7 Ways the ACT is Different Than a Regular Test
The ACT is a standardized exam that is used to measure a high school student’s readiness for college. Colleges and universities throughout the United States require students to take either the ACT or the SAT and include their test score with their college application. Preparing for the ACT exam can be incredibly daunting. Why? Because it’s nothing like the tests that teachers give in high school, making it feel foreign and scary. Here are the differences students should be prepared for on ACT testing day:
Time Constraints
For regular tests during the school day, students are generally not penalized if they take any more or less time on an exam than their classmates. In fact, many brilliant students prefer to work through tests slowly, double-checking answers and thoroughly reviewing the content before handing in their work to the teacher. Some teachers will even let students stay later after the class has ended if they are still working through an exam. For these types of students, the ACT is particularly scary.
The ACT is built on set time constraints that change for each specific section. The time constraints require students to work a rather speedy pace if they are to have time to attempt all of the questions in each section. Many students do not have time to attempt all questions on the ACT, and that is okay. However, for a student that is aiming for a high score in the 30’s on the ACT, it’s imperative that the student have time to attempt all questions on the test.
That’s not to say that students who prefer to work through exams more slowly are unable to do well on the ACT. Doing so just requires knowledge about the setup of the exam and practice working on the content at the required pace. The ACT is comprised of four required sections - English, Math, Reading, and Science - and an optional Writing section. Each section has its own specific time constraint and number of questions associated with it. Here is what the breakdown looks like:
English: 45 minutes to answer 75 questions
Math: 60 minutes to answer 60 questions
Reading: 35 minutes to answer 40 questions
Science: 35 minutes to answer 40 questions
Writing: 45 minutes to write an entire essay BY HAND
For many students, working at the necessary pace can be the hardest part of the ACT. The only way to get better at working within these ACT time constraints is to practice full sections with this time constraint in place. This is a key part of ACT test preparation and studying leading up to test day.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR INTENSE TIME CONSTRAINTS: Incorporate the specific time constraints into practice tests and studying leading up to test day
2. Over three hours of straight testing
With the exception of standardized testing at school, most students likely have no experience with taking back-to-back exams for over three hours at a time, much less three hours on a precious Saturday morning.
The best way to prepare for the intensity of testing for such a long period of time is to practice this as well. Practice multiple sections back-to-back during ACT test prep and studying. This will give a better idea of what it will feel like to do this on test day. You want to practice this as much as possible so that your brain is used to testing for several hours in a row without becoming too fatigued. Students who are not ready for the long morning on test day can find their brain beginning to wander and their scores slowly dropping lower and lower with each additional section.
In addition to longer study sessions leading up to test day, students can help their brains succeed on test day by doing some easy health and wellness things: make sure to get enough sleep the night before the exam, get up early and eat a good breakfast before leaving for the testing center, bring a snack to eat halfway through the exam during the designated break time, and wake up early on test day so that your brain is awake and ready to go by the time you arrive at the testing center. All of actions will add up and put the brain in a ready-to-go state for testing for over three hours straight.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR LONG MORNING OF TESTING: Practice multiple sections back-to-back during studying and test prep leading up to test day; make sure to get enough sleep the night before test day; eat a healthy breakfast before going off to the ACT test center; bring a snack to have during the designated break time.
3. You can’t just memorize facts (for the most part)
While part of doing well on the ACT has to do with knowledge of various areas related to statistics, comma usage, geometry, and many others, much of what is being tested on the ACT can not just be memorized and regurgitated on test day.
We’ve all had the wonderful teachers who tell you exactly what is going to be on an exam, which parts of your notes to memorize, and which parts to ignore. Sadly, the ACT is a different type of monster. Not only are you being tested on content knowledge, but you are being tested on your ability to move quickly, your ability to apply your knowledge to new information, and your ability to make inferences and think critically.
Success on the ACT does not require memorizing any facts. It does, however, require memorizing some rules and patterns. This is specific mainly to the English and math sections of the ACT. Over half of the questions on the English section of the ACT are considered “Conventions of Standard English” a.k.a GRAMMAR. These questions inquire about correcting parts of phrases related to clauses, tense, comma usage, conjunction usage, etc. For this reason, it is important for students to have a good grasp of grammar rules, as this will make up most of the points on the English section. Similarly, the math section will always focus on algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and probability, to name a few. It certainly comes in handy for students to memorize a handful of geometric equations, including area, perimeter, and volume equations for different shapes, as well as coordinate geometry equations related to finding the slope of a line, distance between points, etc. However, much of the math section DOES NOT require memorization of equations in order to do well on the test. For the reading and science sections of the ACT, very little rule memorization will come into play. The key to these sections, as well as much of English and math, is to practice and familiarize yourself with the setup, the language, and the types of questions that will be asked by the ACT.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR CONTENT ON THE ACT: Practice, practice, practice! Base practice off of real ACT exams and practice exams to familiarize yourself with the language they use and the types of questions they will ask.
