ACT Prep 2024 For Dummies with Online Practice

Introduction

Welcome to ACT Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice. This is a nondiscriminatory, equal-opportunity book. You’re welcome to participate whether you’re a genius or (like us) you need a recipe to make ice. Besides, the book’s title is not a slam at you. You’re not the dummy; the test is (and we’ve heard it called worse, believe us — especially on the Friday night before the exam).

The goal of this book is to show you exactly how to survive the ridiculous situation called the ACT. No matter how excellent your high school teachers are (or were), they’ve prepared you for the real world, a world that, alas, has very little connection to the ACT. High school teachers can give you a good foundation in grammar, reading, science, and math skills (the areas tested on the ACT), but you may want to think of them as the friendly old GPs, the general practitioners whose job it is to keep you well and handle the little day-to-day problems. What do you do when you have a crisis, like the ACT, that’s making you really sick? We like to think of ACT Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice, as a loony but gifted specialist you can call when your situation becomes desperate.

No one wants to deal with the eccentric specialist for too terribly long. The goal of this book, just like the goal of the expert, is to come in with the Code Blue crash cart, deal with the situation, and then leave rapidly with as few lives destroyed as possible. This book has one goal: to prepare you for the ACT — period. We’re not here to teach you every grammar rule ever created or every math formula that Einstein knew. We don’t include any extra filler material to make this book look fat and impressive on bookstore shelves. If you want a thick book to use as a booster seat for the vertically challenged, go find War and Peace. If you’re looking for something that you can use to prepare you for the ACT as quickly and painlessly as possible, again we say to you, welcome to ACT Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice.

About This Book

You likely can’t escape the ACT. Many colleges require you to take this entrance exam before they’ll even look at your application. Virtually every college accepts scores from either the ACT or the SAT. (Wiley just so happens to publish SAT For Dummies as well, should you choose to take that exam.) Many students decide to take both tests to see which one results in a better score. Is that a good idea? Absolutely. Even better, take practice tests for both (you can download a free full-length ACT from www.act.org and eight complete SATs from www.collegeboard.org) to see which one suits you best and then concentrate on just that test.

Many colleges emphasize ACT scores to compensate for grade inflation. That is, some high schools may give you an A for doing the same level of work that would gain you a C at other high schools. Because the ACT is the same for everyone (students all over the world take the exact same exam), colleges can use the scores to get inside your head and see what’s really there. Think of this test as an opportunity, not a crisis: A good ACT score may help offset a low GPA. In just a few hours one fine Saturday morning, you can make up a little for a few mishaps in school.

In ACT 2023 For Dummies, you find out what types of questions are on the exam, which questions you should work on carefully, and which ones you’re better off guessing at quickly. (Good news: The ACT has no penalty for wrong answers, so guess on absolutely every question you don’t know.) We also help you figure out which approach to use for each type of question, and, perhaps most importantly, we show you some traps that are built into each question style. We’ve been test-prep tutors for many years and have developed a list of the gotchas that have trapped thousands of students over the years. We show you how to avoid being trapped, too.

This book is also full of the substantive information that you need to know, including grammar rules and geometry, algebra, and arithmetic formulas. And this 2023 edition provides handy updates to the reading test questions. Occasionally, we include some truly sick humor on the principle that, as you’re groaning at our jokes, you won’t notice that you’re suffering from the questions. (Hey, as the mushroom said to his friends, Of course, everyone likes me. I’m a fun-gi!)

Note to nontraditional students: The days of high school may be just a fading memory for you (along with your thin waistline and full head of hair). We recognize that not everyone taking the ACT is a high school junior or senior. Maybe you took a few years off to build your career or to nurture a family (or to pay your debt to society) and are now having to go back and review what you thought you had left behind years ago. It can be totally frustrating to have to deal with proper punctuation or quadratic equations all over again. Postpone your nervous breakdown. Things aren’t as dismal as they look. You’ll probably be surprised how quickly material comes back to you as you go through this book.

Foolish Assumptions

Although you could’ve picked up this book just because you have an insatiable love for English, math, reading, and science, we’re betting you picked it up because you have to take the ACT. (Isn’t it good to know at the outset that your authors have a remarkable grasp of the obvious?) And because we weren’t born yesterday, we figure that you’re taking the ACT in anticipation of applying to college. How exciting for you!

Because we’ve rarely met a person who actually looks forward to taking standardized entrance exams, we’re lumping you into the category of readers who are going into the ACT kicking and screaming. Okay, maybe we’re being overly dramatic, but we’ve got a hunch that you’re not especially excited about the prospect of spending four hours of precious sleeping-in time sitting in a stark classroom, darkening endless ovals on a bubble sheet under the watchful eye of a heartless proctor who continues to yell Time! before you’ve finished the section. Call us crazy!

Nevertheless, you picked up this book, so we assume that getting the best ACT score you can is important to you and that you care enough to sacrifice some of your free time to achieve that goal. Good for you!

Here are the other assumptions we’ve made about you while writing this book:

You’re a high school student, and, like most high school students, you carry a full course load, participate in a number of extracurricular activities, may even have a job, and prefer to carry on a social life. Or you may have already graduated from high school and may hold down a career and tend to a family. Either way, you don’t want us to waste your time with a bunch of stuff that isn’t on the ACT. For instance, as much as we enjoy creating vocabulary flashcards, we don’t share those with you in this book because you don’t need to memorize word meanings to ace the ACT.

