ACT Tips and Strategies

Article Type: Panic Button

Approaching the ACT® with concrete strategies in mind will allow you to strut into the test room with more confidence than Amy Schumer with a brain injury. Feeling pretty on test day, though, probably won't get you very far. (Instead, you'll just get confused about whether that person next to you is checking you out or cheating off of you.) Feeling smart about how you take the test and study for it, on the other hand, could win you some valuable points with the ACT overlords. 

General DOs and DON'Ts for the ACT

Whether you've studied like crazy or just put in a few hours here and there, these are a few tiny, but mighty, things you can do right before test time to help you knock it out of the park. Keep these tips in mind as test day approaches.

DON'T be a zombie. 

No one likes skipping meals, unless it's Nana Shmoop's liver and onions, so why would you make that mistake on Test Day? We know you have to get up early on a Saturday, and we know you're probably going to be a little wired, but please, have a balanced breakfast before you leave. It doesn't need to be a twelve-course tasting menu of the finest French fare, but your brain needs it like your car needs gas. We want you to rip through this test like a winning NASCAR driver, not stall halfway through and spinout to the side of the track. Everyone shows up to watch the wrecks, but trust us: you don't want to be one of the cars on fire when college admissions is at stake.

Also, we've slogged through our fair share of early morning classes, so learn from our mistakes. Get good sleep starting two nights before the test. Seriously. Functioning on eight hours of sleep is so much nicer than functioning on any less. Your synapses will thank you when they're not sluggishly battling to fire off answers for you.

DON'T be a statue. 

This one is along the same lines as that "don't be a zombie" thing. You're limited to the one square foot that your test chair encompasses, so you won't be able to have a dance party or anything, but try to move around as much as you can. Shake out the limbs, stretch, whatever. Just do what you gotta do to keep the blood flowing without maiming or otherwise distracting the other test-takers. Maiming is frowned upon, for all you reckless pencil tappers.

The ACT® is a test of skill and knowledge that you already have. That part is great. However, that doesn't mean you should roll up out of bed on Test Day prepared with nothing but your morning breath. To truly conquer the exam and score as high as you possibly can, you need to know it inside and out, and to do that, you will assuredly need to practice. So...

DO practice, practice, practice. 

How does that saying go? Anything worth doing is worth doing right. Louis Armstrong wasn't just born awesome at jazz. Michael Jordan didn't just strap on tiny baby Nike sneakers and start dunking as soon as he could toddle (or did he?). If you want to be good at something, you have to practice. (Pssst. We can help.)

DO come prepared. 

What to bring:

• Your admission ticket—it's that thing you were supposed to print after you registered for the test. If you lost it, don't worry. You can log in to your account and print another one before the test. Bet you were scared for a minute, weren't you?
• A photo ID—preferably a driver's license or student ID
• No. 2 pencils—that one's pretty self-explanatory, we think… 
• A calculator—check the ACT website to make sure your model isn't prohibited 
• Remember cell phones are not allowed. Back in the cretaceous period before smart phones, people used "watches" to keep track of time. You might consider bringing one to help pace yourself.

DO mark up the test booklet. 

Take notes. We're not saying you should be writing love sonnets on the ACT exam. In fact, we're definitely saying that you should not do that. However, it is a fantastic idea to annotate the margins of the booklet with key facts, figures, ideas, or vocabulary that may come in handy. Basically, be an active reader. Actively reading a text is a good way to keep yourself focused and in tune, even when some of the inevitably dull passages turn up.

DO guess intelligently and with purpose. 

You're not penalized for guessing, but before you go crazy with that No. 2 pencil and tempt the hands of fate or good conscience, try to narrow down the possibilities. There are usually at least one or two answers that are definitely, no doubt about it, incontrovertibly wrong. They're "duds," if you will. If you can get rid of these dud choices like the vegetables you so skillfully avoided as a child, possibly leading to the dog's inexplicable obesity, you'll have a much better chance of guessing correctly.

DO keep calm and carry on. 

