ACT Testing Tips: General Advice on How to Succeed when Taking the ACT

The ACT is a vital part of many students transition from High School to College. Whether you agree with it or not, the ACT is often weighted as important, or more importantly, than a students High School GPA. Here are five general tips to help a student succeed when taking the ACT. I used to teach ACT preparation and have scored a perfect 36 on my ACT exam. Over the next few weeks, look for specific tips on each section of the ACT.

Here are five general tips that will immediately improve your ACT score.

1) Answer ALL questions

The ACT does not take any points away for wrong answers. Therefore, it is VITAL that you answer EVERY QUESTION when taking the exam. If you request, the person that proctors your ACT exam (the person in charge while you take the test) will give you a five minute, and one minute notice before each specific section's time limit expires. Be sure to ask them to do this. It is not cheating, and almost all ACT proctors will agree to do this. When you get the one minute warning, use your last minute to fill out your answer sheet. Though they are just guesses, you will get approximately ¼ of these questions right, which will increase your overall ACT score. NEVER leave an answer bubble blank!!

2) Know what you are getting into

It baffles me how many students show up on testing day and have no clue how the ACT works. They don't know how many questions are in each section, or how long they have to complete each section. REMEMBER that the ACT can be as important as your four year High School GPA. For students that have a really good GPA in High School, the ACT could hurt you if you don't take it seriously. For students that didn't perform as well as they had hoped during High School, the ACT gives you a chance to redeem yourself. The point is, EVERYONE has something to lose or gain come ACT testing time. Here are some simple aspects of the ACT. Look back to my page for future stories that give advice on how to master each section of the test. The ACT has:

English Section: 75 questions - 45 minutes to complete

Mathematics Section 60 questions - 60 minutes to complete

Reading Comprehension Section 40 questions - 35 minutes to complete

Science Reasoning Section 40 questions - 35 minutes to complete.

Again, check my Content Producer page within the next couple of weeks for tips on succeeding in each section.

3) Process of elimination

There are no essay or short answer questions on the ACT (outside of the optional writing section of the ACT, which will never factor in as much as the multiple choice parts!) It is all multiple choice. So when you come to a question you don't know the answer to, eliminate the answers you know are WRONG. The ACT if known for throwing in a couple of choices that are obviously wrong. Cross those off. Then, you are working with a smaller set of answers. If you don't think you can quickly find the right answer out of the ones that are remaining, you have still increased your chances of guessing correctly, and in turn increased your score.

4) You don't need to answer all of the questions right to do well!

In fact, you only need to answer about 60% of the questions right to get above to average ACT score! So if you know you aren't going to be able to finish the exam (which is common! The ACT is designed to be too hard) you can actually focus on just about 60 percent of the questions, and if you get a good amount of them right (and make sure you still use the last minute to guess on the rest!) you will score about average! This allows you to worry less about the clock. One thing my students always said was that there just wasn't enough time to finish the test, and I told them "It is supposed to be that way!" Do not panic. Go in with the number of questions you need to answer to achieve your goal score (in reading, for example, answering 30 of the 40 questions correct will get you a score of about 27, which is WAY above average!) Then, in the last minute or two, guess on the rest, and you will likely get some of those right, which will only raise your score. Taking your time on 30 questions will give you a better score than rushing through 40. Always. If you hit a question you don't know the answer to, or you know will take a long time to answer correctly, skip it. The test intentionally puts questions here and there that they know will take a lot of time to answer. Don't fall into their trap! Skip the really tough ones, and if you have time, come back to them, or just guess when you are using your last minute or two to fill in all of the questions. NOTE: The ACT puts in questions that are not only really really hard, but also take a lot of time to answer. They are testing whether you are smart enough to skip these questions. Many people do not skip this type of question, and they waste quality time on a difficult question and still end up getting it wrong.

5) Don't fear the test!

I know I've told you how important the test can be. And I wasn't lying. This is an important test. However, all the ACT does is test your ability to take tests. The ACT requires very little actual knowledge to beat. It does require great test taking ability, though. Follow these tips, and your score will improve. Check back for my tips on each specific section of the ACT, and I guarantee your will score above average.

I hope you check back soon for my Math, Reading, English, and Science section breakdowns! Otherwise, Good Luck!