4. Multiple Choice
While students may have some experience with multiple choice testing at school, this is likely not the high school norm. Students can use the multiple-choice setup to their advantage in many instances. Process of elimination is a very helpful tool on all sections of the ACT. For the math section, students are presented with 5 answer options. For all other sections, there are only 4 answer options. If students are able to identify some answer options that are INCORRECT, this will assist the student in identifying the correct answer option, or at least the student will have a better probability of guessing the correct answer if some answers have been ruled out.
Further than this, students can leverage the answer options throughout the exam, but this is particularly helpful on the math section. If a student is stuck on a particular problem and can not seem to figure out how to arrive at the answer, it is sometimes possible to WORK BACKWARDS. This means rather than attempting 5+6=? the student could work off of 5+x=11. This can be very useful when students are unsure of how exactly to go about a problem. Oftentimes, answer options can be plugged into a question or equation and tested for accuracy.
Just as there are ways that students can use the multiple-choice answers to their advantage, the computerized multiple choice exam can work against students in some very key ways as well.
NO ARBITRARY WRONG ANSWERS
A teacher generating a multiple choice test for her class will not likely be anywhere near as thoughtful about the answer options given as the ACT is. On the ACT, every single answer option is well thought out. For example, on the math section of the ACT, each wrong answer is the answer that a student will reach if completing one or two wrong steps during the problem. If the student accidentally adds 3 instead of subtracting 3, the answer they get will definitely be an option listed. For this reason it is VERY important that students double check all of their answers.
ANSWERS THAT ARE MISGUIDING
It can be easy to get pulled into the well-worded answer options that show up on the ACT — even the wrong ones! The ACT writers are good writers. They know how to write compelling answer options, and this is something that they do throughout the test, but particularly on the English and reading sections. For example, a common type of question that shows up at the end of most English passages will ask students about the writer’s goal. A sample question could read “Suppose the writer’s goal had been to describe an instance where a person became famous. Would the essay accomplish this goal?” Students then have two answer options that say “Yes, this goal was accomplished” with an explanation, and they have two answer options that say “No, this goal was not accomplished” with an explanation. This is a key place to be on the lookout for misleading wrong answers. The ACT writers will phrase the wrong answers in a way that makes you want to pick them—even if you know that the goal was not accomplished in the essay! For questions like this, students should answer the “YES” or “NO” part of the question before reading the different answer options. Then the student should only read the two options that correspond with their YES/NO choice.
OVERTHINKING PATTERNS
If we go back to the teacher preparing a multiple-choice exam for her class, it would be somewhat unlikely to watch her consistently putting the correct answer as B for several questions in a row. This is because she is a human and her brain registers patterns. While working through the ACT, some students may see patterns like this, where they are continuously picking the same letter or where there are several A, F, A, F, A, F answers in a row, and they will get nervous! Students get nervous when they see these patterns because they assume they’re making mistakes. How could there be that many A, F patterns in a row? I must be doing something wrong, they tell themselves. This isn’t necessarily true!! The pattern of the answers is not determined by a human being that thinks the same way we do. The answer pattern is determined by a COMPUTER at RANDOM. Don’t overthink which letters you’re picking — focus on the answer itself and whether or not you think it is the RIGHT one.
ACCOUNTING FOR TIME TO FILL IN BUBBLES
Now, it doesn’t seem like it would be that big of a deal to take a second or two break after each question and fill in an answer bubble, but that time can definitely add up, especially when you’re already dealing with some pretty intense time constraints. Some students find it helpful to wait and fill in bubbles after they have completed a full page of questions or a full story, rather than filling in a bubble after every single question. This can be a good idea for another reason as well, because it avoids your brain from having to switch between two very different tasks (answering questions and filling in bubbles) constantly throughout the entire exam.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE EXAMS: Remember that answer options can be used to your advantage - practice working through problems using Process of Elimination and leveraging answer options to guide to the correct answer; Do not overthink answer patterns; Always double-check answers
5. So many rules…
Not only do students have to sit and test for four hours on exam day, but they have to be watched the entire time they’re doing it. Students are required to show photo identification during check-in upon arriving to the testing center. Then they are given a lengthy list of rules for test day. They are instructed when they can use the restroom, when they can eat a snack, when they can and cannot use their calculator, which types of watches and timers are acceptable and those that are not. And of course there is policy for how to handle things like cheating on the test. The list goes on and on. Should any of these rules be broken, students are threatened with “If you do [engage in any prohibited behavior], you will be dismissed and your answer document will not be scored. “
It’s no wonder that the ACT is an exam that creates a lot of anxiety for students who are preparing for it. Not only do students need to be prepared for the content found on the test and the questions being asked, but they have to be knowledgeable about all of the ACT rules and guidelines that, if they are unaware of the many rules, could end up with their test being thrown out and not scored.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR ACT RULES AND REGULATIONS: Gather all of the materials you’ll need to bring on test day well in advance (ACT ticket, ID, approved calculator, approved watch, etc.); Read about ACT rules to familiarize yourself with what is expected on test day
6. Location
Most students will end up taking the ACT in a location that they are not super familiar with. Testing centers often include colleges and universities. Some high schools can also be testing centers. In this case, some students are lucky enough to take the ACT at their high school - a location that should be very familiar to them.