On Test Day, relaxation is key. We know that's easier said than done. There's actual strategy involved here, too. Take it easy and give yourself plenty of time to wake up, get ready, and meander (as opposed to rush maniacally) to the test center. 

Make sure your mode of transportation is reliable. We always take extra precaution with Papa Shmoop. Even though we remind him when we need to leave, he tends to lose track of time, and then yells at us to jump in the car when we're already five minutes late.

DO stay positive. 

We're not saying that you have to be Little Miss Sunshine. You already know that tests are not always the most thrilling of adventures, so we're not going to spit in your face and tell you it's raining. Still, if you focus on how torturous this test is going to be and how badly you're going to do on it, chances are your experience will be really torturous and horrible and you may do badly (self-fulfilling prophecy, anyone?). Belief affects behavior, simple as that. 

So, think positively. Leave little sticky notes all over your house reminding yourself of how awesome you are, give yourself a pep talk as you're driving to the exam, and even try smiling while you're taking it. 

How to do well on the ACT English Test

Do the grammar gods make you quake in your boots? The ACT is an equal opportunity crucible of stress—we've yet to meet somebody who feels equally confident about their skills in every section.

The ACT English Test is a multiple-choice exam, designed to measure some important writing and language skills. Technically, you've got 36 seconds to spend on each question, since there are 75 multiple-choice questions you'll have to answer in 45 minutes. Here's our suggested plan of attack for this section of the exam:

1. Answer the questions as you go. Don't read the entire passage before you answer the 15 questions associated with it. Chances are, a few of the paragraphs and some of the sentences might be scrambled, and you already know that the passage will be riddled with grammatical and stylistic errors. 
2. Re-read parts of the passage when you hit a Production of Writing or Knowledge of Language question. You'll have to familiarize yourself with these question types in order to know when to slow down and re-read. Shmoop's ACT Test Prep guide would be a great place to start for this, since we've done all the categorizing for you.
3. Be familiar with grammar constructs that are all but guaranteed to appear on the exam. Shmoop's grammar guide gives you loads of examples and a breakdown of most of the grammar rules you'll see on the test.
4. When in doubt, go with the shortest answer. The ACT is a huge cheapskate when it comes to words. When in doubt, go for bargain bin answer choices with the least words or the fewest commas. 

If it helps, think of the questions on the ACT English Test like an experiment or equation gone wrong—your job is to find and correct the errors. Our job is to ease all your worries before Test Day.

Common Concerns on the ACT English Test

If you could analyze data sets or graph parabolas all day long, but the idea of locating a comma splice makes you sweaty, we're here for you. Here are some common questions from people who think of themselves as strong on the other side of the brain.

Help! I'm not a great speller.

That's not actually a question, but that's beside the point. In any case, you're in luck! Spelling errors are not tested on the ACT English Test unless they're also grammatical errors—think than/then, its/it's, their/they're/there, etc. For more on those types of errors, check out our list of commonly confused words.

What if I don't recognize common grammatical errors? 

Our best advice here is to study up. Review any writing assignments you've done—especially the parts underlined in red—to identify the grammatical errors that slip into your writing most frequently. Then, head over to our Grammar Guide and read about how to correct those errors. Finally, run some practice drills to help sharpen your eagle eye for egregious English errors.

What if I get stuck on a question?

With only 45 minutes to cover 75 questions, that should break down to 36 seconds per question. Thankfully, these questions aren't as in-depth as the ones you'll see on the Math/Science tests. While solving for x or setting up an experiment both take some time, many questions on the English Test simply involve choosing the best word for a sentence or eliminating a comma splice.

If you find yourself hemming and hawing (read: taking more than 36 seconds) on a grammar or punctuation question, bubble in a random answer and mark it in your test booklet to come back to it after you've answered the remaining questions. Spending too much time agonizing over one answer might force you to rush and make careless mistakes on the rest of the test. In the grand scheme of things, it's much better to miss that one tough question and ace the rest.

With that said, there are some questions on the English exam that might take a little longer, particularly the ones where you're asked to identify the best place to add a sentence or determine whether the author should remove a certain paragraph. Good news: Since more than half of the questions are those super-quick grammar/punctuation ones, you'll be able to devote more attention to the difficult questions.

