Your ACT Roa Roadma dmap p (800) 501-Prep | TopT TopTestPrep.com estPrep.com T T •
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Four subjects: English, Math, Reading, and Science, plus an optional essay. You should sit for the 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 Tak es about four hours total. Calculators are allowed only on the Math Test. The most challenging aspect of the ACT is tim-
Maximize the eectiveness of your ACT prep: Live the strategic life. We give you strat-
gegies for the ACT, but use them elsewhere too. Be when you read the Internet. Notice grammati n cal errors in conversations. Use UnWrAP in your i math class. Et cetera. It’s great practice for the test, yand the strategies will help with your other work. read! To help on the Reading and Eng dlish Heed: sections, read high-quality material on your own. Choose articles that interest you from well u t wrien , andpublications like , and read , them with Syour strategies. The best way to learn reading and APT
Times
The Economist New York Wall Street Journal
On each ACT Reading Test, there are ten questions about each of four passages, one passage each on Prose Fiction, Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science. Here’s a sample passage: It was early in the fall of 1988, and the spirits of the just-graduated class hadn’t quite left Newell and everyone was wondering how th e heck we’d be any good that year. I was fresh from my sophomore year on the third boat, and somewhat unsure of my future on the team: I thought I might have it in me to 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 (several still trained daily, unable to give up the sport “cold turkey”) and we juniors, as whole, were a
sunlight, having spent the previous year in gdirect the shadow of the towering oaks and elms. I felt nparticularly alienated, having languished for much i of the previous spring with a rib injury. I recall one day in particular when Coach, after a dlackluster practice on the water, had the crews do additional 20-minute stint on the rowing ma aanchines at a moderate-to-hard intensity. Through eno planning of my own—I suspect that machine space was limited because of the pesky freshmen, R but can’t quite remember—I ended up doing the
group of young saplings being exposed to our rst
work on a machine next to Oswald’s. Oswald, who was well-known to be part-man, part-cheetah, partmonster, completed the distance at a pace I would
have found uerly exhausting, and I recall clearly
that he wasn’t even breathing hard at the end. I also wasn’t breathing very hard, but only because I did not go very hard. Afterward Oswald told me, “You have to get better.” And he was right—I did need to get beer. The greats were gone and it was up to the mere mortals
to carry the team, and I for the rst time realized
ing—you have to be fast to nish all the questions. •
You need to register for the ACT about a month in advance. You You can do it online at act.org.
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You get a score between 1 and 36 in each subject. These are averaged to produce a total, also be-
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tween 1 and 36. Higher is beer. •
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Your test is scored automatically, not by hand, so make sure you mark your answer sheet as instructed. 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-
Your essay is scored on a 1-6 scale by two graders. The scores are added for a total between 2 and 12, which is factored into your English/Writing score. As your score gets higher, it gets harder to improve: going from a 34 to a 36 takes more work than going from a 20 to a 22.
T D T • • • •
Bring a calculator, two pencils, and a snack. Get plenty of sleep the night before.
Have a lile caeine, but not too much.
Since there’s no guessing penalty, don’t leave any questions blank.
grammar is to read good writing on your own.
once you go back to normal, it’ll seem easy.
Deed before speed. There are two things you have to be able to do on the ACT: answer the questions correctly and answer them quickly quickly.. As you
Keep it real. Also when you’re practicing, use the most authentic con ditions possible. You’ll You’ll be taking the real test at 9 on a Saturday, so why not
before you worry about going fast. If you learn to answer the questions correctly, it’s easy to get faster. If you try to go fast before you understand everything, you’ll end up confused.
lit place with a good writing surface, and if you’re timing yourself be strict about it. Don’t take breaks during sections or let in any distractions.
Pick up the pace. Once you master the ma-
dents make on the ACT is thinking it’s harder than it is. The questions are designed for high schoolers, so you can do all of them! Don’t ever assume a problem is too hard for you before you try it.
study, make sure you’re geing the questions right
terial, speed up by taking sections in less than the
alloed time. Try a 35-minute section in 30 minutes, or even 25. It’s like running with ankle weights on: for a lot, but he could not carry us all the way to
the nish line. I did get beer. The rest of the season is history
now, and I have often since suspected that without the sometimes not-so-gentle prodding from Oswald, we would not have reached the heights we did that year. Oswald went on to his own success, as we all know, but forget the astounding rowing machine 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 inspires those around him. It certainly inspired me. Normally this passage would have ten corresponding 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 the passage 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. view. In the example, what are the author’s feelings toward Oswald? Toward the freshmen? Toward rowing? When you’re done, take a second to give the passage your own Title that captures the passage’s main idea and aitude. A good title for the example
might be “Inspiration from Oswald.” Learn to read passages thoroughly before you worry about reading them fast or answering the questions.
