<p>Took the ACT yesterday. Basically only got done with two passages. I’m very slow at reading and comprehending! I usually read the passage as thoroughly as I can. (Sometimes it takes me several tries to comprehend it.) Then I go through the questions in order (no reason why in order, I just do.) while still having to look back at the passage for almost every question. If I’m not retaining the information anyways, should I skip reading the passage and just answer the questions? I guess that eliminates doing well on the main idea type questions… Yesterday was my second time to take the test. First time made a 23 in reading. Have lots of room to improve! Any specific ideas to help me study for the September ACT? Thank you so much!</p>
<p>You just have to practice reading faster. Practice reading and get your speed up, but make sure you comprehend everything that you are reading. For ACT reading, I read half the passage underlining nouns and things I think are important. Then I stop around line 45 and look at the questions and see if I can answer any of them after reading half the of passage. By reading only half, I remember everything well, so I can answer some questions without wasting time referring back to the passage. Then, I finish reading the passage and answer the remaining questions. This method is pretty effective for me as I am always in the 30’s in reading. I have gotten 34 before using this method. Not sure if it will work for others, but it works for me.</p>
<p>I just read through the passage and then look at the questions. Yesterday I took what seemed to me like an abnormally long amount of time to read the tattoo story but I picked up the pace afterwards. </p>
<p>I don’t underline certain things, I kind of just move my pencil over the words to make sure I read it all.</p>
<p>READ, READ, READ! Pick up book and just start reading. The more you read, the faster you’ll become. Also, I recommend that you annotate the passages as you read, that way you wont have to keep rereading the passage for every question. Lastly, don’t do every question in order. ACT practice books recommend that you do the ones that you think are the easiest first, then medium, then hard. Also, if you don’t finish the section, then bubble in random answers. You will have a 25% of getting every answer right if you do that, and the ACT does not deduct points for wrong answers.</p>
<p>Hope that helped!</p>
<p>Thanks everyone! I never considered reading half the passage then answering some questions or switching up the question order. Really never considered any “creative” ways to attack this section… Honestly I’ve never been very enthusiastic about reading (math brain 
but I think I could really be generally reading more and practicing comprehension on books I enjoy! I do always fill in one answer space for all the questions I don’t get to, which probably helps my score a little. And the story about the tattoo lady felt extremely tedious. At first I thought the grandma was the tattoo lady… Had to read that passage more than once to figure out what was goin on! Then again, I don’t think I’m really comprehending everything I’m reading. I’m going to try and experiment with the practice reading sections more… I have a new 2013 edition ACT book, so maybe I can try and get my speed up with that!</p>
<p>What is the new 2013 edition ACT book called?</p>
<p>I think you can also try spending about 4 minutes on the passage and 4 minutes answering questions for each passage. Then under each paragraph write like 3 words so that when you look back at it it will retrigger your memory. This seems to work for me so far. I used to use a strategy where i would not read at all but just go through it and underline key looking words but then when that actually happened on the test everyone kept staring at me because every few seconds they heard my pencil circling something and i got all anxious and nervous and did terrible.</p>
<p>It’s the McGraw Hill 6 ACT Practice Tests 2013 edition. I just bought it at the bookstore. I noticed the math definitely seems updated compared to other books. Do you have a better one to recommend though??</p>
<p>And I’m thinking time management is probably the biggest thing… I’m going to have to use my phone timer and just practice! The key word method might be worth trying too I guess! Luckily, I still have time to take the ACT all three times this fall (Sept, Oct, and Dec I think) and so I’ll try out different methods and try to see what works!</p>
<p>Thanks again everybody!!!</p>
<p>Ok i am form Africa, i took the act on Feb and i got 22
i need help to improve my score to 26 or higher</p>
<p>I really suck at reading and science, any advice would help</p>