What if it seems like there's more than one right answer to a question? 

We applaud your scientific powers of observation: It's supposed to seem that way. The English Test is full of question stems asking for the best choice, the most effective transition, the clearest description, and so on. This caveat means that more than one choice may technically work in the sentence—but don't start calculating permutations on the answer sets just yet. Those keywords (best, most effective, clearest, etc.) will become your new best friend on this test. They serve as giant red flags yelling, "Hey! Don't just rush through and pick an okay answer for this question!"

Beyond that, these phrases also generally precede an important clue to the right answer. For instance, say a question asks you to choose the "clearest transition from Paragraph 2 to Paragraph 3." In this case, re-read each paragraph, have a DTR (define the relationship) chat with both paragraphs, then select the transition word that makes this relationship crystal clear.

Bonus Tip: If you've done all you can to eliminate answer choices and are still stuck, remember that one of the ACT's favorite things to test on is economy —not the stocks and bonds kind, but the precision and concision of writing short sentences. This "short but sweet" preference means that a good guessing strategy is to choose the shortest answer choice. Even if it's only shorter by one word or includes one less comma, the very fact that it's shorter is music to the parsimonious ears of the ACT graders.

What if I just don't do as well on this test as I do on the Math/Science Tests? 

First of all, don't count yourself out yet. With some targeted studying and efficient work on Test Day, your English score may end up surprising you. In the event that you really don't score as highly as you had hoped on the English test, try not to freak out about it! Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses. For every budding Einstein who's stressing about the English Test, there's a future Hemingway who's sweating bullets over the Math and Science tests.

Plus, keep in mind that the ACT uses composite scoring—so if your target score is a 26, that should be the average of all four of your test scores. Even if you strike out on the English Test, you still have a shot to achieve your target score by knocking it out of the park on the Math and Science tests.

How to do well on the ACT Math Test

Every good strategist knows how important math is. Genghis Khan, for instance, was very good at math, and he never lost a battle. Of course, his math was generally restricted to "There are more of us than there are of you." He was almost as good a battle strategist as we are testing strategists.

Solve the problem first.

Only after solving the problem should you locate your answer. Don't plug each option into the problem. This wastes time, which is already not on your side.

If you reach an impasse with a question and decide to plug in answer choices after all, don't go unarmed. Take this advice: always start in the middle. All numerical answer choices on the Math portion of the ACT are arranged from smallest to largest or vice versa. If you plug in the middle answer choice and the resulting value is too small or too large, you can rule out some of the other options right away. Of course, if you're really lucky, that first guess will be perfect.

Use all of the time provided.

You don't get extra points, a ribbon, or even candy for finishing early. On the other hand, you could earn some extra points by using all the time allowed.

Mark up that test book.

Draw pictures, simplify algebraic expressions, and generally do whatever you can to help visualize the problems. There's no need to do everything in your head. Again, there aren't any special awards for Cleanest Test Booklet. Don't treat this object an a special, anniversary edition, signed copy of Remembrance of Things Past. No one is going to be seeing your test booklet again, so put it to good use.

Know the basics inside and out.

The best way to save time is to know all the basic math techniques like the back of your hand. Solving arithmetic and linear equations in a single variable (e.g. 2x = 5x + 10) should be done quickly and accurately, so practice to build timing and confidence. Not only will this help avoid any silly little mistakes that can drag a score through the mud, but it'll also free up valuable time to work through the more difficult problems.

Spend less than one minute on each problem.

The exam is designed to give students just enough time, so don't waste any too early on. You're better off missing one problem you aren't quite sure how to solve than not having time to ace four problems on a topic you know well.

Answer all questions.

Even if you have no idea what a question means, give it your best shot; failing that, bubble something in. There's at least a chance of guessing correctly, and incorrect guesses aren't penalized.