Fake it till you make it. Students do much beer on passages they’re interested interested in, so try your
failure; that through my eorts, others could be
best to make yourself interested in each passage. When you’re not interested, it’s harder to pay attention, and you’ll miss the details you need to an-
inspired or discouraged; that, in a strange lookingthrough-the-wrong-end-of-a-telescope way, I was the team. We had Oswald, yes, and that counted
paragraph is boring background info, and it’s easy to zone out until the author moves to a specic anec -
that I played a direct role in the team’s success or
lation depends on the specic test. •
swer the questions. In the sample passage, the rst
practice then too? For all practice, nd a quiet, well-
Fear no test! One of the biggest mistakes stu-
dote in the second paragraph. This is common: ACT passages often start out boring to make it harder for you to focus. But losing interest, even for a few seconds, will make you miss information you’ll need later.
Be a hater. Eliminate answers that are too extreme (using words like “always,” “never,” “none,” etc.), too specic (referring to details not in the pas sage or not relevant to the question), or erroneous. Remember: all the answer choices are designed to
sound right if you’ you’re re not paying aention to details,
but these questions aren’t subjective: every answer except the right one is objectively wrong, so look for wrong answers—they often stand out more than right ones. In the example, we can easily eliminate choice C because Oswald is not lazy (“what I ad-
mire most about Oswald is his uer dedication”)
and choice D because the passage says nothing about Oswald being good-humored.
Read, don’t think. Many students run into trouble on Reading questions because they allow themselves to think about the plausibility of each answer choice. This is bad! All of the answer choices are designed to sound plausible sound plausible;; what you need is an answer choice that is backed up by words in the passage. Use only the information in the passage and nothing else. Don’t jump to conclusions; don’t make connections; don’t bring in any background knowledge. For the duration of the Reading test, your world has to shrink to the size of the passage. In the example, A sounds like it could work: Oswald is denitely inspiring, and given his brusque ai tude and personal success, he could well be selsh.
However, there’s no evidence in the passage that
he’s selsh—we’d have to infer it. Therefore, it’s
wrong. That leaves B as our only choice and indeed, Oswald is harsh (“You have to get beer”) and help ful (“without…Oswald, we would not have reached the heights we did”). B is correct.
Authors: Morgan Henderson, Jack Byers, Ross Blankenship | Designer: Jack Byers
O There are 60 Math questions on the ACT, but it’s not as 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 both leave their houses at 5:10 and walk due north up the street. Meg is walking 40 meters per minute and Tom is walking 30 30 meters per minute. If Tom’s house is 400 meters north of Meg’s, at what time will 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 build yourself an answer. Here’s how:
Don’t Be a Hero. The ACT lets you have a calculator on the Math Test. Use it! You can probably solve most of the problems with out it, but why make things harder on yourself? Calculators are faster and more accurate than human brains. Even yours. UnWrAP. This is a four-step process that will take you through any math problem, especially if you don’t now how to get started. Step 1: Underline the prompt. What’s the question actually asking for? In our problem, we would underline “at what time will Meg pass Tom?” Step 2: Write out relevant formulas. If you already know how to do the problem, go for it. If you’re hav-
ing trouble geing started, think of it this way: in
Math problems, the test gives you some information
and asks for other information. Sometimes nding
h t a M
this other information is straightforward, but not always. If you’re stuck, start writing out everything you know about the problem and look for how it
might t together to give you the information you underlined. For the example, we could write out distance Speed = time SpeedMeg = 40 SpeedTom = 30 DistanceTom’s house to Meg’s = 400
Step 3: Assemble equations. Once you’ve wrien out everything you know, think about what might
t 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 other the distance between them will be 0. We know when they start, the distance between them is 400, and we know 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 starting point, it should be easy to come up with formulas for their positions at any time t minutes past 5:10: DistanceMeg from Meg’s house = 40t 40t DistanceTom from Meg’s house = 400 + 30t 30 t
Now to nd the distance between them, we can just subtract the equations:
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 I This includes things like percentages, fractions, sequences, 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, and 22 points three times. What is the MINIMUM num ber of points he must score in the seventh game to average at least 20 points per game for the season? A. 10 B. 14 C. 15 Let’s UnWrAP it:
D. 20
E. 24
Underline: “MINIMUM number of points he must score in the seventh game to average at least 20 points per game for the season.”
