1. ACT SAT Preparation Midterm Review/Study Guide 3 rd Quarter 2010 From Kaplan ACT, Class Notes, and Discussions Type of exam: all questions will be multiple choice, matching, true/false, or fill in the blank. Please note: You may use this study guide to prepare, but you will not be able to use this study guide during the midterm. Students who turn in their hand written study guides prior to the test on the day of the exam will receive extra credit.

2. Midterm Review: 1.You do not have to list colleges you want ACT to send score reports to when you register for the ACT. 2.The college application process starts in the 9 th grade. 3.Your college should not necessarily be larger than your high school. 4.Answer every question on the ACT and make an educated guess as a last resort. 5.A well known college will not necessarily give you a better education or assure your future success.

3. Midterm Review: 6.A big university does not necessarily offer you more than a good small college. 7.You should not necessarily go to college where your friends are going. 8.A low score on a college entrance test is not an absolute bar to college admission. 9.Including breaks, the ACT with Writing lasts about 4 hours. 10.There are 215 multiple choice questions are on the ACT.

4. Midterm Review: 11.The subtests on the ACT are English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing. 12.The lowest ACT score you can make is a 1 and the highest ACT score you can make is a 36. 13.The ACT score that most colleges look at is called the composite score. 14.Most schools use the optional writing test for class or course placement. 15.You should take the optional ACT writing test if the college to which you are applying requires it or if you are not sure whether or not you should take it.

5. Midterm Review: 16.Do question triage by passing through the test. Do easy questions first, guess on impossible ones, carefully skip hard ones, and then make a second pass to solve any remaining questions. 17.Put the material into a form you can understand by rewording questions so you can understand them, marking up your test booklet, and drawing diagrams. 18.Identify and ignore irrelevant issues; everything on the ACT is not important. 19.Check back: all of the information you need is in the test. Always refer back to passages in the Reading and Science subtests.

6. Midterm Review: 20.Make sure you answer the right question. Sometimes the answer choices include the right answer to a different question. Always check the question again before choosing and marking your answer. 21.Look for hidden answers. Many questions have more than one possible answer solution, but only one correct answer choice. 22.Guess intelligently: a guess can’t hurt you, but it can help so answer every question. Blind guess on impossible questions and make a considered or educated guess on difficult questions.

7. Midterm Review: 23.Be careful with the answer grid. –Cut down on errors by transferring answers from the book to the answer sheet in groups. –Grid in groups of answers when you complete each passage in Reading and Science. –Grid in Math and English answers at the end of a page or every 2 page spread. –Grid in each answer individually when you near the end of the test. 24.Use the letters of the answer choices to stay on track. –Answer choices for odd questions are A, B, C, D, E –Answer choices for evens are F, G, H, J, K 25.Keep track of time and pace yourself. Don’t rely on the proctor to keep track of time.

8. Midterm Review: 26.The ACT English test includes the following types of questions: punctuation, grammar and usage, sentence structure, strategy, organization, and style 27.Economy questions make up one third of ACT English questions: –redundancy, verbosity, relevance, etc. 28.On economy questions, the shortest answer is often correct. 29.When approaching ACT English questions, ask yourself, “Does this stuff belong here and does it sound like English?” 30.Skim English passages before getting to work on the questions.

9. Midterm Review: 31.On the ACT Math all that matters is the correct answer. It makes no difference how you find it. 32.You don’t have to show your work on the ACT Math subtest. 33.Make sure you understand the question stem: type of problem, reread it, rephrase it, etc. Remember that on the ACT Math Subtest words have precise meanings : 34.Integers include 0 and negative whole numbers 35.Evens and odds include 0 and negative whole numbers 36.Prime numbers do not include 1 37.Remainders are integers

10. Midterm Review: 38.The square root symbol represents the positive square root only 39.Rectangles include squares 40.In the Kaplan two pass plan for Math questions, carefully skip difficult questions and never spend more than 1 minute on each question the first time through. 41.When you are stuck, estimate and eyeball questions, diagrams, and answers in order to answer the question. 42.On ACT Reading you should consider the question stem and think of an answer before looking at the answer choices. 43.On ACT Reading, you should always look back at the passage to find the correct answer.

11. Midterm Review: 44.The main difference between ACT Reading and Science passages is that the details of science passages almost all relate to numbers or scientific processes and they are often contained in graphs and tables. On ACT Science questions dealing with graphs and tables: 45.Determine what is being represented on graphs and tables by checking titles, labels, and the question stem. 46.Check labels to determine what the axes or columns and rows represent. 47.Be very careful with units of measure. Don't assume that units in graphs and tables match the units in the question. 48.Understand how the same information can be represented in tables, graphs, and charts. (Check the example in the book about E. Coli. in ch. 7)

12. Midterm Review: 49.Extremes: Pay attention to maximums and minimums or high and low numbers. Sometimes this indicates a cause and effect relationship that you need to know. 50.Critical Points: these are points of change where something dramatic happens: water freezing, boiling, evaporating, etc. Focus on these. Something is happening here. 51.Variation: This is the way things change in relation to each other. Direct: both things change in the same direction. Direct relationships go up and to the right on graph. Indirect: two things change in opposite directions. Indirect relationships go down and to the right on a graph. A straight line means the rate is constant.

13. Midterm Review: You should also be able to define the following terms: 52.Retention rate: the percentage of freshman who return for their sophomore year. (higher is better) 53.Graduation rate: the percentage of seniors who entered as freshmen and graduated in four years. (higher is better) 54.Student/Faculty ratio: the ratio of undergraduates to full-time faculty. (lower is better)

14. Midterm Review: 55.Reach or stretch schools: schools where the freshman academic profile exceeds your own. 56.Match or fit schools: schools where the freshman academic profile most closely matches your own 57.Safety or maybe schools: schools where your academic profile exceeds the freshman academic profile. 58.You should plan to complete 2-3 applications to each type of school listed above.