How to do well on the ACT Reading Test

If your favorite part of Frankenstein was the mad scientist's freakishly specific recap of how he created his monster, you're probably more excited for the ACT Math and Science Tests than their ELA counterparts (English and Reading). There's no shame in that; everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.

However, you'll have to cobble together the fragments of your reading skills to succeed on the ACT Reading Test, and this undertaking might be a little stressful. That's why Shmoop is here to walk you, a self-declared "Math/Science person," through the ACT Reading Test. Read on for a display of our mind-reading abilities as we alleviate your biggest worries.

What are the questions on this test like? (a.k.a. Will I have to do any writing?) 

To answer your second question, there is absolutely no writing of any kind on the ACT Reading Test. In fact, the optional Writing Test is the only one that does include writing, so if your writing skills aren't quite up to par, breathe easy.

Beyond that, the Reading Test does not include vocabulary questions, so there's no need to memorize the meanings of 867 sesquipedalian words. Some questions ask you to interpret the specific meaning of a word in context, but the passage itself provides all the clues you need for those questions.

On that note, the test actually doesn't measure knowledge of any outside information, so unless one of the passages is from The Catcher in the Rye (we doubt it), you won't need to search your memory for the symbolism of Holden's red hunting hat.

Now that we all understand what the questions on this test don't cover, it seems like as good a time as any to talk about what they do. Questions on the ACT Reading Test fall into three categories: 

• Key Ideas and Details (55–60%): Like a scientist gathering evidence to support his hypothesis or a mathematician preparing an algebraic proof, this category is all about the big ideas in the text, how those ideas build on each other, and the evidence the author uses to back them up.
• Craft and Structure (25–30%): If you've ever written a lab report where you were asked what you could have done differently to improve your experiment, these questions should seem familiar. You'll put yourself in the author's shoes to analyze the text's structure, points of view, and word choices.
• Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (13–18%): We have a hypothesis of our own: This category might be your favorite if you're a math or science fanatic. These questions require students to use evidence to connect ideas between two different text, analyze how authors build their arguments, and evaluate the validity of their reasoning and evidence. Those all seem like pretty left-brained skills to us.

Simply by knowing the types of questions to expect on the ACT, you already have a leg up on your studying.

Common Concerns on the ACT Reading Test

You're not the only one sweating bullets at the thought of taking a timed reading test. We've conjured our very own Frankenstudent and done a thorough QA to help give voice to all your reading worries.

I don't enjoy reading novels. Am I going to hate this portion of the ACT?

We hope not! Only one of the four sections of the ACT Reading Test covers literary narratives—that's the style closest to a typical novel you'd read in your ELA class. The remaining passages are informational, focusing on humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. If you consider yourself a math/science person, those science passages will likely be right in your wheelhouse. At the very least, we doubt you’ll have to deal with metaphors and dialogue in those passages. Plus, if you do end up despising this portion of the ACT, at least it’ll be over in 35 minutes or less.

What if I'm a slow reader?

We cannot tell a lie: With just 35 minutes to read four passages and answer 40 questions, there's not a bunch of time to dilly-dally over every sentence. That said, knowing how to read the passage should help save you time. One of our favorite testing secrets is to write a few keywords in the margins next to each paragraph. This strategy creates a handy reference guide to where various ideas or events are located in the text.

That guide should pay off big time when you're answering questions and don't have time to re-read the entire passage. Beyond that, it should also give slow readers like yourself a boost of confidence. If you feel like you're reading too quickly and are starting to hyperventilate, those keywords can provide you with some reassurance that you've identified the most essential details in each paragraph.

Sometimes I over-analyze things. Is that a good quality on the ACT Reading Test?

Yes and no. It's awesome that your analytical brain is wired to dig deeper than the surface level, and that quality will probably come in handy when you're answering the big-picture questions about main ideas or comparing one passage with another.

On the flip side, the ACT is a much more straightforward test than the SAT. If the SAT is your friend who diplomatically compliments your “different” new hair color, the ACT is your blunt sister who tells you Katy Perry’s the only one who could pull off that shade of cotton candy pink.