(7 - 5) (0 - 4) -1 SlopeB = SlopeA SlopeA =
Plug in and solve: We’ve got everything we need, so let’s plug it in:
(7 - 5) = (0 - 4) -1 SlopeB = = SlopeA SlopeA =
2 = - / -4 -1 - / = 2
The answer is E.
G & T These questions are about shapes or measuring space and include trigonometry, but don’t worry: only 4 of the 60 problems on any given ACT Math Test involve trig. Here’s an example: D 5 E B
Write out relevant formulas: Let’s write out the formula for an average, plus Jeremy’s scores so far: sum of numbers number of numbers Jeremy’s scores so far: 10, 20, 20, 22, 22, 22 Average =
Assemble equations: Now we put everything together so we can solve, but let’s remember what we’re solving for: we don’t need his current average; we need to know what he needs in the seventh game 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 just as easy, but if we were working with more data it would make more sense to use multiplication. Plug in and solve: Now we just plug in 20 as the average and solve for x:
10 + 20 + 20 + 22 +22 +22 + x 7 multiply both sides by 7 140 = 10 + 20 + 20 + 22 + 22 + 22 + x use a calculator to combine terms 140 = 126 + x subtract 126 from both sides x = 24 20 =
So the correct answer is E.
G & A II Strangely enough, this includes problems about graphing 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 y)) coordinate plane and has a y a y-intercept -intercept of 7. If Line B is perpendicular to A, what is B’s slope? A. -/
B. -/
C. /
D. /
E. 2
Time to UnWrAP UnWrAP:: Underline: “B’s slope.”
A
58° 10
C
In the gure above, lengths are given in inches. Point B is the intersection of lines AE and CD, and DC has length of approximately 24 inches. What is the approximate length, in inches, of AB? A. 16.76
B. 17
C. 17.51
D. 18
E. 18.87
Let’s get UnWrAP UnWrAPin’: in’: Underline: “approximate length, in inches, of AB.”
Write out relevant formulas: There’s a lot that could be helpful here. Let’s write it all out and see
what ts together:
A = 58°, LengthAC = 10, LengthDE = 5, LengthDC = 24 cos x =
LengthAdjacent Side LengthHypotenuse
Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2 a b c Similar Triangles: 1 = 1 = 1 a2 b2 c2 Opposite angles at the intersection of two lines are congruent. Triangles with two congruent angles are similar. Assemble equations: With all this information, there are actually two ways to do this problem: one that involves trigonometry, and one that doesn’t.
Let’s do the trig-free method rst: right away, we
can see that because CD is a straight line int ersected by AE, DBE = ABC, and since ACB = 90 = BDE , the triangles have two congruent angles, meaning they’re similar. So: AB BC AC 10 = = = =2 BE BD DE 5
BC / 2 = BD
Also keep in mind CD = BC + BD And we’ll need AB, so note that AB2 = BC2 + AC2 AB = √BC2 + AC2 = √BC2 + 102 = √BC2 + 100
Plug in and solve: So to nd AB, we need BC. Let’s
Write out relevant formulas:
use our knowledge of CD: CD = 24 = BC + BD = BC + BC / 2 24 = 3 (BC) / 2 48 = 3 (BC)
Step 4: Plug in and solve. Now that we have our
y1 - y2 x1 - x2 Perpendicular lines’ slopes are negative reciprocals.
and solve. For the example, we just need to plug in 0 for DistanceMeg to Tom and solve for t:
Point of y of y-intercept -intercept = (0, y (0, y-intercept) -intercept) y-interceptA = 7 y-intercept Known point on A: (4, 5)
DMT = 0 = 400 - 10 t subtract 400 from both sides -10tt = -400 -10 divide both sides by -10 t = 40
Assemble equations: Now we should have two points on A, which will give us its slope, which we can use to nd B’s slope:
Using trig, we could have taken a shortcut: Since we know BAC = 58° and the adjacent side AC = 10, we have cos (58°) = 10 / AB AB (cos (58°)) = 10 AB = 10 / (cos (58°)) = 18.87 (Use a calculator and make sure it’s in degree mode!)