For students taking the ACT at an unfamiliar location, it is recommended that students visit the site in advance. This will make sure that the student knows where to go on the morning of test day and does not run into issues with getting lost or being unsure of where to go. Additionally, students should always always always leave plenty of time for arriving at the testing center on test day. If the GPS says it will take 15 minutes to arrive, give yourself at least 30 minutes to be on the safe side.
Knowing where to go in advance will help lessen the anxiety associated with testing in a new environment. The student will feel more prepared for test day knowing that they will arrive on time at the correct location. Weakening anxiety leading up to test day is a huge step in lowering overall anxiety while testing. The student that shows up late to the test and has to hurry through check-in will be very flustered and will remain that way through much of the exam.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR ACT TEST LOCATION: If unfamiliar to you, visit your testing site before ACT test day to make sure you know where you are going; Pay attention to information such as room number, floor number, parking instructions, etc. that will be provided to you before test day; Allow yourself plenty of time for commuting to the testing center on ACT test day.
7. High-Pressure
All students have some experience with higher-pressure tests, whether it’s a super important final exam that’s worth 50% of your grade, or the ACT, which dictates the types of schools you are likely to be accepted to. The ACT is considered a high-pressure exam for some obvious reasons: Your ACT score is how colleges and universities that you apply to will compare you with other applicants. Your ACT test score is a big determining factor in whether you’ll get accepted to programs at certain schools, and it’s also beginning to play more of a role in tuition assistance. On top of these reasons, high schoolers often discuss their ACT scores with their friends and certainly with their families. It is normal for a high schooler to feel a sense of pressure to do as well as a friend or as well as an older brother on the ACT. All of these pieces add up to make the ACT a daunting and stressful experience.
High-pressure situations, not surprisingly, tend to come with some anxious feelings. Students often express heightened anxiety leading up to and during the ACT test due to its level of importance in college admissions. Lowering anxiety related to testing can seem like a difficult task, but this may not actually be the case. In many cases, anxiety can be lessened simply by increasing familiarity with the anxiety-driving factor. Students can be scared to take the ACT because it is made out to be an important, scary exam. However, a student who takes practice tests and becomes familiar with the formatting of the ACT will know EXACTLY what to expect on test day. The ACT does not throw any curve balls. The formatting and type of questioning found throughout the test have remained consistent for many years. While you can not study for the exact questions that will be found on the exam, you can bet your bottom dollar that you should memorize the equation for the area of a circle before you walk into the classroom on test day.
Generally speaking, anxiety is worse while leading up to the task that is perceived as scary than it is during the actual event. For example, someone who has a fear of flying will have immense anxiety leading up to a scheduled flight. However, most people who fear flying express that the flight itself is not as scary as they lead themselves to believe leading up to departure. That being said, the key to lowering anxiety levels on ACT testing day is to ensure students feel well-prepared for the exam from all directions. They need to be familiar with the content and types of questions that they will be asked, the format and any tips/tricks that could help them defeat time constraints, and they need to be knowledgeable about the logistics of ACT day that include the many rules and regulations and where they will need to go for testing. All of this preparation will help the student feel ready for test day, thus lowering anxiety before the test even begins.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR HIGH PRESSURE EXAM: Practice, practice, practice: The more test-like practice you do, the more familiar you will become with the test as a whole and the less anxious you will feel during the exam; Familiarize yourself with all aspects of the exam: content, format, and time constraints, as well as rules and process for arriving at the center and checking in.
Just like on any exam, any student can do well on the ACT if they take the time to prepare and study appropriately and become familiar with the layout of the test and the areas being tested. And the great thing about the ACT? You can take it AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WANT! Sure, no one WANTS to take the ACT a bunch of times, but many students will find that they can continue to increase their score with each attempt. For this reason, many students choose to take the test three to four times. The key to success on the ACT lies in understanding of the many aspects of the exam: the content being tested across all four sections, the formatting and time constraints for each particular section, and specific strategies and tips/tricks.