Basically, if you're trying to decide between an answer that seems almost too obvious and an answer that could possibly be correct if you read the text a certain way, you're overthinking it. The "almost too obvious" choice is likely the right one, despite what every episode of Law & Order has conditioned people to believe.

Will I be at a disadvantage compared with my classmates who enjoy reading?

Nope. Honestly, the questions on the ACT Reading Test are fairly formulaic in nature, and we bet you're great with formulas. Get to know the categories of question types (above) so you can understand what to expect. Take a practice test to determine which question types are the most difficult for you, then run some drills to work on those weak points. With a little preparation, you should feel just as confident as that kid in biology class who finds a way to work in Hemingway quotes until the bell tolls.

How to do well on the ACT Science Test

Just like in a science lab, having a plan prevents disasters. In fact, having a plan can make some amazing things happen. These DOs and DON'Ts will help you make amazing things happen as you navigate through the ACT Science test. No safety goggles required.

Don't get caught up in fancy scientific jargon.

Put the questions and answers in your own words. After reading an ACT Science Reasoning passage, you might feel intimidated by the word Trichophyton. I don't speak Scientific Classifications! If you did speak "Science," you would know that it's not some race of mutant plants from the Horsehead Nebula; it's the fungus responsible for athlete's foot. Not so otherworldly after all, and certainly more approachable than something extraterrestrial, although we'd like to stay far, far away from it. Substituting "foot fungus" for "Trichophyton" in your own head while you read might be the trick you need to show that test who's boss.

A replica of the 10ish-foot pole with which we wouldn't touch Trichophyta. (Source)

Putting the question and the answers in layman's terms makes things seem a little easier, and helps you get past the fancy-pants science-y terms. Even the most complex science jargon seems easy if you know the context.

Get comfortable reading scientific passages.

We'll give you lots of practice here, but don't limit yourself to practice tests. Read, read, and read some more! Science is everywhere: magazines, newspapers, and the web. Science is also all over TV: in the news, in tons of shows, on C-SPAN, and so on. Our particular favorite is PBS' Nova series. That's some good stuff. In a nutshell, the more you expose yourself to science (not like that), the more comfortable you will be reading science passages on the test.

Conquer what you know first, and skip or guess if necessary.

Questions are often in order of increasing difficulty. If you're stuck on the last two questions of a passage and still haven't gotten to the final passage, it might be time to put those two questions aside and move on to the next section. You can mark these questions if you think you will have time to come back to them, or you can guess and put them out of your mind. You definitely don't want to run out of time, leaving some easy questions unanswered in later passages. Pace yourself. You should be spending about 5 minutes total on each passage.

Devote extra time to interpreting data.

Half the science test requires you to manipulate and analyze scientific data in all of its glorious forms. Get familiar with common tables, graphs, and diagrams. They'll pop up often, demanding you recognize data trends, reason mathematically, and otherwise interpret the information hidden within. If you're reading enough outside scientific material, you'll run into these forms of data representation organically. By spending a little extra time with different forms of data representation, you'll get the biggest return on investment for your study time.

Perform rough calculations.

If you have to bust out your math skills, just do a quick estimate calculation. You have four choices in front of you…no exact number needed! There are no calculators allowed on the ACT Science Reasoning test, so any math that you may need to do will be fairly simple. Don't be afraid to estimate if it will cut down on the time it takes you to solve the problem. You won't need to calculate the exact mathematical answer; a rough idea of the number should be enough for you to answer the question correctly.

Mark up your test.

The section is yours for 35 minutes, so don't be afraid to write all over it. Come up with your own method of circling important facts and information. This will make it much easier when you get to the questions because you won't have to read over the whole passage again to get the correct answer. Here are a few more specific tips.

• Circle the words you don’t know the meaning of
• Underline statements that you don’t totally understand
• Draw lines on graphs to mark important data points or trends
• Write the trends you spot right on the plots and tables
• Circle numbers in tables and plotted points that are out of whack with the rest of the data

Stay calm and focused.