Point of y of y-intercept -interceptA = (0, 7)
Either way, the answer is E.
DistanceTom from Meg’s house - DistanceMeg from Meg’s house = DistanceMeg to Tom = 400 + 30t 30 t - 40t 40t = 400 - 10t 10 t
plan of aack, we can plug in the relevant numbers
Remember, t is minutes past 5:10, so to get our an-
Slope =
combine terms BC = 16
AB = √BC2 + 100 = √162 + 100 = √256 + 100 = √356 = 18.87
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O The ACT English Test contains 5 essays that need editing and 75 questions about them. In one common format, part of a passage is underlined and you’re given 4 choices for what should go in the underlined portion. Here’s part of a sample passage: The author, and essayist David Foster Wallace 1
popularized a new use for endnotes with his book Infnite Jest. Jest. Wallace put in the extensive endnotes to
force readers to ip bac k and forth constantly be2
tween what they were reading and the notes. He 2
meant to interrupt the reading experience to make a point about the constant interruptions in our lives. The ACT English Test has questions in the following two categories (but don’t waste time trying to categorize each question during the test):
U & M
These questions ask about the rules of wrien Eng lish, focusing on things like grammar, word choice, and punctuation. They usually ask about only a small part of a single sentence. Here’s an example: 1. A. NO CHANGE B. author and essayist C. author, who was also an essayist D. author, and the essayist
h s i l g n E
See no evil; hear the evil. Whether you know it or not, you have the rules of English grammar in your head. Maybe you can’t explain the difference between a participle and a preterite verb, but you can hear when one is used incorrectly. Try to hear each sentence in your head; don’t just scan for mistakes. Use your ears, not your eyes. In Example 1, nothing looks particularly wrong, but read it aloud—it sounds wrong, doesn’t it? The pause created by the comma after “author” is unnatural. It makes it sound like there are two distinct people: “the author” and “essayist David Foster Wallace.” Keep it in context. Most of the answer choices are designed to look good on their own; you need more context to gure out which one is correct.
Re-read the whole sentence with each choice in context, 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 senten ce, though, we can make some eliminations: in C we have “The author, who was also an essayist David Foster Wallace popular-
ized ....” This xes the original error but sounds like
it should have a comma after “essayist”—it’s almost impossible to read the sentence without pausing there. D reads “The author, and the essayist David The ACT includes an optional essay. You get 30 minutes to write up to four pages. Here’s an example: Some school districts have switched from having one long summer break to year-round school with many shorter breaks of a few weeks each. Some educators say this system keeps academic material fresher for students as they don’t have long breaks to forget what they’ve learned. Others argue that a more traditional summer break provides an opportunity for students to relax and embark on longterm projects outside school, such as research or career exploration. In your opinion, should schools have short breaks throughout the year, or should they have one long break over the summer?
g n i t i r W
In your essay, take a position on this question. You may write about either one of the two points of
view given, or you may present a dierent point of view on this question. Use specic reasons and examples to support your position.
Follow the recipe. Here’s the recipe to bake yourself a delicious, nutritious, high-scoring essay: 1 Answer, rephrased. The essay prompt always has
Foster Wallace popularized ....” This has exactly the same problem as the original, and can therefore be eliminated. When we put B in context, we get “The author and essayist David Foster Wallace popular-
ized ....” This xes the original problem and sounds perfectly natural. B is correct.
R S
These 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 book harder to sell. H. unlike earlier essayists who became authors.
J. very selectively, keeping only those he felt were absolutely necessary.
Flow like Flo-Rida. A lot of these questions are about how sentences work together, so
focus on making them ow well. The meaning and
tone of a sentence should be related to the meaning and tone of surrounding sentences. In Example 2, the preceeding sentence is about endnotes and the following one is about an inter rupted reading experience, so our sentence needs to connect endnotes to an interrupted reading experience. Answers G, H, and J fail to do this, but the original succeeds: ip ping back and forth constantly seems like quite an interruption. Don’t be afraid to pick NO CHANGE; it’s often correct. The answer is F.
