability to read and answer questions about the passage: 1.Draw conclusions 2.Make comparisons 3.Make generalizations You will read 4 passages and answer 10 questions on each passage.

YOU CONTROL 1.LEVEL AND INTENSITY OF ADVANCE PREPARATION 2.YOUR PERSONAL SCORING GOALS 3.ATTACK STRATEGY FOR EACH SUBTEST 4.SEQUENCE OF QUESTIONS YOU CHOOSE TO ANSWER 5.MENTAL ATTITUDE BEFORE AND DURING THE TEST

GUESSING NEVER, EVER, for any reason, leave any blanks on the ACT. Blind guessing cannot hurt you—it can only HELP you. Whenever possible, try to eliminate choices BEFORE you guess. By learning ways to eliminate wrong choices, you can significantly increase your score.

GUESSING Part of your challenge when you take the ACT is to spot choices that are obviously wrong. NO MATTER HOW POORLY YOU GUESS, ANY DIFFERENCE WILL ALWAYS BE IN THE POSITIVE DIRECTION. YOU CAN’T HURT YOUR SCHORE BY QUESSING. WHEN YOU’RE GUESSING, DO SO QUICKLY. A FAST GUESS IS JUST AS GOOD AS A SLOW GUESS!

Tip You should always answer the easy questions first and skip over the harder ones. That way, if you need to guess on some items as time is running out, you’ll be guessing on the items that are the hardest for you. Otherwise, you might end up losing an easy point simply because you didn’t attempt all the easy items.

GENERAL TIPS There is only one correct answer to each item. Trick questions don’t show up on the ACT. There is no identifiable pattern of correct answers. All choices are equally likely to occur. For you as an individual, the difficulty of the items is generally random. If you take control of the ACT competition, you are likely to improve your performance. Write freely in your test book and transfer answers carefully.

THE TEST DAY On the day of the test, you should bring the following items to the testing site: 1.Your admissions ticket 2.Driver’s license or picture I.D. 3.Four sharpened NO. 2 lead pencils with erasers 4.calculator

HOW TO PREPARE FOR THE ACT ENGLISH TEST 1.Complete 1 training workout and determine your score. Put a star beside each item that you know for sure. Record starting score. 2.Refresh your memory on rules. 3.Don’t worry about your score or about timing. First build skills, then work on speed. 4.Study your mistakes. 5.Analyze your errors. 6.Practice as much as you can. 7.Keep practicing.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 1.Watch and look out for REDUNDANCY. If it can be said with one single word, two words should not be used. EX. “After they had built and constructed the doghouse...” OR “It was her first initial appearance...”

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 2. Watch out for sentence fragments. You’ll need to check for fragments in two situations: – Whenever you see a period in the underlined part, or – A period in the choices Remember! If you can’t use a period, you can’t substitute a semicolon. Remember! Whenever you see a period underlined, check both the preceding and the following sentences to make sure they are both complete.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 3.When you can’t decide between two or three choices, choose the shorter option. USE THIS TIP ONLY WHEN GUESSING. This tip DOES NOT mean that the shortest choice is ALWAYS the right answer. When you get to the point where you need to guess, pick the shortest choice remaining.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 4.Pay careful attention to the context in which an item appears. You can’t always read just the underlined parts. In many instances, an incorrect response is incorrect because it does not work in the context in which it appears. For this reason, it is important to carefully read the sentence or phrase preceding and following an item.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 5.When two parts of one sentence are underlined, solve these two questions together. Sometimes an item depends on the one following it, especially if two parts of the same sentence are underlined. These “double-puzzle” questions can cause much frustration—and they often lead to careless errors. When you first encounter a double puzzle, solve the SECOND PART first and then come back to the first part. After you get both answers, read the whole sentence again to make sure both of your choices work together.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 6.On many items, you can choose “by ear.” EX. He seen the handwriting on the wall. You know that “He seen...” sounds wrong. If something sounds wrong, it probably is wrong. On the ACT, if you don’t immediately know an answer, verbalize the choices to yourself. If it sounds awkward, the choice is probably wrong. To “sound out” improves with practice.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 7.Study and compare the choices to avoid creating a new error as you correct the original error. Often, a “good-looking” choice will introduce a change in punctuation or usage that makes the choice incorrect. Be sure to double-check each question. After you think you see the correct answer, check the other choices to see if another answer is similar. If so, look for the difference between the two choices and reconsider which one is correct.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 8.For all underlined items, re-read the sentence after you plug in your choices. This is a safety step to avoid making stupid mistakes. It must be done quickly, or it can cause problems with your timing. The best thing to help increase your speed at this is to practice prior to the real test.

Strategies for Attacking the English Test 9.When the question number is in a little box, attack it in two steps. 1.Determine where in the passage you’ll find the answer. The box questions are based either on a nearby sentence or paragraph, or one the entire passage. Read carefully to see which type it is. 2.Reread or move on, depending on the type of box question: sentence or paragraph: reread, guess, move on entire passage: guess, move on, DO NOT reread. little box