Back to: ACT English
When you’re under time constraints during a high-stakes testing experience, it’s pretty easy to feel overwhelmed and like it’s impossible to get through all of the questions. The strategies below can help you make the most of the time you have by approaching the test methodically.
Focus on Questions
- read a question
- look for corresponding underlined/numbered text
- read only the text connected to the question
- repeat for each question
This strategy emphasizes focusing just on the text in each question, rather than reading the full passage or a full paragraph. When you encounter text that is underlined and numbered, read only to the end of that sentence and then immediately answer the corresponding question before reading on. Repeat this every time you encounter underlined/numbered text.
The drawback to this strategy is that you’re answering questions without a sense of the full context of the passage or even of a given paragraph. In some cases, you might end up needing to re-read previous text or read ahead in order to effectively answer a question, especially those concerning transitions, logical order, or purpose/main idea.
Passage Skimming
- skim the entire passage
- return to the beginning and reread sentences with underlined and numbered text to answer the corresponding questions
At first, this seems more time-consuming because you’re taking time to read and then re-read. However, the goal is to skim quickly, taking just enough time to get a sense of the main idea and purpose of the passage. Ideally, this will help you answer many of the questions more quickly than you would have without skimming first
One Sentence at a Time
- locate sentences that have underlined and/or numbered text
- read only that sentence and the corresponding question
- respond to the question and repeat
When using this strategy, you would not read a full passage or even paragraph from beginning to end. Instead, you would only read sentences that are numbered and/or have underlined text.
This strategy is quite attractive because it seems efficient—you’re not wasting time reading text that isn’t part of a question. Sure, it can be useful for simple grammar and punctuation questions. However when it comes to questions focused on production of writing and knowledge of language, there’s a lot of potential for error since you’re working with very little context. This could make some of the questions confusing and you might end up needing to go back and read a full paragraph anyway!
One Paragraph at a Time
- quickly read one paragraph, noting the portions that are underlined and numbered
- read and answer the questions for that paragraph
- move on to the next paragraph
Most people recommend the one paragraph at a time approach since it combines skimming and focusing on underlined/numbered text. Ultimately, you should try out all approaches during your prep and determine which works best for you.