T T E W ACT W S The same errors come up year after year on the ACT. Watch out for these ten: Pithy Title Example Explanation The numbers Al’s group of friends play “Al’s group of friends,” th ough it includes many people, is one don’t add up. soccer. thing, so the verb should be “plays.” Verbs must match sub jects and pronouns must match nouns. What you Al, along with his team- Every sentence needs a subject with a verb. Here, “Al” is the thinking? mates, who are playing subject, but there’s no verb modifying “Al,” only dependent clauses. If the sentence is about Al, he had beer do something. soccer. Don’t tread Our friends invited Al This should be “Al and me.” A simple trick to test for this: on “I.” and I to play soccer. when a pronoun is part of a list, take out the rest of the list to see if it’s the right pronoun: you’d never say they “invited I to play soccer,” so you can’t say they “invited Al and I.” Who’s on Al knows Dan has a game Whose calendar—Al’s or Dan’s? If a sentence could be interrst? today because it’s on his preted more than one way, it’s ambiguous and needs to be calendar. edited. Does your Al is injured, but he can’t “But” should be “so.” Conjunctions need to reect the aitude of the sentence. Here, the rst part is the cause and the second conjunction play soccer today. function? part is the eect, so “so” is beer than “but.” Commas and Al’s soccer skills, are sure The rst comma should be deleted because it’s between the semicolons to catch all the scout’s subject (“Al’s soccer skills”) and verb (“are”), where commas and apostro- eyes, he has tons of po- shouldn’t be. “Scout’s eyes” should be “scouts’ eyes,” because phes, oh my! tential. there is more than one scout, so the apostrophe must come after the s. The second comma needs to be a semicolon, because it has complete sentences on both sides. All three of these are common errors on the ACT. Now misOn his way to the match, Tricky one: when the rst half of the sentence refers to a specif placed, you a bus nearly hit Al. ic word (in this case, “Al”), “Al”), the second half needs to begin with will never that word. Since “Al” is the thing “on his way to the match,”
nd your modier.
“Al” needs to be the rst word after the comma: “On his way
to the match, Al nearly got hit by a bus.” Be good; do Al handles the ball very “Skillful” should be “skillfully.” Adverbs (usually ending in well. skillful. “-ly”) modify verbs and adjectives; adjectives modify nouns. Brevity is the Al is fast and swift with “Swift” should be deleted because it means the same thing as “fast” and is therefore unnecessary. Shorter is beer. soul of wit. the ball at his feet. You’ve got Al’s soccer skills are “Expanding” should be “improving.” His skills aren’t geing bigger (“expanding”); they’re geing beer (“improving”). the wrong expanding every day. Mind the exact denitions of words on the ACT. word. a question, and there’s no right or wrong answer, but you must pick a side. Be clear about your position, but don’t restate the question. For the example, try something like “Though it may make it
notes and always know what you’re going to say next. Here’s one for the example: Intr In tro. o.
Long Lo ng bre break akss all allow ow mor moree lear learni ning ng..
dicult for students to retain everything they’ve
Ex. 1
Summer job.
learned in school, a traditional summer break provides an invaluable opportunity for learning outside 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 learned more about the world at my job last summer than in many of my classes last year.” Down-to-Earth
Ex.. 2 Ex
My fr frie iend nd’s ’s su summ mmer er in Eu Euro rope pe ma made de her a beer artist and was more help ful than art class.
Ex.. 3 Ex
Acad Ac adem emic ic ca camp mpss le lett stu stude dent ntss lea learn rn
Concl Co ncl..
Long Lo ng bre break ak is is an opp oppor ortu tuni nity ty for for lear learnning beyond what’s possible in school.
but prey convincing, right? Keep your examples
simple and be sure to connect them back to your answer: “Having a long summer break allowed me to learn life lessons far more important than
the academic details I may have forgoen.”
1 conclusion. Restate your thesis , mention your examples, rephrase everything. It’s that easy.
Assemble the ingredients rst. You get 30 minutes for the essay. Take the rst 5 to choose an answer and make an outline. It doesn’t have to
about subjects not oered in schools.