You’re not all work and no play. We want to make studying for the ACT as painless as possible, so we’ve tried to lighten things up a bit with a few jokes. Forgive us, please. Some are really lame.

Because you’re college-bound, you’ve spent some years engaged in a college-prep curriculum that includes algebra, geometry, and likely a little algebra II and trigonometry. We’re pretty sure you’ve had your fair share of English, social studies, and science classes, and you’ve written an essay or two. Therefore, we don’t bore you too much with the elementary stuff. (We do, however, cover the basic math and grammar concepts that you may have forgotten.)

Icons Used in This Book

Some information in this book is really, really important. We flag it by using an icon. Here’s a list of the icons we use and details about what they mean:

Tip Follow the arrow to score a bull’s-eye by using the tips we highlight with this icon.

Remember Burn this stuff into your brain or carve it into your heart; it’s the really important material. If you skip or ignore the Remember icons, you won’t get your money’s worth out of this book.

Example This icon marks sample problems.

Warning Pay heed to this advice and avoid the potential pitfall.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes tips to help you prepare for the ACT. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type ACT For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

You also get access to all the full-length online practice tests, more than 100 math and science flashcards, and extra resources for understanding your scores for the test (including the essay!). To gain access to the online practice, all you have to do is register. Just follow these simple steps:

Register your book or ebook at Dummies.com to get your pin.

Go to www.dummies.com/go/getaccess.

Select your product from the dropdown list on that page.

Follow the prompts to validate your product, and then check your email for a confirmation message that includes your PIN and log-in instructions.

If you don’t receive this email within two hours, check your spam folder before contacting us through our Technical Support website at http://support.wiley.com or by phone at 877-762-2974.

Now you’re ready to go! You can come back to the practice material as often as you want — simply log on with the username and password you created during your initial login. No need to enter the access code a second time.

Your registration is good for one year from the day you activate your PIN.

Where to Go from Here

You’ve probably heard the joke about the student who was debating whether to buy a book at the bookstore. The sales clerk, eager to make his commission, proclaims, Buy this book — it’ll do half the work for you! The student brightens up and exclaims, Great! I’ll take two!

As much as we wish we could simply transfer test-taking material into your brain in one dump, we realize that learning it takes effort on your part. Meet us halfway. We’ve done our job by showing you what to study and how to go about it; now it’s your turn. We suggest two ways to use this book:

Fine-tune your skills. Maybe you’re already a math whiz and just need help with the English grammar. Go right to the English review we provide in Part 2. If, on the other hand, you’re a grammar guru who wouldn’t know a nonagon if you met one in a dark alley, turn to the math review we offer in Part 3.

Start from scratch. Grab a sack of food and some sharpened pencils, lock yourself in your room, and go through this book word for word. Don’t worry; it’s not as bad as it seems. Actually, starting from scratch is the preferred method. Many students make what we call the mediocre mistake: They’re good at one section, mediocre at a second, and dismal at another. They spend all their time in their worst section and barely look at the sections that they’re mediocre or good in. Big mistake! If you spend two hours studying something that’s totally incomprehensible to you, you may improve your score a few points. If you spend two hours studying your mediocre material, you may improve your score by one or two points. A couple of points that you gain in your mediocre section are just as valuable as — and a heck of a lot easier to get than — the same number of points you gain in your weakest section. Humor us and read the book from cover to cover. You’ll pick up some great material.

Regardless of whether you hunt and peck your way through the chapters or approach the first six parts consecutively, absolutely take the three practice tests in Part 7. How you choose to use the full-length practice tests is entirely up to you. However, may we suggest two tried-and-true methods?

Diagnostic: Take the first practice exam to see how you score. Then devour the subject reviews and advice we provide in the first six parts of the book. Finish by taking the other two practice tests to see how much your score has improved.

Pure practice: Devour the reviews and advice first and use the three full-length exams to practice and reinforce what you’ve learned in the rest of the book.

Either way, you should also get your hands on the current edition of The Official ACT Prep Guide (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.). The six official exams in that book give you ample opportunity to practice what you discover in ACT Prep 2023 For Dummies with Online Practice so you can walk into the test site with the test questions fresh in your brain.

After you’ve covered the information in this book, you may discover that you need more in-depth English or math review. Or maybe you just can’t get enough of this stuff! Several Wiley publications are available to accommodate you; just search for the most recent editions. Dig more deeply into the rules of Standard English in the latest editions of English Grammar For Dummies and find tons of grammar practice in the English Grammar Workbook For Dummies both by Geraldine Woods. Those of you who are math challenged will find the latest editions of these books helpful: ACT Math For Dummies and SAT Math For Dummies by Mark Zegarelli; Algebra I For Dummies and Algebra II For Dummies by Mary Jane Sterling; and Geometry For Dummies by Mark Ryan (all by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.).

Figuring Out How Long All This Studying Will Take

In the real world, you have classes, family obligations, community service projects, sports practices, work, and, if you’re lucky, a social life. How on earth are you going to fit reviewing this book and studying for the ACT into your schedule? The answer is that you have to commit to this project and make it a priority. How many hours should you carve out of your schedule? Here’s what we suggest.

Reading the ACT overview in the first three chapters shouldn’t cut out too much of your free time, no more than 30 minutes. Other parts require more of an investment.

