Thread by @braydonndungan

juniors -- i'm gonna create a little thread rn with different tricks that can raise you a point or two in each section of the ACT. they may not be "politically correct", but they have helped me get the score I wanted!!!! and remember, ur score does NOT define u!!!!!! u got this!!

for the reading section, ACT has designed it where the first passage is ALWAYS the most difficult! so most students begin with the hardest passage first, waste so much time, yet still get almost all the answers wrong.

little do most people realize that the easiest passage is the fourth passage in the reading section, because most of the time they just have to guess on this section bc there's no time!!!!

so my recommendation is to start with passage 4 (usually takes me about 8 minutes to get through). you will most likely get almost every answer correct! then, i would advise to move to the 3rd passage, then the 2nd, and then you will probably have to guess on most of the 1st.

but the trick here is that while you were probably getting most of the answers wrong on the first passage anyways, by starting with passage 4, you don't have to guess on the easy questions!!!! i used this trick and my reading score went up 6 points or so!!!!!!!

now, for the english section, it's a lot of content knowledge so you either know it or you don't. but a lot of times, you may think it "sounds right", but in reality it's grammatically incorrect!!

one simple mistake is whether to choose who or whom. for example: "who/whom should I take to the dance?" an easy way to see which is the correct choice is to answer the question with either "him" or "he".

in this scenario, you would say, "I will take HIM to the dance." and whenever you use HIM in the response, the answer will ALWAYS be WHOM. now, if the question were, "who/whom do you think will win the tennis match?" you would respond, "HE will win the match" so it's HE.

another simpl mistake is "its" versus "it's". I think as children, we've always been taught that whenever something is possessive, it HAS to have an apostrophe. but in this scenario, that is NOT true.

If the question were "did the dog eat its/it's food?" the answer would be "its". the only time the correct answer will be "it's" will be whenever you can substitute the phrase "it is" in for "it's". for ex., you cannot ask, "did the dog eat it is food?"

another mistake (i'm sure you've heard this a lot) is wordiness. don't select an answer that has lots of words or that restates what was said earlier in the passage!!!

for example, let's say the passage states, "the man completely addressed the situation 'in all entirety' before moving to the next question" and you have to decide whether "in all entirety" should be removed or should be kept.

since the sentence says "the man COMPLETELY addressed the situation", there is no need to restate that precious piece by saying, "in all entirety", because in essence, that's the definition of "completely". i know that's a lot of words to read for one example!!!!! sorry!!

those precious examples are just a few tricks that are SIMPLE that the ACT always has on the english section!!! now, let's move on to math... and that is NOT my strong suit haha so if you don't agree with my way to do this section just totally disregard this lol

anyways, math is the other section where you either know it or you don't. one misconception that most people have is where the ACT says "the figures are not to scale"--- that's totally not true. They are to scale.

so let's say that there is a shape and you have to find how big " side X" is but you have no clue... normally, the ACT answer choices go like this: A) 2 yards B) 12 yards C) 14 yards D) 22 yards E) 48 yards

if you're able to see that "side X" is close to the size of a side that is said to be 13 yards, you can automatically eliminate A and E, and maybe even D! so that brings you down from a 20% guessing chance to a 33 or 50 percent chance!!!

alright, so another trick for math... this has helped ME! i realize that everyone says "if you don't know it, skip it! come back later!" and i'm sure that helps people, but if you're like me, that doesn't work for me lol😂😂

so what i always do, if i don't know a question, i work on it anyways. i attended an ACT prep session and they said to view the math section as an apple tree-- get all of the low lying apples first and then just go for as many of the higher up apples later on!

the first 30 questions or so of math are relatively easier than the last 30. so if you take 40 min to answer the first 30 questions and you get 25 of them right, that's a great start!! because u still have 20 minutes to answer the harder questions u prolly wouldn't have known!!!

another thing that helps me with math is to DRAW PICTURES!!!!!! it may sound so dumb, but if u don't know how to answer a problem, just start drawing it out!! i have gotten so many questions right that i wouldn't have otherwise, all thx to simply drawing them out!!!!

also, if u have time tonight, look up the following like. this guy is soooo helpful and he covers every topic on the ACT, so review the easy topics if you can just to ensure you get the easy questions right!! m.youtube.com/user/jacobbrez…

ok!!! so now for the science section hahaha... this was my absolute WORST for the longest time, until my last time i took it. and the tips i'm about to tell u may seem confusing, but (i'm not meaning to brag or anything) it raised my science score from a 24 to a 34 in ONE TEST!!!

so first off, the ACT uses all this confusing scientific language to try and confuse you. they know you're tired, they know you're ready to turn your test in and go home, and they take advantage of that by making the questions harder than they seem.

for so long, i got to the science section and i was like "well i did well on the other sections so i'll just guess on these" and that's what i did, yet science dragged me down every single time. so don't do that lol😂😂😂

(disclaimer: i don't mean to sound hippie or anything lol) instead, take some time before the science section to just calm yourself and settle your mind. take into consideration that this is the last portion, and that all of the answers are in the passage!!u just gotta find them!

so once u begin on the science, you're probably gonna panic. bc i do. every time. however, don't rush. take your time. if you only get 30 of the 40 questions done before 5 minutes is called, OH WELL. that's awesome!

OH! also!!!! in science, there is a part called conflicting viewpoints, okay?? it's where there is one page that has "student one" "student two" "student three" student four" etc, and it has their viewpoints about a specific theory or something. right????

don't even answer those questions. that passage is so confusing and so time consuming, skip over it and, if u have time at the end, come back later. if u don't, just guess on them all. bc i'm not kidding when i say they're soooo confusing lol

that way, if u skip over the hardest passage, u can get all of the easy questions done and then just guess on the ones u may have only gotten like 2 correct on anyways!

lastly, the final tip i have for u on the science section is to simply dissect the question. what I do is i literally read the question in parts. a lot of times, the question will ask about 2 different figures, thus asking u to compare or contrast them.

SO, whenever it mentions a figure or a topic within a figure, i will literally put my finger on wherever it says a new piece of info. this is super hard to communicate via twitter lol, but if you don't understand me just let me know!!!!

so if the question says "in figure two, if the solar waves were increased" i would literally put one finger on "figure two" and then move another to "solar waves". this way, i'm able to understand every piece of the question!

OKAY!!!! so one more tip: if you have to guess at the end of a section, don't guess like "A" and then "B" and then "C" and then "D"- instead, stick with one answer choice all the way down. I usually guess "B" or "C"; u pick, but just stick with it!!!!!!!

Lastly, just remember that this test does NOT define who you are. The ACT is designed for you to fail, so if you're able to get through this test while giving it your all, you are a champion. you can retake this test so many times (i took it 9 times) so this isn't the end!!!!!

make sure u bring a snack in the morning bc you'll be allowed to have a break i think, and u don't want ur stomach growling in the middle of the reading test hahaha.

just remember- relax, breathe, and go with the flow. you are so talented and sooo smart, and everyone around you is so proud of you no matter the score that ACT smacks on you. you are more than a number. ROCK THIS TEST!!! & dm me if you have ANY questions about ANYTHING!!!