Add some avor. Three more quick tips to increase your score easily: Throw in fancy vocabulary words. • •
•
Use transitions to make the last and rst sentences of each paragraph ow well. Vary your sentence structure and length.
Make it a meal. Write as much as you can. Longer ACT essays get higher grades.
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O The ACT Science Test consists of seven passages: three Data Interpretation passages, three Research Summaries, and one Conicting Viewpoints pas sage. Everything you need to know to answer the questions is in the passages; you don’t need any prior knowledge. Here’s a sample passage: The following experiments were performed to investigate the expansion of gasoline additives when
subject to dierent levels of heat. The additives
tetraethyl lead (TL), methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), and ethyl propylaniline (EP) in various concentrations were all tested. Experiment 1 A student heated solutions of fuel additives in varying volumes for varying lengths of time. The solutions consisted of 16.9% additive and 83.1% gasoline. Gas vapors from the solutions were piped through a length of tubing into a vulcanized rubber orb, and the change in diameter of the orb was then measured. The results are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Additive
Volume (cc)
Time Heated (s)
Change in Diameter (mm)
Change in Diameter (%)
TL TL MTBE MTBE EP EP
60 80 60 80 60 80
120 240 120 240 120 240
8.42 x 10 -7 1.73 x 10 -6 6.32 x 10 -8 9.34 x 10 -7 2.47 x 10 -6 3.23 x 10 -6
.16 .20 .04 .29 .72 .76
Experiment 2 A student heated 100 cc solutions of fuel with different concentrations of additives in a Buchner
over a Bunsen burner, and the resulting gas eask vapor was piped through a length of tubing into a cvulcanized rubber orb after 4 minutes of heating. change in diameter was subsequently mea nThe sured, and the results are shown in Table 2. e Table 2 i c .21 S MTTLBE 1166..99 22..3816 xx 1100 .33 Addi Ad diti tive ve % Add Added ed
Change in Diameter (mm)
Change in Diameter (%)
-6 -6
EP TL MTBE EP
16.9 33.8 33.8 33.8
3.35 x 10 -6 2.45 x 10 -4 2.76 x 10 -4 3.35 x 10 -4
.78 2.58 3.01 2.44
This is a Research Summary passage, but we’ll use it to look at two question types:
D I These passages are a lot like the one above, but they focus more on data than experiments. They are meant to test your ability to read tables, graphs,
charts, and scaerplots. Here’s a Data Interpretation
question 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 solution 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
can see quickly, then skip straight to the questions. You’ll You’ ll come back to the passage later.
Drop BILLs. The rst step on ACT Science is to Believe in yourself. yourself. The passages are very complicated and at least a few of them are probably about subjects you’ve never studied (like fuel additives, perhaps). That’s okay. All the information you need is in the passage. And there’s even more good news: even though the passages have tons of information, you don’t need to understand all of it. There will be a bunch of data you don’t need, and you should Ignore the extra stu. stu. So how do you know what’s extra? First, Locate keywords in the question , then Look for the keywords in the passage. The passages may be confusing, but they’re very well-labeled, and you don’t need to understand exactly what the question means to answer it correctly. Just gure out what keywords the ques -
tion is asking about and nd them in the passage. In
the example, it looks like the keywords are “change (in mm) in diameter,” “100 cc solution,” “25% TL additive,” and “4 minutes.” The “100 cc solution” and “4 minutes” should point us to Experiment 2, “change (in mm) in diameter” indicates we’re looking 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 between those two. The answer choices we’re given look like they belong in the third column (which we already noted we’d need), so look at the third column values for 16.9% TL and 33.8% TL. They’re 2.31 x 10-6 and 2.45 x 10 -4 , respectively, so let’s see which of the answer choices fall between those. Since all the answer choices have “2.3 x 10 [something] , all we need to look at is that exponent. We’re looking for something between -4 and -6, so -5 (in answer C) makes sense. And it’s that simple! The answer is C. Note that to get this, we didn’t need to know what “TL” or “vulcanized rubber” or a “Bunsen
burner” was. In fact, if we had tried to gure those
things out, it only would have slowed us down.
