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R

eading

T T •Four subjects: English, Math, Reading, and Sci-

ence, plus an optional essay. You should sit forthe essay in case one of your schools requires it.

•One test per subject, each with its own time limit:

› English: 75 questions in 45 minutes› Math: 60 questions in 60 minutes› Reading: 40 questions in 35 minutes› Science: 40 questions in 35 minutes› Writing (optional): 1 question in 30 minutes

•Takes about four hours total.•Calculators are allowed only on the Math Test.•The most challenging aspect of the ACT is tim-

ing—you have to be fast to nish all the questions.•You need to register for the ACT about a month in

advance. You can do it online at act.org.

S•You get a score between 1 and 36 in each subject.

These are averaged to produce a total, also be-tween 1 and 36. Higher is beer.•Your test is scored automatically, not by hand,

so make sure you mark your answer sheet as in-structed.

•There is no penalty for wrong answers.•Your scaled score (1-36) is proportional to how

many questions you get right, but the exact calcu-

lation depends on the specic test.•Your essay is scored on a 1-6 scale by tw

The scores are added for a total betweenwhich is factored into your English/Writ

•As your score gets higher, it gets hardprove: going from a 34 to a 36 takes m

than going from a 20 to a 22.

T D T•Bring a calculator, two pencils, and a sn•Get plenty of sleep the night before.•Have a lile caeine, but not too much.•Since there’s no guessing penalty, don’t

questions blank.

Basi

cs

Stud

ying

Maximize the eectiveness of your ACT prep:

Live the strategic life. We give you strat-egies for the ACT, but use them elsewhere too. BeAPT when you read the Internet. Notice grammati-cal errors in conversations. Use UnWrAP in yourmath class. Et cetera. It’s great practice for the test,and the strategies will help with your other work.

Heed: read! To help on the Reading and Eng-lish sections, read high-quality material on yourown. Choose articles that interest you from well-wrien publications like The Economist , New York

Times , and Wall Street Journal , and read them withyour strategies. The best way to learn reading and

grammar is to read good writing on your own.

Deed before speed. There are two thingsyou have to be able to do on the ACT: answer thequestions correctly and answer them quickly. As youstudy, make sure you’re geing the questions right

before you worry about going fast. If you learn toanswer the questions correctly, it’s easy to get faster.

If you try to go fast before you understand every-thing, you’ll end up confused.

Pick up the pace. Once you master the ma-terial, speed up by taking sections in less than thealloed time. Try a 35-minute section in 30 minutes,or even 25. It’s like running with ankle weights on:

once you go back to normal, it’ll seem easy

Keep it real. Also when you’re puse the most authentic conditions possibletaking the real test at 9 on a Saturday, spractice then too? For all practice, nd a qlit place with a good writing surface, andtiming yourself be strict about it. Don’t ta

during sections or let in any distractions. Fear no test! One of the biggest mis

dents make on the ACT is thinking it’s hait is. The questions are designed for high sso you can do all of them! Don’t ever assumlem is too hard for you before you try it.

Your ACT Roadm

On each ACT Reading Test, there are ten questionsabout each of four passages, one passage each onProse Fiction, Social Science, Humanities, and Nat-ural Science. Here’s a sample passage:

It was early in the fall of 1988, and the spiritsof the just-graduated class hadn’t quite left Newelland everyone was wondering how the heck we’d beany good that year. I was fresh from my sophomoreyear on the third boat, and somewhat unsure of my

future on the team: I thought I might have it in meto be good, but hadn’t yet shown it in any signi-cant way. The ghosts of the greats still haunted the

boathouse in ways metaphysical and physical (sev-eral still trained daily, unable to give up the sport“cold turkey”) and we juniors, as whole, were agroup of young saplings being exposed to our rstdirect sunlight, having spent the previous year inthe shadow of the towering oaks and elms. I feltparticularly alienated, having languished for muchof the previous spring with a rib injury.