The five parts of the book that review English, math, writing, reading, and science contain one or more chapters that explain how to approach the subject at hand and one short chapter full of practice questions. Soaking up the information in the explanations and taking the short practice tests should take you about an hour or two per test subject.

Additionally, the English Test part features a very important grammar review that we strongly suggest you spend at least an hour or two studying. Even if you’re good at grammar, this section features all sorts of persnickety grammar rules, just the type that (with your luck) you’d get caught on during the ACT. Finally, the Math Test part features a pretty comprehensive math review — number basics, geometry, algebra, coordinate geometry, and trigonometry — that should take you about three hours to fully absorb.

And don’t forget the three full-length practice tests, of course. Each of the tests takes 2 hours and 55 minutes to complete (a half hour longer with the Writing Test), not including breaks. Give yourself about an hour to review the answer explanations for each exam. That should be enough time for you to review the answer explanations to every question and to take advantage of the opportunity to see shortcuts you may not have noticed or traps you luckily avoided. So taking and reviewing each exam should take you about 4 or 5 hours. Here’s the final timetable:

Fear not: You don’t have to do it all in a day. The last thing we advocate is sleep deprivation! This book is designed so that you can start any part at any time. You don’t have to have finished the general math chapter, for example, before you go through the general reading chapter.

Okay, are you ready? Are you quivering with anticipation, living for the moment when you can pick up your yellow No. 2 pencil and hold on for the thrill of a lifetime? (Or are you thinking, These authors need to get a life!?) Listen, you’re going to take the ACT anyway, so you may as well have a good time learning how to do so. Laughing while learning is the whole purpose of this book. Take a deep breath, rev up the brain cells, and go for it! Good luck. Just remember that for you, ACT can come to stand for Ace Conquers Test!

Part 1

Coming to Terms with Reality: An Overview of the ACT

IN THIS PART …

Get cozy with the format and content of the ACT and develop a checklist of the items to take with you to the exam (and leave home). Find out how your efforts will be scored and when it's a good idea to take the ACT for a second, or even third, time.

Develop a plan to beat stress during the test and learn other ways to avoid messing up your performance so that you can achieve your best possible score.

Benefit from the advice of seasoned college counselors to help you answer the question, What do colleges want from me?

Chapter 1

Getting Your ACT Together: ACT 101

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Figuring out what — and what not — to take to the ACT

Bullet Dealing with unusual circumstances

Bullet Taking a chance with dumb-luck guessing

Bullet Knowing what to expect on the ACT and understanding how the test’s scoring works

Bullet Repeating the ACT if necessary

Are you the type of person who jumps into the cold water all at once instead of dipping your toe in a little at a time? If so, do we have a table for you! Table 1-1 gives you an overview of the ACT and shocks you with the entire kit and caboodle all at once.

If you add up the numbers, you find that you have 216 multiple-choice questions to answer in 215 minutes; 215 minutes is 3 hours and 35 minutes, or just over 3.5 hours. You get one 10-minute break between the second and third tests (the Mathematics and Reading Tests). You may also encounter an extra 20-minute section after the Science Test that the ACT will use to determine the difficulty of questions for later exams. If you choose not to take the optional Writing Test, you get to walk out right after that. If you include the time in the classroom spent giving out the tests, explaining the directions, checking IDs, answering the Interest Inventory questions, and so on, your whole morning is shot. You may as well figure on giving up 4 to 4.5 hours for this test.

THE COMPUTER-BASED ACT

If you take the ACT in a country other than the United States, your exam is offered on computer rather than on paper. This computerized option has been available for several years and may become more common at testing sites in the United States.

The question types, numbers of questions, and scores are the same for both tests; the difference is in the method of delivery. The computer-based ACT, or CBT, provides handy tools that allow you to approach it in much the same way you would for the paper test:

Highlighter and line reader: Use these tools to focus on important data and sentences.

Answer eliminator and masker: Use these tools to help you mark out wrong answers.

Magnifier: This tool allows you to read the fine print for charts and graphs in the science questions.

You also have a timer to keep track of your time and the ability to move between questions and mark them for later review.

The ACT plans to expand the digital version of the ACT and make it more widely available throughout the United States have been delayed indefinitely.

TABLE 1-1 ACT Breakdown by Section

What to Take to the ACT

If you can’t borrow the brain of that whiz kid in your calculus class for the day, you’re stuck using your own. To compensate, be sure that you have the following with you before you leave for the ACT test center:

Admission ticket: You receive your ticket immediately after you register online. Be sure to print it out so you have it for test day.

Pencils: Take a bunch of sharpened No. 2 pencils with you. You may also want to take good erasers (nothing personal — everyone makes mistakes). Mechanical pencils aren’t allowed.

Map or directions: Go to the test center a few days before the actual exam to scope out your driving route and parking area. Often, the ACT is given at high schools or colleges that have parking lots far, far away from the test rooms. Drive to the location a few days in advance, park your car, and see just how long it takes you to get to the room. You don’t need the stress of having to run to the test room at the last minute on test day.

Clothing: Schools that host the ACT often turn off the heat for the weekend (the ACT is usually offered on a Saturday), and the test room can be freezing cold. Alternately, in the summer, schools turn off the air conditioning, making the room boiling hot. Dress in layers and be prepared for anything.