R S These passages describe one or more experiments and present the results. The questions can be about reading the results (just like Data Interpretation questions), 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 increasing the volume of fuel additive solutions heated? F. Increasing the volume of the solution increases change in diameter of the orb. G. Increasing the volume of the solution decreases 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 may know from your school science class, science experiments are dened by their variables: the indepen dent variable (cause) and the dependent variable (eect). An independent variable is the thing the
Look, then leap. Don’t read these passages
experimenter is changing in order to see how the
in depth without looking at the questions—the passages are too dense for you to understand everything at once. Just look things over to get an idea of what’s going on, and when you look at the data,
the variables, you understand the experiment. To answer the sample question, we need to look at Experiment 1 (Experiment 2 holds volume constant at
focus on spoing paerns. In Table 1 of our passage,
it looks like the second number for each additive is
higher than the rst, in every column. That would
indicate the variables are increasing together: as
one goes up, so do the others. In Table 2, the paern
is similar, even though the additives are listed out of order: for each element, the higher percentage yields higher Change in Diameter (and percentage change). Don’t spend forever on this, because you don’t know what you’ll need later. Note what you
dependent variable is aected. If you understand
100 cc, so it’s useless in guring out the eects of
changing volume). We know that Change in Diameter is increasing in Experiment 1 (so that’s the dependent variable, variable, or eect), but what’s the cause (in dependent variable)? It could be Volume, which is increasing, but it could also be Time Heated, which is increasing. Since the experimenter is changing
two 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’t
C V In these passages, two or more scientists express
diering opinions about a topic. Here’s an example: Caloric restriction (CR) is a type of diet where an
organism consumes signicantly fewer calories
than is normal. In many studies of a wide variety of species of fungi and animals, caloric restriction has shown a tendency to improve age-related health and increase life expectancy. Two scientists explain
the ndings: Scientist 1
The positive eects of CR diets are an example of hormesis, a known biological phenomenon where exposure to a small dose of a toxin elicits a defensive response that overcompensates and actually leads to an improvement in overall health of the organism. In this case, low blood glucose levels caused by CR puts an oxidative stress on the organism, allowing agents called “free radicals” to damage cells. The increased abundance of free radicals is detected as a threat, and the organism responds with enough defense not only to compensate for the increased free radicals, but to preserve cells so well as to slow the entire aging process. Scientist 2 Organisms’ apparently positive response to CR is an evolved response to famine. When an organism is exposed to famine, it stops allocating biological resources to reproduction and instead upregulates
its protective mechanisms. This is an aempt to wait out the famine so the organism will be t for
reproduction later, when there is enough food to
nurture new ospring.
1. Which of the following potential ndings would support Scientist 2’s view but not Scientist 1’s? A. CR causes an increase in temporary infertility
in fruit y populations.
B. CR causes a decrease in temporary infertility
in fruit y populations.
C. Famine causes an increase in free radicals in the blood of mice. D. Famine causes a decrease in free radicals in the blood of mice.
Use your Reading strategies. Conicting Viewpoints passages are like a blend of the Science and Reading tests, so use strategies from both. Read the passages APTly, and then eliminate answers one-by-one if you can nd anything wrong
with them. In the example, it’s easy to see (after an APT reading) that Scientist 1 thinks famine causes an increase in free radicals, to which the body responds with defense mechanisms that cause posi-
tive eects. That means we can eliminate C, because
it talks about an increase in free radicals and would therefore support Scientist 1’s view (the question asks which choice would not support Scientist 1’s view). Likewise, Scientist 2 believes CR causes a decrease in reproduction, so we can eliminate B, which talks about a decrease in infertility.
Compare, contrast, conjecture. Most of the questions ask about similarities or dierences between the viewpoints. As you read the passage, prepare yourself for these questions by noticing explicit points of agreement and disagreement. But don’t stop there! Also note areas where the viewpoints could agree, even if they don’t say it outright. In the example, the Scientists don’t actually disagree about free radicals: Scientist 2 never mentions them at all. It’s quite possible he agrees that CR causes an increase in free radicals. Therefore, D doesn’t necessarily support his view; it just contradicts Scientist 1’s. A, however, explicitly supports Scientist 2’s view because he thinks CR shuts down reproduction, and it doesn’t support Scientist 1 at all (since he says nothing about reproduction). A is correct.
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