I recall one day in particular when Coach, after alackluster practice on the water, had the crews doan additional 20-minute stint on the rowing ma-chines at a moderate-to-hard intensity. Throughno planning of my own—I suspect that machinespace was limited because of the pesky freshmen,

but can’t quite remember—I ended up doing thework on a machine next to Oswald’s. Oswald, whowas well-known to be part-man, part-cheetah, part-monster, completed the distance at a pace I wouldhave found uerly exhausting, and I recall clearlythat he wasn’t even breathing hard at the end. I alsowasn’t breathing very hard, but only because I didnot go very hard.

Afterward Oswald told me, “You have to get bet-ter.” And he was right—I did need to get beer. Thegreats were gone and it was up to the mere mortalsto carry the team, and I for the rst time realizedthat I played a direct role in the team’s success orfailure; that through my eorts, others could beinspired or discouraged; that, in a strange looking-through-the-wrong-end-of-a-telescope way, I wasthe team. We had Oswald, yes, and that counted

for a lot, but he could not carry us all the way tothe nish line.

I did get beer. The rest of the season is historynow, and I have often since suspected that withoutthe sometimes not-so-gentle prodding from Os-wald, we would not have reached the heights wedid that year. Oswald went on to his own success,as we all know, but forget the astounding rowingmachine scores, the unbeaten college record, the

international success, the Olympic championship:what I most admire about Oswald is his uer dedi-cation to the sport and how that dedication inspiresthose around him. It certainly inspired me.

Normally this passage would have ten correspond-ing questions, but as an example, here’s one:The author sees Oswald as:A. Selsh but inspiring.B. Harsh but helpful.C. Lazy but accomplished.D. Stern but good-humored.

Be APT. Before you look at the questions,read the whole passage. As you go, Annotate thepassage with notes (one or two words each) to help

you remember what’s being talked about where.Pay special aention to the author’s Point of view.In the example, what are the author’s feelings to-ward Oswald? Toward the freshmen? Toward row-ing? When you’re done, take a second to give thepassage your own Title that captures the passage’smain idea and aitude. A good title for the examplemight be “Inspiration from Oswald.” Learn to readpassages thoroughly before you worry about read-ing them fast or answering the questions.

Fake it till you make it. Students do much beer on passages they’re interested in, so try your best to make yourself interested in each passage.When you’re not interested, it’s harder to pay at-tention, and you’ll miss the details you need to an-swer the questions. In the sample passage, the rstparagraph is boring background info, and it’s easyto zone out until the author moves to a specic anec-

dote in the second paragraph. This is commpassages often start out boring to make it hyou to focus. But losing interest, even for onds, will make you miss information yolater.

Be a hater. Eliminate answers that atreme (using words like “always,” “never,etc.), too specic (referring to details not i

sage or not relevant to the question), or eRemember: all the answer choices are desound right if you’re not paying aention

but these questions aren’t subjective: everexcept the right one is objectively wrong, swrong answers—they often stand out mright ones. In the example, we can easily choice C because Oswald is not lazy (“wmire most about Oswald is his uer dedand choice D because the passage saysabout Oswald being good-humored.

Read, don’t think. Many studenttrouble on Reading questions because ththemselves to think about the plausibilitanswer choice. This is bad! All of the answare designed to sound plausible; what yoan answer choice that is backed up by wopassage. Use only the information in thand nothing else. Don’t jump to conclusiomake connections; don’t bring in any baknowledge. For the duration of the Reayour world has to shrink to the size of theIn the example, A sounds like it could workis denitely inspiring, and given his brutude and personal success, he could well bHowever, there’s no evidence in the pashe’s selsh—we’d have to infer it. Therwrong. That leaves B as our only choice anOswald is harsh (“You have to get beer”) ful (“without…Oswald, we would not havthe heights we did”). B is correct.

Authors: Morgan Henderson, JackRoss Blankenship | Designer: Jack

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Math

OThere are 60 Math questions on the ACT, but it’s notas hard as you think. It only goes up to Algebra II,and it’s a lot like the Math you’ve done in school.Here’s an example:Meg and Tom live on the same street. They bothleave their houses at 5:10 and walk due north upthe street. Meg is walking 40 meters per minuteand Tom is walking 30 meters per minute. If Tom’shouse is 400 meters north of Meg’s, at what timewill Meg pass Tom?