Photo ID: Showing the birthmark your boyfriend or girlfriend thinks is so cute isn’t going to cut it with the test proctor. You need to upload a photo when you register for the test and bring a photo ID (student ID, driver’s license, passport, military ID, FBI Most Wanted mug shot, whatever) to the exam. If you don’t have a photo ID, you can bring a letter of identification. The form is available on the official ACT website (act.org).

Eyeglasses: Students taking the ACT frequently forget their reading glasses at home and then squint for the four long hours of the test. The ACT is enough of a headache on its own; you don’t need eyestrain, as well. If you wear contacts, be sure to bring cleaning/wetting solution in case you have to take the lenses out and reinsert them during the break. (Hey, all those tears can really mess up your lenses!)

Snack: True, you get only one 10-minute break between the Math and Reading Tests, but that’s enough time to gobble down something to jump-start your brain. We often suggest taking an energy bar or some peanuts, something with protein and carbohydrates. Scarfing down a candy bar is actually counterproductive; your sugar levels rise only momentarily and then drop down below where they were before you had your chocolate fix.

Watch: Keeping track of time on your own timepiece is more efficient than wasting precious seconds seeking out the clock on the testing site wall. Place your watch on the desk where you can refer to it easily throughout the exam. Digital watches may not be allowed. Stick with ones that have faces and hands. Your watch can’t make any sounds either. If the proctor hears so much as a beep from your watch, she will not-so-politely request that you leave the building and cancel your test.

Calculator: The ACT gurus allow you to use a calculator only on the Mathematics Test. Although the ACT information bulletin has an entire quarter page detailing which calculators you can and cannot use, generally, you can use any calculator (yes, even a graphing calculator) as long as it doesn’t make a noise or have a computer algebra system. Make sure the one you bring has at least a square root function and, ideally, basic trigonometry functions. You may not use a laptop computer (don’t laugh; you’d be surprised by how many students want to bring one to the test!).

What Not to Take to the ACT

Do not, we repeat do not, take any of the following items with you to the ACT test room:

Cellphones and other electronic devices: Leave your cellphone in the car. You aren’t allowed to bring it into the test room. One student we know was dismissed from the test because he accidentally left his cellphone in his pocket, and it rang during the exam. The same goes for other electronics, such as iPads, PC tablets, or anything else that can access the Internet or make a sound.

Books and notes: Take it from us: Last-minute studying doesn’t do much good. So leave all your books at home; you aren’t allowed to take them into the test room with you. (Just be sure to fill your parents in on this rule. We once had a student whose mother drove all the way to the test center with her daughter’s ACT prep book, thinking the girl needed it for the test. The mom actually pulled the girl out of the test to give her the book, resulting in the girl’s nearly being disqualified from the test.)

Scratch paper: You may not bring your own scratch paper to the paper-based test, and you don’t receive any scratch paper during the exam. Fortunately, the exam booklet has plenty of blank space on which you can do your calculations.

What to Do If You Have Special Circumstances

Not everyone takes the ACT under the same conditions. You may have a special circumstance that can allow you to change the date of the ACT or the way you take your exam. Here are a few of the special circumstances that may affect how you take the ACT:

Learning disabilities: If you have a diagnosed learning disability (LD), you may be able to get special accommodations, such as more time to take the test. However, you must specifically request such accommodations way in advance. Prepare your requests for fall tests by the prior June and for spring tests by the prior September. Please note that in order to be eligible for special testing on the ACT, your LD must have been diagnosed by a professional, and you should have a current individualized education plan at school that includes extended test time. Talk to your counselor for more information. Note that you can only request special accommodations in conjunction with a test registration.

Physical disabilities: If you have a physical disability, you may be able to take a test in a special format — in Braille, large print, or on audio. Go to the official ACT website (act.org) for complete information about special testing.

Religious obligations: If your religion prohibits you from taking a test on a Saturday, you may test on an alternate date. The ACT registration website specifies dates and locations in each state.

Military duty: If you’re an active military person, you don’t complete the normal ACT registration form. Instead, ask your Educational Services Officer about testing through DANTES (Defense Activity for Nontraditional Educational Support).

Guessing for Points to Maximize Your Score

Scoring on the ACT is very straightforward:

You get one point for every answer you get right.

You get zero points for every answer you omit.

You get zero points for every answer you get wrong.

Remember The ACT doesn’t penalize you for wrong answers. Therefore, guessing on the ACT obviously works to your advantage. Never leave any question blank. We suggest that you save a couple of seconds at the end of each section just to go through the test and make sure that you’ve filled in an answer for every single question.

Your Number’s Up: Scoring on the ACT

We once had a frustrated student tell us that the scores on the ACT looked a lot like measurements to him: 34, 29, 36. However, the ACT has four scores, which makes for a very strange set of measurements! The ACT scores are nothing like high school scores based on percentages. They’re not even like the familiar SAT scores that range from 200 to 800. Instead, they range from 1 to 36. Scoring on the ACT works like this:

Each required test (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science) receives a scaled score between 1 (low) and 36 (high).

The composite score is the average of the four required test-scaled scores.

If you take the ACT Plus Writing (which is the official title for the ACT with the optional Writing Test), you receive a Writing score that ranges from 2 (low) to 12 (high). The score is the sum of the average of each of the four subscores you receive from each of the two people who grade your essay. The Writing Test score is completely separate from your composite ACT score.

A percentile score tells you where you rank in your state and nationwide.

