As a high school student, it is required that you partake in the ACT in order to attach it in your college applications. Many colleges require that all high school students pass the ACT in order to award them with admission into the university. A lot of students who are about to write the ACT dread the test because of the fear of failing. In order to pass the ACT, it is advisable to study with the ACT practice test answers, and other related materials in order to maximize your score.
There are lots of common mistakes that about 40% of students who sit for the ACT make that can be avoided. Often because of the time allocated, students tend to answer the questions hurriedly without properly reading through. The test comprises five (5) sections which include, English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing which is optional. The above subjects include 75, 60, 40, 40 questions respectively and an essay in writing. A total of 2 hours, 55 minutes plus 40 extra minutes for students partaking in writing course, is the total time that is allocated for the exam.
To write this test and come out with flying colors, then you have to study for the test strategically. In each course, there are some tips that you need to know, which are outlined below. The more you practice the ACT questions, the better you would be able to answer them at the test venue. Just like the popular proverb says “practice makes perfect,” so study more and see the result of your hard word studying in the result of your ACT.
Most Common Mistakes Made on ACT English
English is a common language we all speak day in day out. But speaking English as a language does not guarantee you that you would pass the ACT English without studying it. During the ACT English test, there are some common mistakes a lot of students still make. Most students assume that all underlined portion has an error there. In some cases, ‘NO CHANGE’ is the right answer, but at times it may seem as though it is wrong, but it is correct about 25% of the time.
Two of the most intuitive concepts that are used by ACT on the English section are redundancy and relevance. Some test questions that these concepts are applied to may require that you eliminate some words to make a passage grammatically correct. In this section, most students skim through it and often leaving some extra words.
Another common error most students make in English is the wrong use of punctuations. A lot of times when you read what students wrote in the test, you would find a lot of misplaced commas, and full stops. Even the use of apostrophes could be misunderstood by some students. In some cases, some students would confuse ‘its’ with ‘it’s’ which means different things.
Writing the ACT Mathematics Without Errors
Not all students who have a weak result in ACT mathematics should be considered dull in mathematics. There are students who out of fear of the structure, formulas, or even the calculation in mathematics would make lots of mistakes while writing the ACT mathematics test. You have 60 minutes which is the time allocated by ACT to answer a set of 60 questions in the mathematics test.
Because of this time limit, students should skip through the questions to see if they can solve it first before attempting it. Many times, students would have already started the question and wasted a valuable amount of time before they realize they cannot solve the question.
Another key hint to take note of is some essential formulas. You need to familiarize yourself with the different types of mathematical formulas that are on your syllabus. A misplaced mathematical sign in the formula could result in a wrong answer.
When you are solving a question in the mathematics test, do not second guess your answers. At the same time do not rely too much on a calculator. The questions that are being asked are technical and can be solved without the aid of a calculator, although calculators are allowed into the test hall.
Mistakes Students Makes in the ACT Reading Test
For the ACT reading test, a lot of students are often nervous about it. Perhaps it is because they have 35 minutes to read through 4-8 passages and answer 45 questions. Firstly, when you get into the hall, you need to calm yourself down. When you are nervous, you are prone to making a lot of common mistakes. You may realize that you would make some mistakes that you normally would not make on a normal day.
You may realize that you could make a mistake like confusing the author’s opinion to characters’ in the text. Most mistakes often arise when you read through the passage very quickly. When you do not also pre-read the questions before answering it, you could also make some unfortunate mistakes.
The most common of all the mistakes students make in the ACT reading test is the dismissal of “none of the above” option. Most student often feels “none of the above” option is a ploy to lure them into choosing the wrong answer, especially in questions they do not find any answer to them after they have read it extensively.
Some Inaccuracies of Students in the ACT Science Test
Science test in ACT should be the easiest to pass in the entire ACT. Science should be so easy to pass because it can be related to a lot of things that are happening around us. Even though science should be easy to pass, students still fail in it. The main reason for the failure of some students in science ACT is as a result of inaccuracies in their results. If the setup of an experiment is not properly understood, it could result in wrong results and discretion errors.
Also, when you do not understand the viewpoint from which the question is being set, it can also cause you to answer the question wrongly. When you do not read the passage well, it could cause a misunderstood viewpoint of the passage. Basically, to pass the ACT science test, ensure you know a lot of science facts to avoid any careless error.
Errors to Avoid in the ACT Writing Test
The writing test is just in a lot of ways similar to the English test, but the main difference is that the writing test is used to test your writing skills. So it would involve you putting down actual sentences on paper. To come out with flying colors in a writing test you should avoid having errors in your writing.
Your writing test is marked based on your ideas. A perspective would be given to you, and you need to develop ideas on this perspective that are given to you. If you do not develop your ideas properly, you would not be awarded a good mark. Even though you write a long passage filling pages, and some other student writes just a few passages with a well-developed idea, the student with the well-developed idea would be awarded more mark.
Pick your choice of language and conventions wisely. Because your language choice also determines the amount of mark you get in the ACT writing. Make sure your writing is well organized too. Many times, students just put words down without properly organizing it. You need to organize your work to gain more marks.
An error a lot of students fail to avoid is revising their work after they are done. When you are through with writing your work, you need to read it a couple of times to ensure everything is in its right place, and free from errors.
How to Pass the ACT with Practice Test Answers?
To pass the ACT easily, then you need to study with the practice test answers. This would help you understand what the test entails and what you should expect from it. You can even take the test and mark it yourself based on the standard of ACT, or give it to someone to mark it for you so that you can see what you can expect to get from the test.
All the above errors that are committed by most students need to be understood and avoided. There is nothing more painful like studying hard for a test and then at the end of the day fail in the test because of silly errors that could have been avoided. So as you study, when you make an error during your study time, ensure you correct yourself and try the test again and ensure the second time you do not make the same mistake that you made in the previous one. Best of luck to anyone writing the upcoming ACT.