Only 3 days left to study for Saturday's ACT. Plan well. Work smart. Relax.
Tuesday: Select the section in which you predict you will have the most trouble. Review your past study materials and remind yourself of the strategies that you have discovered for doing your best work. Go over questions or problems that you missed before and ensure that you could select correct answers now. Use a note card to jot down any vocabulary, formulas, or steps that you want to brush up on at the last minute. Even if you never use it, you will benefit from making the list in terms of both memory and self-confidence.
Wednesday: Review the section in which you predict you will receive your highest score. Again look over your past study materials. Use this section to remind yourself how successful you can be when you put your mind to it. Look over your note card from yesterday with the confidence that you can achieve an outstanding score even on your weakest section.
Thursday: Only two more sections to review. Remind yourself of the strategies that resulted in your greatest success. Congratulate yourself on studying smart and prepare to reap the reward of a terrific ACT score.
Showing posts with label STRATEGIES. Show all posts
Showing posts with label STRATEGIES. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
QUICK REVIEW OF ACT SCIENCE REASONING
Some students fret over the Science Reasoning section because the name seems to imply that we need to know a lot about current science theory in order to make "reasonable" conjectures. On the contrary, you should be glad to know that, aside from a very few terms, all of the information that you need in order to find correct answers is presented within the data sets themselves.
Your tasks for this 40 question section are threefold:
1) The first 2 questions in any group are DIRECT, asking whether you can read a chart or a graph or find a discrete piece of data within a paragraph. Your response should be a confident, "Sure."
Identify the key elements from the question, like a direction to look at a specific exhibit. Locate the labels of each axis on a graph or the column and row headings of a chart. Find the appropriate data and match it with the available alternatives.
Zero errors from this question type will give you a 14 point head start toward an average or higher score.
2) The next question or two are INDIRECT, asking how 2 or more snippets of data are related. You already know how to find the statistics, so now you just need to compare them. When one goes up, what does the other do? Sometimes there IS no relationship, although there is only a 25% chance that it is the correct answer if available.
Avoiding errors on this question type could result in another 10 to 14 points and you're well on your way to earning a score in the high 20's or even into the 30's.
3) EXTRAPOLATION questions are the "reasoning" part of the test and are usually the last one or 2 questions in any group. Using your skills in locating and comparing information, you now need to formalize your findings into something like a hypothesis so you can predict what would happen in a different, but related, situation.
GENERAL HINTS:
-- ANSWER QUESTIONS WITHIN A DATA SET IN THE ORDER PRESENTED. Because you are using specific skills in an expanding manner, you will learn a little about the science concept while answering easier questions. This strategy allows you to build knowledge while making progress on questions and avoids the time-consuming attempt to fully understand the topic before trying to answer the questions.
-- TAKE NOTES. This can be as simple as circling important information, underlining rows in a chart, making tic marks alongside useful data, or drawing a grid on a graph. Designing your own personal note taking abbreviations can expedite the process. I use arrows, for example, to mark increasing and decreasing trends on a chart. If I can't draw a linear pattern, the correct answer to a comparison question is probably "there is no relationship."
-- BE CAREFUL ON SENTENCE COMPLETION QUESTIONS. The ACT is not compelled to put the subject of a question at the beginning of the sentence. Here are two formats of the same question:
Based on the information in Exhibit A, the sun's diameter, compared to Jupiter's, is...
or
Based on the information in Exhibit A, compared to the diameter of Jupiter, the sun's diameter is...
In the heat of exam battle it is easy to be misled by sentence structure, so I make a note that simplifies the question before looking at a comparison of the diameters: "Sun is." This allows me to circumvent the need to reread the question before verifying the alternative selection, avoids confusion, and saves time.
-- If pacing is an issue, SELECT THE ORDER IN WHICH TO APPROACH THE DATA SETS based on your knowledge of your own strengths. For example, if Differing Viewpoints is tough for you and likely to result in wasted minutes and few correct answers, think about holding that set for last and default any questions that you don't answer before time runs out. The object is to COLLECT POINTS and unless you're going for a nearly perfect score (which means you've been studying for weeks) you don't need to correctly answer every question.
-- STAY FOCUSED for just 35 more minutes. If you aren't taking the Writing section, time called on Science Reasoning means you're DONE. The ACT is over!
Your tasks for this 40 question section are threefold:
1) The first 2 questions in any group are DIRECT, asking whether you can read a chart or a graph or find a discrete piece of data within a paragraph. Your response should be a confident, "Sure."
Identify the key elements from the question, like a direction to look at a specific exhibit. Locate the labels of each axis on a graph or the column and row headings of a chart. Find the appropriate data and match it with the available alternatives.
Zero errors from this question type will give you a 14 point head start toward an average or higher score.
2) The next question or two are INDIRECT, asking how 2 or more snippets of data are related. You already know how to find the statistics, so now you just need to compare them. When one goes up, what does the other do? Sometimes there IS no relationship, although there is only a 25% chance that it is the correct answer if available.
Avoiding errors on this question type could result in another 10 to 14 points and you're well on your way to earning a score in the high 20's or even into the 30's.
3) EXTRAPOLATION questions are the "reasoning" part of the test and are usually the last one or 2 questions in any group. Using your skills in locating and comparing information, you now need to formalize your findings into something like a hypothesis so you can predict what would happen in a different, but related, situation.
