HOW TO IMPROVE ACT READING and any good books or programs or websites

toolegittoquit
Tue, 12 Jul 2016 08:01:52 +0000

For me I read the passage first. I “annotate” as I go along in order to remain engaged. By annotating I mean just underlining, circling, and boxing specific words, phrases, and paragraphs that seem important. You don’t need to read for detail. I’ve found that focusing on the main idea of the passage/the author’s purpose is sufficient. I try to have a good grasp on the author’s tone as well. I only spend a couple minutes reading the passage. By having a general understanding of the passage I can answer about half the questions. The more detailed oriented questions involve going back to the passage. Sometimes they will give you particular lines to look at and those are easy, but it’s the ones where you have to find the correct answer anywhere in the passage that’s hard. Always find evidence to support your answer, but be quick about it. If you can’t find the answer, skip it and come back after doing the other questions for the passage. If 7 minutes has passed (which is the max time you should spend on each passage), skip the question and come back after finishing the other passages. Also, even if you think you remember the answer to a recall sort of question, always verify in the passage! I’ve made so many mistakes thinking I remembered correctly, but they are trying to trick you, so be aware of that…

Just by doing about 4 practice Reading tests from that big 1400+ question Princeton Review book, I raised my reading score from a 25 to a 33. I tried my very hardest on each practice test and I was very ruthless when reviewing my mistakes and brainstorming new techniques to try.

The most important thing to do is find what works for you. You can try my techniques and they might not be effective. You really need to take the time to think after each practice test: HOW could I have avoided those mistakes? What strategies could I implement for the next practice test? Happy studying!