A. 5:45 B. 5:50 C. 5:55 D. 6:00 E. 6:05

All you need to do is break questions that seem hard

into smaller chunks and use those chunks to buildyourself an answer. Here’s how:

Don’t Be a Hero. The ACT lets you have acalculator on the Math Test. Use it! You can prob-ably solve most of the problems without it, but whymake things harder on yourself? Calculators arefaster and more accurate than human brains. Evenyours.

UnWrAP. This is a four-step process that willtake you through any math problem, especially ifyou don’t now how to get started.

Step 1: Underline the prompt. What’s the questionactually asking for? In our problem, we wouldunderline “at what time will Meg pass Tom?”

Step 2: Write out relevant formulas. If you alreadyknow how to do the problem, go for it. If you’re hav-ing trouble geing started, think of it this way: inMath problems, the test gives you some informationand asks for other information. Sometimes ndingthis other information is straightforward, but notalways. If you’re stuck, start writing out everythingyou know about the problem and look for how itmight t together to give you the information youunderlined. For the example, we could write out

Speed =distance

time Speed

Meg= 40

SpeedTom

= 30Distance

Tom’s house to Meg’s

= 400

Step 3: Assemble equations. Once you’ve wrienout everything you know, think about what mightt together to give you the thing you don’t know,and then assemble it accordingly. In our case,there’s no formula for “time Meg will pass Tom,”

but let’s think about it: when they pass each otherthe distance between them will be 0. We know whenthey start, the distance between them is 400, and weknow how fast they’re each going, so we should

be able to come up with a formula for the distance between them. Using Meg’s house as the startingpoint, it should be easy to come up with formulasfor their positions at any time t minutes past 5:10:

DistanceMeg from Meg’s house

= 40t

DistanceTom from Meg’s house = 400 + 30t

Now to nd the distance between them, we can justsubtract the equations:

DistanceTom from Meg’s house

- DistanceMeg from Meg’s house

=

DistanceMeg to Tom

= 400 + 30t - 40t = 400 - 10t

Step 4: Plug in and solve. Now that we have ourplan of aack, we can plug in the relevant numbersand solve. For the example, we just need to plug in0 for Distance

Meg to Tomand solve for t:

DMT

= 0 = 400 - 10t subtract 400 from both sides-10t = -400 divide both sides by -10

t = 40

Remember, t is minutes past 5:10, so to get our an-swer, we need to add 40 minutes to 5:10, giving us

5:50. So the answer is (B).

These strategies apply to all ACT Math problems,which come in the following three categories:

P-A & A IThis includes things like percentages, fractions, se-quences, combinations, averages, probability, and

basic Algebra. Here’s an example:In the rst six games of the basketball season, Jer-emy has scored 10 points once, 20 points twice, and22 points three times. What is the MINIMUM num-

ber of points he must score in the seventh game toaverage at least 20 points per game for the season?

A. 10 B. 14 C. 15 D. 20 E. 24

Let’s UnWrAP it:

Underline: “MINIMUM number of points he mustscore in the seventh game to average at least 20points per game for the season.”

Write out relevant formulas: Let’s write out theformula for an average, plus Jeremy’s scores so far:

Average =sum of numbers

number of numbers

Jeremy’s scores so far: 10, 20, 20, 22, 22, 22

Assemble equations: Now we put everything to-gether so we can solve, but let’s remember whatwe’re solving for: we don’t need his current aver-age; we need to know what he needs in the seventhgame for his average to be 20:

Average7 games

=10 + 20 + 20 + 22 +22 +22 + x

7

Note that we could simplify the numerator:

10 + 20 + 20 + 22 + 22 + 22 = 10 + 2 (20) + 3 (22)

In this example, writing everything out was justas easy, but if we were working with more data itwould make more sense to use multiplication.

Plug in and solve: Now we just plug in 20 as theaverage and solve for x:

20 =10 + 20 + 20 + 22 +22 +22 + x

7 multiply both sides by 7

140 = 10 + 20 + 20 + 22 + 22 + 22 + xuse a calculator to combine terms

140 = 126 + x subtract 126 from both sidesx = 24

So the correct answer is E.

