SAT/ACT help and direction
I sent Frankdog8 a PM to post more on his thoughts on how to prepare for the SAT and ACT. He posted his answer on a different thread and I didn’t want it to get lost. This is a big issue for our pre-college guys and wanted to see what everyone thought. The following is Frankdog8’s comments…..please add advice. Thanks Frank for helping out!!!!!
Here are some tips that were given to me before I took the SAT IIs recently as well as the ACT.
With SATs, time usually is not as big of a factor as ACT, and the most important thing you can do is learn to narrow answers down and cancel out things you know aren't right. I was told that if you can narrow it down to two or even three, guessing is worth the slight penalty, which I think is a fourth or a third of a point.
On reading passages, it is a good idea to underline topic sentences in paragraphs, which often end up being the first sentence of the paragraph. Many times the questions will come straight from these sentences. Never start at the questions and look for answers before looking at the passage, as this ends up taking more time.
The ACT is a completely different ball game as you are VERY pressed for time, especially on the reading and science sections. For many people, finishing the reading is impossible, as you have to read four passages and answer questions in something like 25 minutes. Because I was one of these people, I was told to look at the four passages I was given right away for the first 30 seconds and then select the ones I found easiest to read and read those first. With the science, you are given many charts and graphs, usually with paragraph long descriptions. Unlike with the reading, I went straight to the questions with the science, as you are often given meaningless information inside the graphs or in the descriptions.
People have many different strategies for test taking, and the ones I described was what helped me the most. It is certainly not the only way to be successful. I hope this helps anyone planning on taking either tests soon.
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