Look at the percentiles. Just knowing that you got a 26 doesn’t tell you much. You need to know whether a 26 is in the 50th percentile, the 75th percentile, or the 99th percentile. If you get a 36, you have documented lifetime bragging rights because that’s a perfect score!

You may see additional readiness indicators. A STEM Score represents overall performance on the math and science sections. An English Language Arts Score combines your performance on the English, Reading, and Writing Tests. The Progress Toward Career Readiness Indicator measures your progress toward career readiness for a variety of careers. The Understanding Complex Tests indicator tells you whether you're sufficiently understanding text material for college and career level reading. Colleges will see these scores, but they aren’t combined in any way with your ACT composite.

The ACT website (act.org) provides a sample score report and scoring information that shows you what all these scores look like when you and your colleges of choice receive them.

What the ACT Expects You to Know

The ACT tests the following subjects:

English: The ACT expects you to know the fundamentals of grammar, usage, punctuation, diction, and rhetorical skills. For example, you must understand sentence construction — what makes a run-on and what makes a fragment. You need to know how to distinguish between commonly confused words, like affect and effect or principal and principle. You must be able to use the proper forms of words, distinguishing between an adjective and an adverb, and you must know the difference between a comma and a semicolon. Part 2 addresses the English portion of the test.

Mathematics: The ACT requires basic skills in arithmetic, geometry, and algebra. If you’ve had two semesters of algebra, two semesters of geometry, and a general math background, you have the math you need to answer about 90 percent of the questions. The ACT also tests algebra II and trigonometry. Oh, and you don’t have to know calculus. The ACT has no calculus questions. Happy day! Refer to Part 3 for more.

Reading: The ACT expects you to be able to read a passage in a relatively short amount of time and answer questions based on it. Your reading skills are probably pretty set by now. However, this fact doesn’t mean you can’t improve your ACT Reading score. Chapter 13 shows you a few tricks you can use to improve your speed and tells you how to recognize and avoid traps built into the questions.

Science: You don’t have to have much specific science background to ace the Science Test. The passages may test chemistry, biology, botany, physics, or any other science, but you don’t have to have had those courses. The test gives you all the information you need to answer most of the science questions in the passages, diagrams, charts, and tables. Head to Part 5 for more about the Science Test.

Writing (optional): The ACT folks added this optional section to test your writing ability. Don’t worry! You’ve been writing for years, and the ACT people know that you can’t possibly write a perfect essay in a measly 40 minutes. They’re not focusing on perfection; instead, they’re looking at your thesis, organization, and ability to support your thoughts. The ACT doesn’t require you to write the essay, and few colleges require or even recommend the essay. The essay portion of the ACT may be eliminated from the test entirely in future administrations. Part 6 gives you the lowdown on the Writing portion of the ACT.

Repeating the Test for a Better Score

Are you allowed to repeat the ACT? Yes. Should you repeat the ACT? Probably. Other than the additional cost (both financial and emotional) required to test again, there is no real downside to retesting. Decide whether you want to repeat the ACT based on your answers to the following questions:

What errors did I make the first time around? If your mistakes were from a lack of knowledge, that is, you just plain didn’t know a grammar rule or a math formula, you can easily correct those mistakes with studying.

Why do I want to repeat the test? Is your ego destroyed because your best friend got a better score than you did? That’s probably not a good enough reason to retake the ACT. Do retake the exam if you’re trying to get a minimum qualifying score to enable you to get into a college or earn a scholarship.

Can I go through this all over again? How seriously did you take studying the first time around? If you gave it all you had, you may be too burned out to go through the whole process again. On the other hand, if you just zoomed through the test booklet and didn’t spend much time preparing for the test, you may want a second chance to show your stuff.

Were my mistakes caused by factors that were not my fault? Maybe you were in a fender-bender on your way to the exam, or perhaps you stayed up late the night before in an argument with your parents or your best friend. If you just weren’t up to par when you took the exam, definitely take it again, and this time be sure to get a good night’s sleep the night before.

If you take the ACT in a national administration in April, June, or December, you can pay to see a digital copy of your full ACT test and the questions you missed. This handy resource gives you valuable information to study for a future test. The cost for this Test Information Release (TIR) is $30 when you register for the test, and access to the test questions is available as soon as you receive your scores for that ACT test date. You can order TIR after you receive you scores, but it’ll cost you $40. This service is only available for April, June, or December test dates in the United States. This feature isn’t offered for international administrations of the test.

The ACT doesn’t automatically send colleges the scores for every time you take the test. It gives you the option of deciding which set of scores you want colleges to see. If you don’t want to report the results of all your tests, keep these issues in mind:

The ACT automatically sends scores to the colleges you list on your test registration form. If you want to wait until after you see your report to decide whether certain colleges can see your scores for a particular test administration, don’t list those colleges with your ACT registration.

Many colleges figure your ACT composite score by averaging the highest scores you get in each section across all administrations of the test. They refer to this practice as superscoring the ACT. If you get a 24 in English, a 21 in Math, a 23 in Reading, and a 25 in Science the first time you take the ACT and a 25, 20, 24, and 24, respectively, the second time, these colleges will figure your composite score by averaging your higher 25 English score, 21 Math score, 24 Reading score, and 25 Science score. Your composite score for each administration would be 23, but the composite score the colleges calculate would be 24. Therefore, you may want the colleges to get reports from all the times you take the ACT so that they can superscore your highest section scores. When the ACT institutes section retesting and the superscore report, your highest section scores will appear on one report, and (if colleges allow), you’ll only have to send (and pay for) one report.