G & A IIStrangely enough, this includes problems aboutgraphing and intermediate level algebra: factoring,exponents, roots, quadratics, coordinate geometry,domain & range, and so on. Here’s an example:Line A contains the point (4, 5) on a standard ( x , y)coordinate plane and has a y-intercept of 7. If Line Bis perpendicular to A, what is B’s slope?

A. -/ B. -/ C. / D. / E. 2

Time to UnWrAP:

Underline: “B’s slope.”

Write out relevant formulas:

Slope = y1 - y2

x1

- x2

Perpendicular lines’ slopes are negative reciprocals.

Point of y-intercept = (0, y-intercept) y-intercept

A= 7

Known point on A: (4, 5)

Assemble equations: Now we should have twopoints on A, which will give us its slope, which wecan use to nd B’s slope:

Point of y-interceptA

= (0, 7)

SlopeA

=

(7 - 5)(0 - 4)

SlopeB

=-1

SlopeA

Plug in and solve: We’ve got everythingso let’s plug it in:

SlopeA

=

(7 - 5)(0 - 4)

=2

-4= - /

SlopeB

=-1

SlopeA

=

-1- / = 2

The answer is E.

G & TThese questions are about shapes or m

space and include trigonometry, but dononly 4 of the 60 problems on any given ATest involve trig. Here’s an example:

A

B

C

D E

58°10

5

In the gure above, lengths are given iPoint B is the intersection of lines AE andDC has length of approximately 24 inches

the approximate length, in inches, of AB?

A. 16.76 B. 17 C. 17.51 D. 18 E.

Let’s get UnWrAPin’:

Underline: “approximate length, in inches

Write out relevant formulas: There’s acould be helpful here. Let’s write it all ouwhat ts together:

A = 58°, LengthAC

= 10, LengthDE

= 5, Lengt

cos x = LengthAdjacent Side

LengthHypotenuse

Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2

Similar Triangles:

a1

a2 =

b1

b2 =

c1

c2

Opposite angles at the intersection of twocongruent.Triangles with two congruent angles are s

Assemble equations: With all this infthere are actually two ways to do this probthat involves trigonometry, and one thaLet’s do the trig-free method rst: right can see that because CD is a straight line in

by AE, DBE = ABC, and since ABDE , the triangles have two congrue

meaning they’re similar. So:

ABBE

= BCBD =

ACDE

=

105

= 2 BC / 2 = BD

Also keep in mind CD = BC + BDAnd we’ll need AB, so note that AB2 = BC2

AB = √BC2 + AC2 = √BC2 + 102 = √BC2 + 100

Plug in and solve: So to nd AB, we needuse our knowledge of CD:

CD = 24 = BC + BD = BC + BC / 2 comb24 = 3 (BC) / 2 48 = 3 (BC) BC =

AB = √BC2 + 100 = √162 + 100 = √256 + 10

= 18.87

Using trig, we could have taken a shortcutknow BAC = 58° and the adjacent sidewe have cos (58°) = 10 / AB AB (cos (

AB = 10 / (cos (58°)) = 18.87 (Use a calcumake sure it’s in degree mode!)

Either way, the answer is E.

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Foster Wallace popularized ....” This has exactly thesame problem as the original, and can therefore beeliminated. When we put B in context, we get “Theauthor and essayist David Foster Wallace popular-ized ....” This xes the original problem and soundsperfectly natural. B is correct.

R SThese questions test eectiveness of writing, espe-cially how best to order things. Here’s an example:2. Given that all choices are true, which one best

ties together the rest of the paragraph?F. NO CHANGE

G. even though he knew it would make the bookharder to sell.

H. unlike earlier essayists who became authors.

J. very selectively, keeping only thoswere absolutely necessary.

Flow like Flo-Rida. A lot of thtions are about how sentences work togfocus on making them ow well. The meatone of a sentence should be related to theand tone of surrounding sentences. In Exthe preceeding sentence is about endnotefollowing one is about an interrupted readrience, so our sentence needs to connect enan interrupted reading experience. Answand J fail to do this, but the original succeping back and forth constantly seems likeinterruption. Don’t be afraid to pick NO C

it’s often correct. The answer is F.

