Back to: ACT English
Triage refers to assessing patients to determine how urgently they need treatment and sorting them according to what kind of treatment they need.
When paramedics respond to a disaster, they must make some difficult decisions VERY quickly in order to ensure they save the most people possible, given their limited resources.
- People who will live whether or not they are treated
- People who need treatment immediately in order to live
- People who will die whether or not they are treated
While, thankfully, your standardized test doesn’t involve life-or-death decisions, the stakes certainly are still quite high for you. During the test, you too will have limited resources: time, energy, and focus. The triage method translates to a test-taking strategy in which you classify test items into one of three categories.
| Color Tag | Type | Treatment | Notes |
| Green | <30 sec | Round 1: Solve | Remember to go back and double check your green tag questions. |
| Red | 60–90 sec |
Round 1: Skip |
After answering the green tag items, return to the red tag items. Either solve or use the process of elimination to narrow down your answer options. |
| Black | Can’t solve | Round 1: Guess | While it might be tempting to spend a lot of time on these questions, you need to move on as quickly as possible. If you don’t know the answer, make an educated guess and keep going. |
Students make the highest gains when they focus their time and attention during the test on green and red items. During the studying and test prep phase, however, keep track of black tag items and spend time studying things you’re struggling with. The goal is to practice the test using this method over and over so that, over time, your red tag items become green tags and your black tag items become red tags.