A handful of colleges require you to report your scores from every test date. Check with the admissions committee at the colleges to which you’re applying to make sure they allow you to withhold score reports from particular test dates.

Remember A growing number of colleges allow you to self-report your ACT scores. Those colleges consider the ACT scores you list on your college applications or report within the college’s online portal, depending on the policies of the individual school, to make admissions decisions. You only send an official score report after you’ve been admitted to and have decided to attend that particular college. Self-reporting allows you to save the money you’d have spent to send official score reports to every college on your application list. If you’re able to take advantage of the self-reporting option, be sure to follow the college’s procedures exactly and report your scores accurately. A discrepancy between the scores you report on your application and the scores that appear on your official report could be grounds for rescinding your college acceptance.

Chapter 2

Succeeding on the ACT

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Mellowing, chilling, and relaxing before and during the ACT

Bullet Identifying and sidestepping some easy ways to mess up your score

On the wall of our office, we have a padded cushion that’s imprinted with the words, BANG HEAD HERE! We’ve found that most of our students use it either to reduce stress (we guess one headache can replace another!) or — much more commonly — to express their exasperation over unnecessary, careless (we’re trying not to say it, but okay — dumb!) mistakes. Going through the material in this chapter about how to relax before and during the ACT and how to recognize and avoid common mistakes can prevent you from becoming a head-banger later.

Surviving the ACT with Four Stress-Busters

Most people are tense before a test and often feel butterflies dancing in their stomachs. The key is to use relaxation techniques that keep your mind on your test and not on your tummy. To avoid becoming paralyzed by a frustrating question during the test, we suggest that you develop and practice a relaxation plan (perhaps one that includes the techniques we describe in the following sections). At the first sign of panic, take a quick timeout. You’ll either calm down enough to handle the question, or you’ll get enough perspective to realize that it’s just one little test question and not worth your anguish. Mark your best guess and move on. If you have time, you can revisit the question later.

Tip Practice a quick relaxation routine in the days before you take the exam so that you know just what to do when you feel panicky on test day.

Inhaling deeply

Stressing out causes you to tighten up and take quick breaths, which doesn’t do much for your oxygen intake. Restore the steady flow of oxygen to your brain by inhaling deeply. Feel the air go all the way down to your toes. Hold it and then let it all out slowly. Repeat this process again several times.

Stretching a little

Anxiety causes your muscles to get all tied up in knots. Combat its evil effects by focusing on reducing your muscle tension while breathing deeply. If you feel stress in your neck and shoulders, also do a few stretches in these areas to get the blood flowing. You can shrug your shoulders toward your ears, roll your head slowly in a circle, stretch your arms over your head, or even open your mouth wide as if to say Ahhh. (But don’t actually say it out loud.)

Thinking positive thoughts

Any time you feel yourself starting to panic or thinking negative thoughts, make a conscious effort to say to yourself, Stop! Keep positive. For example, suppose you catch yourself thinking, Why didn’t I study this math more? I saw that formula a hundred times but can’t remember it now! Change the script to, I got most of this math right; if I leave my subconscious to work on that formula, maybe I’ll get it, too. No sense worrying now. Overall, I think I’m doing great!

Remember The ACT isn’t the end-all, be-all of your life. Cut yourself some slack on test day. You probably won’t feel comfortable about every question, so don’t beat yourself up when you feel confused. If you’ve tried other relaxation efforts and you still feel frustrated about a particular question, fill in your best guess and mark it in your test booklet in case you have time to review it at the end, but don’t think about it until then. Put your full effort into answering the remaining questions. Focus on the positive, congratulate yourself for the answers you feel confident about, and force yourself to leave the others behind.

Practicing POE

You may think that acing the ACT requires that you find correct answers to the questions, and essentially you’re right. But facing the challenge of staring down a set of four answer choices in the hope that the correct one will reveal itself can be daunting. Change your perspective. Instead of searching for the one correct answer in the bunch, focus on wrong answers. You’ll usually have an easier time finding something wrong with an answer. The key to a successful process of elimination (POE) lies in making sure you’re rejecting choices based on careful analysis rather than a gut feeling.

Usually, two of the four (or for math questions, three of the five) answer choices will be relatively easy to identify as wrong. They will obviously be off topic or contain specific information that the passages or questions don’t address. When you’re deliberating between the two remaining options, look for problems with one of the answers. Sometimes just one word will make the answer incorrect. The correct answer is the one left standing after you’ve found problems with the others.

Remember Tap your pencil on every word as you read through an answer choice to make sure you carefully consider all components before you eliminate or select that answer choice.

Avoiding a Few Dumb Mistakes That Can Mess Up Your ACT

Throughout this book, you discover techniques for doing your best on the ACT. We’re sorry to say, however, that there are just as many techniques for messing up big-time on this test. Take a few minutes to read through these techniques in the following sections to see what dumb things people do to blow the exam totally. By being aware of these catastrophes, you may prevent them from happening to you. And no — the student who makes the greatest number of these mistakes doesn’t receive any booby prize.

