ACT Reading Cano

The reading section of the ACT test measures your ability to read and understand the kind of material required in college coursework. Considering the large volume of reading in store for you when you enter college, your success as a student will be determined by your ability to pace your reading and comprehend the meanings inherent in the text.

The ACT test questions will ask you to acquire meaning from reading passages by referring to content that is explicitly stated and to find the implicit meanings in the passage by reasoning. To interpret the passage, you will be asked to use your reasoning skills to draw conclusions or inferences and make generalizations.

The ACT Reading Test contains four prose passages representative of text normally found in college freshman curricula. 1.Social Studies-approximately 775 (e.g., history, economics, political science, etc.) 2.Natural Science-approximately 545 words (e.g., biology, chemistry, physics, meteorology, etc.) 3.Prose Fiction-approximately 885 words (e.g., Cather, Dickens, Twain, etc.) 4.Humanities-600 words (e.g., philosophy, fine arts, etc.)

Each passage is followed by a set of 10 multiple-choice questions. The test is comprised of 40 questions in all with a time limit of 35 minutes. There are approximately 20 questions that refer to what the passage states explicitly and 20 questions that require reasoning to determine implicit meaning. To find implicit meaning, you must use your reasoning skills to make judgments about what the writer implies or infers.

The test contains four multiple-choice options for each question. It does not test isolated vocabulary terms, rules of formal logic, the recall of facts that would require previous knowledge of the contents of the passage. In answering the questions, all you need to know is within the passage. Through this review, you will learn to distinguish between questions that refer explicit statements within the passage and those that require reasoning to determine implicit meaning.

About the Directions Make sure to study and learn the directions to save yourself time during the actual test. You should simply skim them when beginning the section. The directions will read similar to the following: Directions: This test consists of four passages, each followed by ten questions. Once you have read a passage, answer each question, and fill in the appropriate oval on your answer sheet.

Strategies for the Reading Section You should follow this plan of attack when answering Reading questions. Before the test, this is your plan of attack: Step 1-Study the review to build your reading skills Step 2-Study and learn the directions to ensure that you know how to approach the questions in this section.

When reading the passage, this is you plan of attack: Step 1-Read quickly while keeping in mind that questions will follow. Step 2-Uncover the main idea or theme of the passage. Many times it is contained within the first few lines of the passage. Step 3-Uncover the main idea of each paragraph. Usually it is contained in either the first or last sentence of the paragraph. Step 4-Skim over the detailed points of the passage while circling key words or phrases. These are words or phrases such as but, on the other hand, although, however, yet, and except.

When answering the questions, this is your plan of attack: Step 1- Attack one question at a time. Read the question carefully. Step 2- If the question is asking for a general answer, such as the main idea or the purpose of the passage, answer it immediately. Step 3-If the question is asking for an answer that can only be found in a specific place in the passage, save it for the last since this type of question requires you to go back to the passage and, therefore, takes more of your time.

Step 4- For the detail-oriented questions, try to eliminate or narrow down your choices before looking for the answer in the passage. Step 5- Go back into the passage, utilizing the key words you circled, to find the answer. Step 6- Any time you cannot find the answer, use the process of elimination to the greatest extent and then guess. TRY TO ELIMINATE AT LEAST TWO CHOICES.

Now, let’s work on a Reading passage.