As much as high school students despise it, standardized testing has always been and is still an inevitable and intimidating hurdle in the grueling pre-college undertaking, and it'll be a long while before that begins to change. So, while us juniors and seniors are stuck in this ridiculous system that bases intelligence or aptitude on a single four-hour test, I'm here to give you some tips and tricks that eventually led me to 32-36s on practice ACTs and a 33 on the actual ACT:
1. Review the basics
By "the basics" I mean all those math and grammar skills that everyone learned and forgot from 6th grade to 10th grade. Borrow a practice book from the library, or buy your own online, just make sure to review every skill separately with some practice in between; this way, you can clearly distinguish which skills you've got down pat, and which ones you've still got room for improvement.
2. Timing
One of the most difficult aspects of the ACT, if not the most difficult, is timing, and it really can only be accomplished through constant practice. I've done the math: a test taker should spend 8 minutes and 45 seconds on each Reading passage and 9 minutes on each English passage. However, the Math and Science sections get a bit more complicated: Since the Math questions are organized from easiest to hardest, it is vital that you answer the first 30-40 questions quickly and correctly as they are the easiest, and spend the majority of your time left over on the hardest questions. For Science, you should first identify the type of passage (data representation, research summary, or conflicting viewpoints) and decide your timing based on that. You should spend around 3-4 minutes on data representation passages since they are the easiest, 5-6 minutes on research summary passages, and 7-8 minutes on conflicting viewpoints passages as they tend to be longer and more detail-oriented. Just keep a timer next to you while you practice and record the time it takes to finish each section. Trust me, once the timing issue is conquered, you've already won half the battle.
3. Underline
On my first couple practice ACTs, I could not for the life of me figure out why I was not only constantly going over the time limits on Reading and Science, but also answering so many questions inaccurately. My tutor then gave me the small suggestion of active reading, which is really just a special way of saying interacting with and underlining the text. This minuscule tip that solved both of my problems is what catapulted me from scoring 29s on Reading and 26s on Science to perfect 36s on both consistently. While I admit this may not work for everyone, it sure doesn't hurt to try, and it's such a tiny adjustment that it'll probably just become habit eventually.
4. Read the whole passage
One of the misconceptions about standardized reading tests is that it is more efficient to read the questions first and then read the passage, or to simply skim the passage and then answer the questions. It's actually more efficient to read the whole passage first -- I cannot stress this enough -- and then answer the questions. If you're trying to answer ten questions per passage as accurately as possible, it doesn't really make sense to answer them without reading the whole passage, and it's a waste of time to read the questions beforehand when you're going to reread them after reading the passage; you already have an incredibly tight time window (8 minutes and 45 seconds)! A lot of passages actually intentionally twist the story or add small, discrete details to trick those readers who just skim. Remember: every answer counts.
5. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, MORE PRACTICE!!
The most important tip: PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, etc. Before I took my test, I had taken every single practice ACT test available to me both online and at my tutoring center, and I did not stop until I was consistently scoring 33s to 36s on each section. Every single one of these tips can only properly be mastered through constant, exhausting practice. To motivate yourself, just remind yourself the future this number could get you, and the happy faces you're parents will burst into once they see that high score!
6. BONUS: Calculator hack for fractions
This seems useless, but, trust me, this tiny tip could put you ahead of several other test takers in terms of time on the Math section. Fractions are tedious, always on the ACT, and waste way too much time just to simplify. In order to simply fractions or convert long decimals into fractions on the TI-84 graphing calculator, the most common calculator used on the ACT, just press the MATH button on the left side then the ENTER button twice, and it should change your last answer to a simplified fraction in a matter of seconds. This could save you precious minutes on the Math section that could be spent on the harder questions or going over previous answers.