Losing concentration

When you’re in the middle of an excruciatingly boring reading passage, the worst thing you can do is let your mind drift off to a more pleasant time (last night’s date, last weekend’s soccer game, the time that you stole your rival school’s mascot and set it on the john in the principal’s private bathroom — you get the point). Although visualization (picturing yourself doing something relaxing or fun) is a good stress-reduction technique to practice before the exam, it stinks when it comes to helping your ACT score during the test. Even if you have to pinch yourself to keep from falling asleep or flaking out, stay focused. Taking the ACT requires only four or five hours of your life. You’ve probably had horrible blind dates that lasted longer than that, and you managed to survive them. This, too, shall pass.

Panicking over time

Every section on the ACT begins with directions and a line that tells you exactly how many questions are in the section and, therefore, how many minutes you have per question. The ACT is no big mystery. You can waste a lot of time and drive yourself crazy if you keep flipping pages and counting up how many more questions you have to do. You can do what you can do; that’s all. Looking ahead and panicking are counterproductive and waste time.

Messing up on the answer grid

Suppose that you decide to postpone doing Question 11, hoping that inspiration will strike later. But now you accidentally put the answer to Question 12 in the blank for Question 11 … and mess up all the numbers from that point on. After you answer Question 40, you suddenly realize that you just filled in Bubble Number 39 and have one bubble left — aaargh! Stroke City! It’s easy to say, Don’t panic, but chances are that your blood pressure will go sky-high, especially when you eyeball the clock and see that only one minute remains.

If you have a good eraser with you (and you should), the wrong answers on the answer grid should take only a few seconds to erase. But how on earth are you going to re-solve all those problems and reread and reanswer all the questions? You’re not; you’re going to thank your lucky stars that you bought this book and took the following advice: When you choose an answer, circle that answer in your test booklet first and then fill in the answer on the answer grid. Doing so takes you a mere nanosecond and helps you not only in this panic situation but also as you go back and double-check your work.

Rubbernecking

Rubbernecking is craning your neck around to see how everyone else is doing. Forget those bozos. You have too much to do on your own to waste precious seconds checking out anyone else. You don’t want to psych yourself out by noticing that the guy in front of you is done with his section and is leaning back whistling while you’re still sweating away. Maybe the guy in front of you is a complete moron and didn’t notice that the booklet has yet another page of problems. After you have the exam booklet in front of you, don’t look at anything but it and your watch until time is called.

Cheating

Dumb, dumb, dumb! Cheating on the ACT is a loser’s game — it’s just plain stupid. Apart from the legal, moral, and ethical questions, you can’t predict what types of grammatical mistakes will show up in the questions; what are you going to do, copy a textbook on the palm of your hand? All the math formulas that you need can’t fit onto the bottom of your shoe.

Worrying about previous sections

Think of the ACT as five separate lifetimes. You’re reborn four times, so you get four more chances to do it right. Every time the proctor says, Your time is up. Please turn to the next test and begin, you get a fresh start. The ACT rules are very strict: You can’t go back to a previous section and finish work there or change some of your answers. If you try to do so, the proctor will catch you and you’ll be in a world of hurt.

Worrying about the hard problems

The ACT contains a few incredibly hard questions. Forget about ‘em. Almost no one gets them right, anyway. Every year, a ridiculously small number of students receive a score of 36, and if you get into the 30s, you’re in a superelite club of only a few percent of the thousands and thousands of students who take the ACT annually. Just accept the fact that you either won’t get to or can’t answer a few of the hard questions and learn to live with your imperfection. If you do go quickly enough to get to the hard questions, don’t waste too much time on them. See if you can use common sense to eliminate any answers. Then mark your best guess from the remaining choices. Keep reminding yourself that every question counts the same in a section, whether that question is a simple 1 + 1 = 2 or some deadly word problem that may as well be written in Lithuanian.

Forgetting to double-check

Mark in your test booklet questions you’re unsure about as you work through a section. If you finish a test early, go back and double-check the easy and medium marked questions. Don’t spend more time trying to do the hard questions. If a question was too time-consuming for you five minutes ago, it’s probably still not worth your time. If you made a totally careless or dumb mistake on an easy question, however, going back over the problem gives you a chance to catch and correct your error. You’re more likely to gain points by double-checking easy questions than by staring open-mouthed at the hard ones.

Remember Every question counts the same. A point you save by catching a careless mistake is just as valuable as a point you earn, grunting and sweating, by solving a mondo-hard problem.

Chapter 3

Forming an ACT Study Plan

IN THIS CHAPTER

Bullet Deciding when to take the ACT

Bullet Developing an ACT study plan

You’re taking the ACT either by choice or because your high school requires it. Now what? Studying for a three-and-a-half-hour test may seem daunting, and you may be wondering where to start. First, you need to determine when to take the test. Then you need to create a study plan. This chapter is designed to help you do both.

When to Take the ACT

Currently, the ACT is offered at testing sites nationwide and internationally on weekends every February, April, June, July, September, October, and December. Additionally, some school districts offer the ACT during the school day in March, April, October, and November, depending on the high school. If you live in a district that offers one of these schoolday tests, your test date is set for you, but all other options allow for a little freedom of choice.