This is a good strategy for the overall ACT exam, but it is particularly important for Science Reasoning. A lot will be thrown at you—data, plots, tables, arguments, drawings, experimental setups—and it's easy to get overwhelmed. Take your time, pay attention to the passage type (we'll get to this), and this test should be a cinch. Do some zen meditation if it helps. Whatever works for you is fine with us.

That said, guess! When it comes to problem solving and guessing, it is sometimes helpful to trust your gut. In most cases, your first instinct is correct. If you have time to go back over your answers, don't go crazy changing them (the exception is of course if you missed something really obvious, like the NOT in the question), and always answer every question because you will not be penalized for wrong answers.

How to do well on the ACT Writing Test

High school is all about new experiences—getting your driver's license, going to your first prom, learning how to study for an essay test. The last one may not be as exciting, but nailing a three-point turn won't help you get into college, so it all evens out. Here's our best advice to prepare for the Writing Test.

Don't just wing it. 

The ACT Writing Test requires a completely different kind of essay than most students have written before. The task of considering multiple perspectives isn't difficult, but it could throw you for a loop if you've never done it before. Practice writing a few essays in a similar style. On that note...

Recreate the test conditions as much as possible while practicing. 

Find a quiet place, set a timer for 40 minutes, and write as much as you can. Practicing timed writing should help you gauge just how long (or short) that deadline feels, which should prevent you from starting your second body paragraph at the five-minute warning on Test Day. We're sweating just thinking about that.

Ask others to help you identify weak areas in your writing.

 This might seem obvious, but it's hard to know what you're doing wrong if you don't know what you're doing wrong. Set up a meeting with your English teacher to review old essays and discuss how you could have improved them. If you've written any practice essays, your teacher could review those as well. She'd definitely have something to say about our redundancy in the first sentence of this tip.

Read anything and everything.

The best way to become a better writer is to read. We're not just talking about the books you're assigned in English class or the latest issue of your favorite magazine (although both are good places to start). For a writing style that's a little closer to what you'll actually see on the ACT Writing Test, check out the editorial sections of newspapers or well-known essay publications like The Atlantic or The New Yorker. Remember that you don't have to agree with the authors' views to study how they construct their arguments.

Test Day Tips for the ACT Writing Test

We love studying more than the average bear (a notorious procrastinator), but we would never leave our Shmoopers hanging on Test Day. These tips should help you write your way to ACT glory.

DON'T get hung up on brainstorming a perfect introduction before you even know what you want to say. 

Read the prompt, reflect on the three perspectives, then start organizing your body paragraphs first. We can't make any promises, but hopefully as you start chipping away at the topic, a great introduction will reveal itself like Michelangelo's David emerging from the marble.

Create a rough outline.

Forty minutes isn't a ton of time, so you won't be able to draw up a perfectly detailed, color-coded outline—wait, are we the only ones who do that? In any case, the ACT provides (optional, non-graded) planning questions to help students organize their thoughts. Take just a few of those precious minutes to jot down key phrases to help you stay on track. It'll pay off in the long run, we promise.

Find the middle ground.

The sample perspectives are included on this test because they're all valid, defensible views that somebody might have on the topic. Rather than fully agreeing with any single perspective, find a unique caveat or clarification somewhere in the middle—it'll make your essay stand out like a diamond in the rough and send your test graders cartwheeling down the hallways.

Address potential counterarguments.

Think about how others might disagree with your perspective—and leave space in your essay to respond to those potential disagreements. Commit this formula to memory: "While some people may believe (counterargument), (reason why the counterargument is not as strong as your own argument)." Addressing counterarguments is one of the most effective ways to show off your analytical skills.

Read your entire essay to yourself (quietly) if you have time.

While the test proctors would frown upon doing this in a voice loud enough for anyone else to hear, we highly recommend whisper-reading your essay once it's finished. Sometimes our brains are just too amazing for their own good, so if you've accidentally repeated yourself or forgotten a word in the middle of a sentence while writing, your brain will actually adjust what it sees on the page to make more sense. It's a neat trick, but it could lead to careless errors. By speaking the words you've written, you force your brain to slow down and identify any awkward phrases or grammar no-nos.

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