En

glish


The ACT includes an optional essay. You get 30 min-utes to write up to four pages. Here’s an example:Some school districts have switched from havingone long summer break to year-round school withmany shorter breaks of a few weeks each. Someeducators say this system keeps academic materialfresher for students as they don’t have long breaksto forget what they’ve learned. Others argue thata more traditional summer break provides an op-portunity for students to relax and embark on long-term projects outside school, such as research orcareer exploration. In your opinion, should schoolshave short breaks throughout the year, or shouldthey have one long break over the summer?

In your essay, take a position on this question. Youmay write about either one of the two points ofview given, or you may present a dierent pointof view on this question. Use specic reasons andexamples to support your position.

Follow the recipe.Here’s the recipe to bakeyourself a delicious, nutritious, high-scoring essay:

1 Answer, rephrased. The essay prompt always has

a question, and there’s no right or wrong answer, but you must pick a side. Be clear about your po-sition, but don’t restate the question. For the ex-ample, try something like “Though it may make itdicult for students to retain everything they’ve

learned in school, a traditional summer break pro-vides an invaluable opportunity for learning out-side the classroom.”

2 or 3 specifc examples that support your answer.ACT essay questions are abstract and general,

but your essay shouldn’t be. Consider: “I learnedmore about the world at my job last summer thanin many of my classes last year.” Down-to-Earth

but prey convincing, right? Keep your examplessimple and be sure to connect them back to youranswer: “Having a long summer break allowedme to learn life lessons far more important thanthe academic details I may have forgoen.”

1 conclusion. Restate your thesis , mention your ex-amples, rephrase everything. It’s that easy.

Assemble the ingredients rst. You get

30 minutes for the essay. Take the rst 5 to choosean answer and make an outline. It doesn’t have to

be beautiful, just enough that you understand your

notes and always know what you’re goinext. Here’s one for the example:

Intro. Long breaks allow more learni

Ex. 1 Summer job.

Ex. 2 My friend’s summer in Europeher a beer artist and was morful than art class.

Ex. 3 Academic camps let students labout subjects not oered in sc

Concl. Long break is an opportunity fing beyond what’s possible in

Add some avor. Three more quincrease your score easily:•Throw in fancy vocabulary words.•Use transitions to make the last and rs

es of each paragraph ow well.•Vary your sentence structure and length

Make it a meal. Write as much asLonger ACT essays get higher grades.

T T E W ACT W SThe same errors come up year after year on the ACT. Watch out for these ten:

Pithy Title Example Explanation

The numbersdon’t add up.

Al’s group of friends playsoccer.

“Al’s group of friends,” though it includes many peopthing, so the verb should be “plays.” Verbs must ma

jects and pronouns must match nouns.

What youthinking?

Al, along with his team-mates, who are playingsoccer.

Every sentence needs a subject with a verb. Here, “Asubject, but there’s no verb modifying “Al,” only declauses. If the sentence is about Al, he had beer do so

Don’t treadon “I.”

Our friends invited Aland I to play soccer.

This should be “Al and me.” A simple trick to testwhen a pronoun is part of a list, take out the rest of tsee if it’s the right pronoun: you’d never say they “inplay soccer,” so you can’t say they “invited Al and I.”

Who’s onrst? Al knows Dan has a gametoday because it’s on hiscalendar.

Whose calendar—Al’s or Dan’s? If a sentence couldpreted more than one way, it’s ambiguous and neeedited.

Does yourconjunctionfunction?

Al is injured, but he can’tplay soccer today.

“But” should be “so.” Conjunctions need to reect theof the sentence. Here, the rst part is the cause and thpart is the eect, so “so” is beer than “but.”

Commas andsemicolonsand apostro-phes, oh my!

Al’s soccer skills, are sureto catch all the scout’seyes, he has tons of po-tential.

