How to Prepare For the ACT – Part 1: Two Years Before

The ACT is probably one of the most important tests you will ever take because it can have a huge impact on your college choices. Most colleges and universities will use your ACT test score along with your high school GPA to determine your eligibility for admission. A high ACT score can really help improve your chances, especially if "senioritis" has set in a little early and your GPA reflects it. In fact, if your ACT score is high enough, you could even be awarded a scholarship.

The ACT is a Difficult Exam

However, most students don’t realize that the ACT is a very hard exam until they take it for the first time. Even if you did well and received good grades in high school, you can still score poorly on the ACT. This is not because the concepts tested on the ACT are terribly difficult; it’s due to the fact that questions on the ACT have been deliberately designed to confuse you.

Start Preparing Early for the ACT Test

As a result, you need to do more than just attend class in high school if you want a high score on the ACT. Instead, you need to consciously prepare for the ACT. Many years ago, Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” Accordingly, you should start your preparation for the ACT long before your senior year in high school. In this post, we’re going to review things you should do to start preparing two years before you actually take the ACT.

Yes, you read that last sentence correctly. Like it or not, you really should start preparing for the ACT about two years before you actually take the test. The most important thing you can do during this time is to take academically challenging courses while in high school. Let’s break down what you need to do for each subject test on the ACT, beginning with the Reading Test.

Preparing for the ACT Reading Test

The most important thing you can do to prepare for the ACT Reading Test is to enroll in high school literature classes. To do well on the Reading Test, you need to know how to quickly, but carefully read a passage of text and analyze it. Some of the passages on the Reading Test are pulled from non-fiction articles, while others are pulled from fictional stories.

Key Skills Required for Non-Fiction Passages

For the non-fiction passages, you need to be able to identify:

• The author’s audience. In other words, who is the author writing to?
• The main argument of the passage. What was the author’s purpose in writing the passage?
• The supporting facts presented by the author. What facts does the author present to support his or her main argument?
• The author’s conclusions. What does the author conclude from the fact presented?

Key Skills Required for the Fiction Passages

The fiction passages require a much different approach. Because these passages are pulled from a much longer story, you need to be able read the passage and identify:

• The context of the passage. What is the setting? When did the story in the passage occur and where? What can you infer about the current scene based on the context?
• The main characters in the passage. Who are they? Do they have a back-story?
• How the characters relate to each other. What are their motivations? Do they like each other, hate each other, etc?
• What happens in the passage? Usually you will find that there are one or two key interactions happening in the current scene. What are they? How does the story play out? How does each character contribute to how the story plays out?

Preparing for the ACT English Test

The ACT also includes the English Test, which tests you knowledge of English grammar rules. In this test, you will be presented with several passages that are pulled from much longer articles or stories. Within each passage, you will find underlined text that you must quickly read and analyze. If the underlined text uses incorrect grammar, you must identify how to correct it. Here’s a quick list of grammar errors that are commonly tested on the English Test:

• Should you use their, they’re, or there?
• Should you use its or it’s?
• Do the pronouns agree with their antecedents?
• Does the verb agree with its subject?
• Is the correct verb tense used?

Of course, there are many other grammar rules that are tested. To score high on the ACT, you need to be familiar with all of them.

TIP: I frequently refer to the English Test as “low-hanging fruit.” This is because most students find it is easier to improve their score on English Test than any of the other tests on the ACT. Boosting your score significantly on the English Test will also raise your overall composite ACT score.

Preparing for the ACT Math Test

In addition to Reading and English Tests, the ACT also includes the Math Test. Most students tremble in fear of this test. This fear is not unwarranted. The Math Test is unquestionably the most difficult test on the ACT. In fact, most students only answer about half of the questions correctly. That means the average score on the Math Test is an F!

Therefore, you need to prepare extensively for this test. I highly recommend that you take the following classes before you take the ACT:

• Algebra I
• Algebra II
• Geometry
• Trigonometry

Here is a list of math concepts that tend to be tested heavily on the ACT Math Test:

• Intervals and sequences
• Exponents and roots
• Proportions and ratios
• Matrices
• Basic statistics (especially probability)
• Systems of equations
• Factoring polynomials
• Functions
• Inequalities
• Quadratic equations
• Coordinate geometry
• Shape geometry
• Trigonometry

TIP: Most students fear the Trig questions the most on the ACT. However, the Math Test usually only includes 4-5 Trig questions. If Trig just ain’t your thing, you may want to consider focusing your studies on Algebra and Geometry because they make up the bulk of the questions on this test.

Preparing for the ACT Science Test

Finally, you need to take steps to prepare for the Science Test. The best way to prepare for this test is to take at least two science courses before you take the ACT. The ACT commonly pulls questions from the following science subjects:

• Astronomy
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Geology
• Meteorology
• Physics

TIP: It doesn’t matter which science subjects you choose. That’s because the ACT does not test your knowledge of these subjects. Instead, it tests your ability to:

• Read a scientific passage.
• Interpret the data found within the passage.
• Make inferences from the data found in the passage.
• Analyze the research methods used in the passage.
• Compare and contrast opposing opinions found within the passage.

In other words, the Science Test is more like a reading comprehension test than a true science test. That’s why it doesn’t matter which science courses you choose to take in high school as long as you understand the Scientific Method and are able to do the things listed above.

Learning ACT Strategies

Recall that at the beginning of this article I stated that you must do more than just attend class in high school to score well on the ACT. The courses we talked about in this post will only take you so far on the ACT. You also need to learn how to take the ACT Test itself. You need to know how to:

• Manage the clock while taking the ACT.
• Filter out the answers that have been deceptively written to appear to be correct, but really aren’t.
• Prioritize the order in which you answer questions.
• Develop a strategy for answering super-hard questions.

To learn how to do these things, I recommend you enroll in an ACT Test prep course, such as those offered by my company, ACTbrainy.com. Almost all of our students boost their ACT score by at least four points upon completion.

Stay tuned for future posts where I will discuss things you should do to prepare for the ACT:

• Two months before the test.
• One month before the test.
• One week before the test.
• The day of the test.