<p>I agree that the questions on this section are mostly extremely easy, each passage does take a significant amount of time to go through. And skipping straight to the questions I’m afraid to do since I could miss little things that could cost me points. </p>
<p>Yet it bothers me that much of the introduction to the experiment passages are just time wasters. Most of the time the intros have nothing to do with the questions. </p>
<p>Do you guys have any strategies to tackle this section that is accurate and helps conserve time? </p>
<p>Please don’t just say “practice.” Hell, I know to practice. There are legit strategies in existence as well. For example there’s a good one for the dueling scientist part where you number the questions with what hypothesis it’s asking about and you do the questions as you read the specific hypothesis in order. It’s worked great. </p>
<p>Also the chunking strategy for the reading section is a great one as well. </p>
<p>Does anyone have anything similar to these?</p>
<p>Reading everything will cost you points. If you’re missing a piece of information when you read the question, it will be obvious and you can skim the text to look for it.</p>
<p>My son never reads the intro paragraph and, in many cases, doesn’t read any of the text where the answer is contained in the graphs and their labels. He got a 36 twice, so I’d say his method works. The ACT is designed to waste the time of the average test-taker, so they can get a nice wide and consistent distribution of scores.</p>
<p>@lorem Reading everything won’t always cost you points. Some people are fast readers and have time to read every passage without worrying about time. I would say reading everything is beneficial in the long run because it saves time from having to constantly going back to the text, especially if a student is able to remember the vital information in the passage.</p>
<p>The one time I’ve taken the ACT so far (I’m taking it again on Saturday), I got a 23 on the science portion and it was my lowest score by a long shot. This week, I’m taking an ACT prep class that has a really great success rate. We’ve been taking pretty much one practice test in class (which is 4 hrs in the morning), and we have one for homework. ANYWAY, tonight, I scored a 32 on the science portion. </p>
<p>Here’s what I do: </p>
<p>-Don’t make it harder than it is. The words can be confusing, but the concepts aren’t. In fact, the only science concepts they DON’T explain are on a 9th grade level.</p>
<p>-There’s only ONE right answer–the rest are obviously wrong. This portion, unlike the math one, is not trying to trick you. So when you come across the answer you know is right, mark it and move on and forget about reading the rest of the answer choices.</p>
<p>-Be hands on. When reading a question that says “In figure one,” stop reading the question, find figure one, and put your finger on it. If the question continues to say “at 500 mm,” put your finger on the part of the graph that shows 500 mm and so on. By the time you’re through reading the question, the answer will literally be at your finger tips.</p>
<p>These are the three elements that I’ve found change everything.</p>
<p>Reading section, imo, is pretty easy. All I did was read the passages at a medium pace and then answer all the questions. If you read at a pace where you understand then you will know all the questions.</p>
<p>i agree with one of the posters above. i got a 36 in science, and my strategy was to just not read the passages at all, but go straight to the questions. working the first couple of questions always helped me understand the passage anyways.</p>