The rst comma should be deleted because it’s betwsubject (“Al’s soccer skills”) and verb (“are”), whereshouldn’t be. “Scout’s eyes” should be “scouts’ eyes,”there is more than one scout, so the apostrophe mustter the s. The second comma needs to be a semicolon,it has complete sentences on both sides. All three of common errors on the ACT.

Now mis-placed, youwill never

nd yourmodier.

On his way to the match,a bus nearly hit Al.

Tricky one: when the rst half of the sentence refers toic word (in this case, “Al”), the second half needs to bethat word. Since “Al” is the thing “on his way to the

“Al” needs to be the rst word after the comma: “Onto the match, Al nearly got hit by a bus.”

Be good; dowell.

Al handles the ball veryskillful.

“Skillful” should be “skillfully.” Adverbs (usually e“-ly”) modify verbs and adjectives; adjectives modify

Brevity is thesoul of wit.

Al is fast and swift withthe ball at his feet.

“Swift” should be deleted because it means the same“fast” and is therefore unnecessary. Shorter is beer.

You’ve gotthe wrongword.

Al’s soccer skills areexpanding every day.

“Expanding” should be “improving.” His skills aren bigger (“expanding”); they’re geing beer (“impMind the exact denitions of words on the ACT.

Writing

OThe ACT English Test contains 5 essays that needediting and 75 questions about them. In one com-mon format, part of a passage is underlined andyou’re given 4 choices for what should go in the un-derlined portion. Here’s part of a sample passage:The author, and essayist David Foster Wallace

popularized a new use for endnotes with his book

Infnite Jest. Wallace put in the extensive endnotes to

force readers to ip back and forth constantly be-

tween what they were reading and the notes. He

meant to interrupt the reading experience to make a

point about the constant interruptions in our lives.

1

2

2

The ACT English Test has questions in the follow-ing two categories (but don’t waste time trying tocategorize each question during the test):

U & MThese questions ask about the rules of wrien Eng-lish, focusing on things like grammar, word choice,and punctuation. They usually ask about only asmall part of a single sentence. Here’s an example:1. A. NO CHANGE

B. author and essayistC. author, who was also an essayistD. author, and the essayist

See no evil; hear the evil. Whether you

know it or not, you have the rules of English gram-mar in your head. Maybe you can’t explain the dif-ference between a participle and a preterite verb,

but you can hear when one is used incorrectly. Tryto hear each sentence in your head; don’t just scanfor mistakes. Use your ears, not your eyes. In Ex-ample 1, nothing looks particularly wrong, but readit aloud—it sounds wrong, doesn’t it? The pause cre-ated by the comma after “author” is unnatural. Itmakes it sound like there are two distinct people:“the author” and “essayist David Foster Wallace.”

Keep it in context. Most of the answerchoices are designed to look good on their own; youneed more context to gure out which one is correct.Re-read the whole sentence with each choice in con-text, and hear each one in your head. If you’re still

unsure, re-read the whole paragraph. In Example 1,we’ve already eliminated A, but the other choices,

by themselves, all look like they might x the error.If we read the whole sentence, though, we can makesome eliminations: in C we have “The author, whowas also an essayist David Foster Wallace popular-ized ....” This xes the original error but sounds likeit should have a comma after “essayist”—it’s almostimpossible to read the sentence without pausingthere. D reads “The author, and the essayist David



Science

OThe ACT Science Test consists of seven passages:three Data Interpretation passages, three ResearchSummaries, and one Conicting Viewpoints pas-sage. Everything you need to know to answer thequestions is in the passages; you don’t need anyprior knowledge. Here’s a sample passage:The following experiments were performed to in-vestigate the expansion of gasoline additives whensubject to dierent levels of heat. The additivestetraethyl lead (TL), methyl tertiary butyl ether(MTBE), and ethyl propylaniline (EP) in variousconcentrations were all tested.