The best time to take the ACT is not a one-size-fits-all consideration. You may want to wait to take the test until you feel most prepared, but you also need to give yourself plenty of time to retake the test before you apply to college. Most colleges don’t require you to send the scores from every time you take the ACT, so you don’t necessarily have to be completely prepared before you take your first official test. Also, many colleges allow you to superscore your ACT scores, which means they’ll consider only your highest English, math, reading, and science scores from all the times you take the ACT. In fact, the ACT even creates a superscore score report if you take the test more than once. Therefore, there’s not a major downside to taking the test sooner rather than later.

Generally, if you’ve taken algebra II and trigonometry during your sophomore year, I suggest that you consider taking your first ACT test in the first semester of your junior year in either September, October, or December. (If you’re taking algebra II and trig during your junior year, you may want to wait until February or April of your junior year to take the first test.) The beauty of testing in the fall of your junior year is that you can devote the summer before to extensive ACT study. A perk of taking the December test is that it offers Test Information Release (TIR), which means you can pay extra to get a copy of your test questions and a report of the ones you answered correctly and incorrectly. This valuable information can come in handy when preparing for subsequent tests. This service is also available for the April and June exams.

If you take the test in the fall, you have plenty of options to retake the ACT in the spring and summer to achieve your top score. You can even get some extra summer study time in during the summer before your senior year and take the September ACT. Your scores from this test should be available in plenty of time before the earliest application deadlines in October and November. If you postpone taking your first ACT until April or June of your junior year, you may not have enough retakes to optimize your score.

Planning Your Study Time for Maximum Success

After you’ve chosen your testing start date, begin studying. The best way to avoid freaking out on exam day is to be fully prepared. So, make sure you have a strategy that fits your preparation timeline. You have many resources available to help you. Of course, this copy of ACT Prep 2024 For Dummies is a great place to start. I also recommend that you download the free Test Prep Guide from the ACT website (go to https://tinyurl.com/5hsrexpm) and get your hands on the most current edition of the The Official ACT Prep Guide (Wiley) for access to a bunch of official full ACT tests from recent years. You can also supplement these books with the series of official guides to each of the four ACT sections: The Official ACT English Guide, The Official ACT Mathematics Guide, The Official ACT Reading Guide, and The Official ACT Science Guide (all published by Wiley). The ACT also offers an online self-study course.

Tip Table 3-1 references suggested resources to include in your study plan based on your schedule.

TABLE 3-1 Following an ACT Preparation Schedule

Remember Regardless of how much study time you have, stick to your practice schedule. Create space in your calendar four or more times a week for at least 30 minutes to an hour of ACT practice. Regular practice will reinforce the concepts you learn in ACT Prep 2024 For Dummies and familiarize you with the ACT questions to help increase your test-taking efficiency.

If you have six months to prepare

If you’re a high school sophomore planning to test in the fall of your junior year or a high school junior prepping for the upcoming spring, summer, or fall ACT test dates, you likely have about six months to get ready. Here are the steps to follow when you have a pretty hefty chunk of time before you officially sharpen your no. 2 pencils for test day:

Month 1: Grasp a general understanding of the ACT.

Read chapters 1 and 2 of this book to get an overview of the test format and scoring considerations.

Download the free Test Prep Guide available from the ACT website and take a practice test. Read the ACT overview and instructions for taking a practice test. Set aside about three and a half hours to take and score the full ACT included in this guide.

Month 2: Take a stab at the English questions.

Read chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this book and answer the practice questions in Chapter 7.

Use the online test bank included with your purchase of this book to practice English questions. Check your answers and read through the explanations.

If you need more practice, work through The Official ACT English Guide.

Month 3: Master the math questions.

Read chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11 of this book and answer the practice questions in Chapter 12.

Use the online test bank included with your purchase of this book to practice math questions. Check your answers and read through the explanations.

If you need more practice, work through The Official ACT Mathematics Guide.

Month 4: Run through the reading questions.

Read Chapter 13 of this book and answer the sample questions in Chapter 14.

Use the online test bank included with your purchase of this book to practice reading questions. Check your answers and read through the explanations.

If you need more practice, work through The Official ACT Reading Guide.

Month 5: Run through the science questions.

Read Chapter 15 of this book and work through the sample questions in Chapter 16.

Use the online test bank included with your purchase of this book to practice science questions. Check your answers and read through the explanations.

If you need more practice, work through The Official ACT Science Guide.

Month 6: Practice, practice, practice.

Take the practice tests in chapters 19, 21, and 23 of this book. Read the answer explanations in chapters 20, 22, and 24.

Take more timed practice tests in The Official ACT Prep Guide. Score yourself and read through the explanations provided for each test.

Try to incorporate at least 40 minutes of ACT practice at least four to five days a week during the last two weeks before the test.

If you’re taking the ACT Writing Test, read chapters 17 and 18 of this book and write a practice essay using one of the prompts in the practice test chapters of this book.

If you have six weeks to prepare

If you have six weeks before the big day, follow this plan:

Week 1: Grasp a general understanding of the ACT.

Read chapters 1 and 2 of this book to get an overview of the test format and scoring considerations.

Download the free Test Prep Guide available from the ACT website and take a practice test. Read the ACT overview and instructions for taking a practice test. Set aside about three and a half hours to take and score the full ACT included in this guide.

Week 2: Take a stab at the English questions.

Read chapters 4, 5, and 6 of this book and answer the practice questions in Chapter 7.

Use the online test bank included with your purchase of this book to practice English questions. Check your answers and read through the explanations.

Week 3: Master the math questions.

Read chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11 of this