Reading ACT Prep

Reading ACT Prep

Reading Test

This portion of the ACT is made up of three passages: 1 long prose piece and two shorter prose pieces on the same subject.

Each passage or passage set is followed by 10 multiple-choice questions.

You will have 35 minutes to complete the reading and the 40 multipl-choice questions.

The passages come from published materials and are at a reading level a first-year college student can expect to read for a class.

Reading Categories

• Literary narrative: literary passages from short stories, novels, and memoirs

• Humanities: informational passages on topics in architecture, art, dance, ethics, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy, radio, TV, and theater

• Social Science: informational passages on anthropology, archaeology, biography, business, economics, education, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology

• Natural Science: informational passages on anatomy, astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history, physiology, physics, technology, and zoology

Content

Each passage is preceded by a heading that identifies what type of passage it is, names the author, and may include a brief note that helps in understanding the passage.

Scoring

You will recieve four scores for the ACT reading test: a total test score based on all 40 questions and three reporting category scores based on:

- Key Ideas and Details

- Creaft and Structure

- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

Key Ideas and Details

• Determine central ideas and themes

• Summarize information and ideas accurately

• Understand relationships and draw logical inferences and conclusions including understanding sequential, comparative, and cause-effect relationships

Craft and Structure

• Determine word and phrase meanings

• Analyze an author's word choice rhetorically

• Analyze text structure

• Understand authorial purpose and perspective

• Analyze characters' points of view

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

• Understand authors' claims

• Differentiate between facts and opinions

• Use evidence to make connections between different texts that are related by topic

• Analyze how authors construct arguments

• Evaluate reasoning and evidence from various sources

Multiple Select

What do you receive a score for? (Select all that apply)

• 40 Questions

• Three reporting categories

• Writing

• Grammar

1. Pace Yourself

• You may want to flip through the entire reading test before you begin reading.

• You can look at any of the reading test passages and questions during the time allotted for that test.

2. Use the Time Allotted

• If you take 2 to 3 minutes to read each passage, you'll have about 35 seconds to answer each question tied to the passage.

• Or you can think of the test as four 8-minute, 30-second units and try to complete all the questions for a passage within its allotted time.

• Answer all questions; you are not penalized for guessing.

3. Think of an overall strategy that works for you

• Are you the kind of person who likes to get the big picture first, then carefully go over your work?

• Do you like to answer the questions you're sure of right away and then go back and puzzle out the tougher ones?

• Or are you something of a perfectionist?

4. Keep the Passage as a Whole in Mind

• Pay attention to the advance organizers.

• Try not to let any prior information you know influence the way you answer the questions because the author's perspective may differ from yours.

• During the reading test, you can refer back to the passages as often as you like.

5. Find a Strategy for Approaching Each Question

• First, read each question carefully so you know what it asks.

• Look for the best answer, but read and consider all the options, even though you may feel you've identified the best one.

• Ask yourself whether you can justify your choice as the best answer.

Representative ACT Questions

• Details: picking out detail from a passage

• Main Ideas: determine the focus of a passage or of a paragraph or paragraphs in a passage

• Comparative Relationships: compare and contrast in passages that contain a lot of information or that feature multiple characters or points of view

• Cause-Effect Relationships: asked about literary narrative passages - sometimes one character's actions cause another character to react a certain way

• Meanings of Words: determine from context what a particular word, phrase, or statement most nearly means

Representative ACT Questions

• Sequence of Events: the order, or sequence, in which events happen is important

• Author's Voice and Method: voice relates to such things as the author's style, attitude, and point of view; method focuses on the craft of writing - the main purpose of a passage, what role parts of a passage play in the whole work, and so on

Multiple Choice

What type of question is asked about literary narratives specifically?

• Detail

• Cause-Effect Relationships

• Sequence of Events

• Author's Voice and Method

Multiple Choice

What might help you while you are taking the reading test?

• Guessing

• Skipping questions

• Leaving questions blank

• Skimming the questions before reading