Experiment 1A student heated solutions of fuel additives invarying volumes for varying lengths of time. Thesolutions consisted of 16.9% additive and 83.1%gasoline. Gas vapors from the solutions were pipedthrough a length of tubing into a vulcanized rubberorb, and the change in diameter of the orb was thenmeasured. The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1

AdditiveVolume

(cc)

TimeHeated

(s)

Change inDiameter

(mm)

Change inDiameter

(%)

TL 60 120 8.42 x 10-7 .16TL 80 240 1.73 x 10-6 .20

MTBE 60 120 6.32 x 10-8 .04MTBE 80 240 9.34 x 10-7 .29

EP 60 120 2.47 x 10-6

.72EP 80 240 3.23 x 10-6 .76

Experiment 2A student heated 100 cc solutions of fuel with dif-ferent concentrations of additives in a Buchnerask over a Bunsen burner, and the resulting gasvapor was piped through a length of tubing into avulcanized rubber orb after 4 minutes of heating.The change in diameter was subsequently mea-sured, and the results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Additive % AddedChange in

Diameter (mm)Change in

Diameter (%)

TL 16.9 2.31 x 10-6 .21MTBE 16.9 2.86 x 10-6 .33

EP 16.9 3.35 x 10-6

.78TL 33.8 2.45 x 10-4 2.58

MTBE 33.8 2.76 x 10-4 3.01EP 33.8 3.35 x 10-4 2.44

This is a Research Summary passage, but we’ll use itto look at two question types:

D IThese passages are a lot like the one above, butthey focus more on data than experiments. Theyare meant to test your ability to read tables, graphs,charts, and scaerplots. Here’s a Data Interpretationquestion based on the sample passage:1. Based on the results of the experiments, which of

the following could one expect to be the change(in mm) in diameter of the orb for a 100 cc solu-

tion of 25% TL additive heated for 4 minutes?

A. 2.3 x 10-3 B. 2.3 x 10-4 C. 2.3 x 10-5 D. 2.3 x 10-6

Look, then leap. Don’t read these passagesin depth without looking at the questions—the pas-sages are too dense for you to understand every-thing at once. Just look things over to get an ideaof what’s going on, and when you look at the data,focus on spoing paerns. In Table 1 of our passage,it looks like the second number for each additive ishigher than the rst, in every column. That wouldindicate the variables are increasing together: asone goes up, so do the others. In Table 2, the paernis similar, even though the additives are listed outof order: for each element, the higher percentage

yields higher Change in Diameter (and percentagechange). Don’t spend forever on this, because youdon’t know what you’ll need later. Note what you

can see quickly, then skip straight to the questions.You’ll come back to the passage later.

Drop BILLs. The rst step on ACT Scienceis to Believe in yourself. The passages are verycomplicated and at least a few of them are probablyabout subjects you’ve never studied (like fuel ad-ditives, perhaps). That’s okay. All the informationyou need is in the passage. And there’s even moregood news: even though the passages have tons ofinformation, you don’t need to understand all of it.There will be a bunch of data you don’t need, andyou should Ignore the extra stu. So how do youknow what’s extra? First, Locate keywords in thequestion , then Look for the keywords in the pas-sage. The passages may be confusing, but they’revery well-labeled, and you don’t need to under-stand exactly what the question means to answer itcorrectly. Just gure out what keywords the ques-tion is asking about and nd them in the passage. Inthe example, it looks like the keywords are “change(in mm) in diameter,” “100 cc solution,” “25% TLadditive,” and “4 minutes.” The “100 cc solution”and “4 minutes” should point us to Experiment2, “change (in mm) in diameter” indicates we’relooking at the third column, and “TL additive”places us in the rst column. In the percentage col-umn, we have 16.9 and 33.8, but no 25. However,since 25 is about halfway between 16.9 and 33.8,we should probably look for an answer betweenthose two. The answer choices we’re given looklike they belong in the third column (which we al-ready noted we’d need), so look at the third columnvalues for 16.9% TL and 33.8% TL. They’re 2.31 x10-6 and 2.45 x 10-4 , respectively, so let’s see whichof the answer choices fall between those. Since allthe answer choices have “2.3 x 10 [something] , all weneed to look at is that exponent. We’re looking forsomething between -4 and -6, so -5 (in answer C)makes sense. And it’s that simple! The answer isC. Note that to get this, we didn’t need to knowwhat “TL” or “vulcanized rubber” or a “Bunsen

burner” was. In fact, if we had tried to gure thosethings out, it only would have slowed us down.

