The ACT Science Test

The Structure It is always seven passages long, each with 5-7 questions, for a total of 40 questions. You have 35 minutes to complete the science test.

The Passages Biology Chemistry Earth and Space Sciences Physics

The Purpose The purpose of the science test is to test your scientific reasoning skills, not your ability to recite specific things you’ve learned (like the life cycle of a cell). As long as you have a basic understanding of scientific terms and concepts, you won’t have to rely on any outside knowledge to answer the questions.

The Kaplan Science Method Actively read the passage- take notes as you go. Look for key words (often italicized anyway) and specific values. Don’t spend a lot of time on this. Skim the figures- Ask yourself two questions: “What does this figure show?” and “What are the units of measurement?” Attack the questions- Answer the easy questions first.

The Three Types of Passages

Data Representation There are three Data Representation passages on the ACT with five questions each. These passages just show you data (no experiments explained, no theories debated). They just test your ability to read charts and tables.

Suppose you came across this Concentration of E. coli in cooling pool B DISTANCE FROM EFLUENT PIPE 31000S OF E.COLI PER CENTILETER Zero m.4 5 m m m m7.5 Five meters from effluent pipe 3, how many thousands of E. coli are found per centileter of water?

Research Summaries There are three research summaries passages on the ACT, each with six questions. These contain short opening descriptions followed by short descriptions of 2-4 experiments. They may also contain graphs and tables, but also test your understanding of the scientific method.

The Scientific Method The purpose- the “why”, the general principal or hypothesis being studied. The first paragraph will tell you this and you should underline it. The method- the “how.” The results- the “what.” This is the actual data that answers the researcher’s question.

A good tip for Research Summaries Read the opening paragraph and Experiment 1 first. Then scan through the questions and find those that refer ONLY to Experiment 1 and answer those. Next do the same for Experiments 2 and 3, etc. Finally, answer the questions that don’t reference a specific experiment.

Conflicting Viewpoints Each test contains just one of these passages and is followed by seven questions. They start similar to Research Summary passages, but then go into conflicting viewpoints between scientists.

The method for these Read the introductory text and the first author’s viewpoint, then answer the questions that ask only about the first author’s viewpoint. Read the second author’s viewpoint, then answer the questions that ask only about the second author’s viewpoint. Answer the questions that refer to both authors’ viewpoints.

PAY ATTYENTION TO DETAILS

KNOW BASIC SCIENCE TERMINOLOGY The ACT most often uses the international system of units (SI): meters (m), kilograms (kg), seconds (s), ampere (A), Kelvin (K), mole (mol), liters (L). However, you may see feet (ft), pounds (lb), or even degrees Farenheit. Know what is means to create a solution and dilute. Understand density (mass per unit volume) and force (that which causes a mass to accelerate).