GENERAL HINTS:
-- ANSWER QUESTIONS WITHIN A DATA SET IN THE ORDER PRESENTED. Because you are using specific skills in an expanding manner, you will learn a little about the science concept while answering easier questions. This strategy allows you to build knowledge while making progress on questions and avoids the time-consuming attempt to fully understand the topic before trying to answer the questions.
-- TAKE NOTES. This can be as simple as circling important information, underlining rows in a chart, making tic marks alongside useful data, or drawing a grid on a graph. Designing your own personal note taking abbreviations can expedite the process. I use arrows, for example, to mark increasing and decreasing trends on a chart. If I can't draw a linear pattern, the correct answer to a comparison question is probably "there is no relationship."
-- BE CAREFUL ON SENTENCE COMPLETION QUESTIONS. The ACT is not compelled to put the subject of a question at the beginning of the sentence. Here are two formats of the same question:
Based on the information in Exhibit A, the sun's diameter, compared to Jupiter's, is...
or
Based on the information in Exhibit A, compared to the diameter of Jupiter, the sun's diameter is...
In the heat of exam battle it is easy to be misled by sentence structure, so I make a note that simplifies the question before looking at a comparison of the diameters: "Sun is." This allows me to circumvent the need to reread the question before verifying the alternative selection, avoids confusion, and saves time.
-- If pacing is an issue, SELECT THE ORDER IN WHICH TO APPROACH THE DATA SETS based on your knowledge of your own strengths. For example, if Differing Viewpoints is tough for you and likely to result in wasted minutes and few correct answers, think about holding that set for last and default any questions that you don't answer before time runs out. The object is to COLLECT POINTS and unless you're going for a nearly perfect score (which means you've been studying for weeks) you don't need to correctly answer every question.
-- STAY FOCUSED for just 35 more minutes. If you aren't taking the Writing section, time called on Science Reasoning means you're DONE. The ACT is over!
Monday, March 29, 2010
QUICK TIPS FOR THE ACT
April 10....the next national administration of the ACT. Really too late to start studying, but a few quick tips could help raise that score by a point or two. For English and Math you might need 2 more correct answers to gain one more section score point; each Reading and Science Reasoning question should usually give you a point. Four more section score points are needed to raise the composite average by just one point.
ENGLISH: Recognize the punctuation questions relating to independent sentences. You always need a full sentence in front of a period, semi-colon, comma-conjunction, or colon. For the first 3 you also need a full sentence (not a prepositional phrase) after the punctuation. A colon can be followed by either a full sentence or a list or just more detail.
Recognize prepositions. They introduce phrases, not full sentences, and might need a comma at most.
SHORTER IS BETTER. At least consider the shortest alternative since it's the right answer more often than not.
MATH: Avoid silly mistakes, especially on the first 30 questions. And work problems for the entire hour; there are some easy questions in the last 10.
READING: Keep moving. Don't get "stuck" on one difficult question. Unless you're working toward a perfect score (which means you've been studying for weeks), you don't need to get every question right. Take the loss of one point rather than denying yourself the chance to gain 2 by finding easier questions further along in the section.
SCIENCE REASONING: Get the first two questions in every data set correct. These ask if you can read the data given and the answer should be "sure." If the last 2 questions are too hard, default them and move on to the next data set where the first few questions will be easier.
IN GENERAL: Leave nothing blank. Pick a default answer and use it to fill in bubbles for any question you can't answer. ONE DEFAULT ONLY. Pick the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth alternative and use only that one for default. Statistically you will be correct 20 - 25% of the time. Arbitrarily picking a different alternative every time could result in a success rate of 0%!
SIT UP! If you start to fade, take a second to sit up straight, stretch, breath deeply. Get the brain oxygenated again and dig back in!!
GOOD LUCK! And remember that if your score doesn't turn out to be what you hoped, there is also June, September, and October for 2011 graduates. With any of these test dates, you'll have results in time for early admission to most colleges.
ENGLISH: Recognize the punctuation questions relating to independent sentences. You always need a full sentence in front of a period, semi-colon, comma-conjunction, or colon. For the first 3 you also need a full sentence (not a prepositional phrase) after the punctuation. A colon can be followed by either a full sentence or a list or just more detail.
Recognize prepositions. They introduce phrases, not full sentences, and might need a comma at most.
SHORTER IS BETTER. At least consider the shortest alternative since it's the right answer more often than not.
MATH: Avoid silly mistakes, especially on the first 30 questions. And work problems for the entire hour; there are some easy questions in the last 10.
READING: Keep moving. Don't get "stuck" on one difficult question. Unless you're working toward a perfect score (which means you've been studying for weeks), you don't need to get every question right. Take the loss of one point rather than denying yourself the chance to gain 2 by finding easier questions further along in the section.
SCIENCE REASONING: Get the first two questions in every data set correct. These ask if you can read the data given and the answer should be "sure." If the last 2 questions are too hard, default them and move on to the next data set where the first few questions will be easier.
IN GENERAL: Leave nothing blank. Pick a default answer and use it to fill in bubbles for any question you can't answer. ONE DEFAULT ONLY. Pick the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth alternative and use only that one for default. Statistically you will be correct 20 - 25% of the time. Arbitrarily picking a different alternative every time could result in a success rate of 0%!
SIT UP! If you start to fade, take a second to sit up straight, stretch, breath deeply. Get the brain oxygenated again and dig back in!!
GOOD LUCK! And remember that if your score doesn't turn out to be what you hoped, there is also June, September, and October for 2011 graduates. With any of these test dates, you'll have results in time for early admission to most colleges.
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