R SThese passages describe one or more experimentsand present the results. The questions can be about

reading the results (just like Data Interpretationquestions), or about the design of the experiments.Here’s an example based on the passage:2. Based on the results of the experiments, which is

the best conclusion about the result of increasingthe volume of fuel additive solutions heated?F. Increasing the volume of the solution increas-

es change in diameter of the orb.G. Increasing the volume of the solution decreas-

es change in diameter of the orb.H. Increasing the volume of the solution has no

eect on change in diameter of the orb.J. No conclusion can be drawn.

Declare your independents. As you mayknow from your school science class, science experi-

ments are dened by their variables: the indepen-dent variable (cause) and the dependent variable(eect). An independent variable is the thing theexperimenter is changing in order to see how thedependent variable is aected. If you understandthe variables, you understand the experiment. Toanswer the sample question, we need to look at Ex-periment 1 (Experiment 2 holds volume constant at100 cc, so it’s useless in guring out the eects ofchanging volume). We know that Change in Diam-eter is increasing in Experiment 1 (so that’s the de-pendent variable, or eect), but what’s the cause (in-dependent variable)? It could be Volume, which isincreasing, but it could also be Time Heated, whichis increasing. Since the experimenter is changingtwo dierent things in every test, it’s impossible

to know which is causing the Change in Diameter.With more than one independent variable, we can’tdraw any conclusions The answer is J

C VIn these passages, two or more scientistdiering opinions about a topic. Here’s anCaloric restriction (CR) is a type of diet worganism consumes signicantly fewerthan is normal. In many studies of a wide species of fungi and animals, caloric restrshown a tendency to improve age-relateand increase life expectancy. Two scientistthe ndings:

Scientist 1The positive eects of CR diets are an exhormesis, a known biological phenomen

exposure to a small dose of a toxin elicitssive response that overcompensates andleads to an improvement in overall healorganism. In this case, low blood glucocaused by CR puts an oxidative stress on tism, allowing agents called “free radicals”age cells. The increased abundance of freis detected as a threat, and the organism with enough defense not only to compethe increased free radicals, but to preservwell as to slow the entire aging process.

Scientist 2Organisms’ apparently positive responsean evolved response to famine. When an is exposed to famine, it stops allocating b

resources to reproduction and instead upits protective mechanisms. This is an await out the famine so the organism willreproduction later, when there is enoughnurture new ospring.

1. Which of the following potential ndinsupport Scientist 2’s view but not Scien

A. CR causes an increase in temporary in fruit y populations.

B. CR causes a decrease in temporary in fruit y populations.

C. Famine causes an increase in free rathe blood of mice.

D. Famine causes a decrease in free rathe blood of mice.

Use your Reading strategies.ing Viewpoints passages are like a blend ence and Reading tests, so use strategies fRead the passages APTly, and then elimswers one-by-one if you can nd anythinwith them. In the example, it’s easy to seeAPT reading) that Scientist 1 thinks famian increase in free radicals, to which thesponds with defense mechanisms that cative eects. That means we can eliminate Cit talks about an increase in free radicals antherefore support Scientist 1’s view (theasks which choice would not support Scview). Likewise, Scientist 2 believes CR cacrease in reproduction, so we can eliminatetalks about a decrease in infertility.

Compare, contrast, conjecturethe questions ask about similarities or d

between the viewpoints. As you read theprepare yourself for these questions byexplicit points of agreement and disagreedon’t stop there! Also note areas where points could agree, even if they don’t say itIn the example, the Scientists don’t actuallyabout free radicals: Scientist 2 never mentat all. It’s quite possible he agrees that CR increase in free radicals. Therefore, D doessarily support his view; it just contraditist 1’s. A, however, explicitly supports Scview because he thinks CR shuts down rtion, and it doesn’t support Scientist 1 at

he says nothing about reproduction). A is


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