ACT Reading Prep: Small Tips & Tricks for Defeating the ACT Reading Section
You’ve probably heard someone say that there are tips and tricks that can help you raise your ACT score. While it may sound mysterious and secretive, it’s really not. There’s no simple trick to help you get a 36 on any section of the ACT, but there are some small things you can incorporate into your overall testing strategy that could give you time to attempt more questions and help you answer more questions correctly.
The ACT reading section can be intimidating and frustrating. This is true mainly due to the intense time constraint. This is the one section of the ACT where all of the answers are somewhere in the passage right in front of you, so it seems like it should be a pretty easy section of the test. However, they only give you 35 minutes to work through four short stories and 40 questions, so you’re forced to work through the stories quickly. Students who do not know what to expect from the reading section may be startled at how slowly they move through the stories and likely will not have time to complete the entire section.
But don’t fear – the ACT reading section is one that anyone can master with increased practice and familiarity of the types of stories that show up and the types of questions asked. The key to ACT reading prep is A LOT of repetition and identifying strategies that help you to complete as much of the section as possible in the 35-minute time constraint while simultaneously getting as many questions right as possible. ACT reading prep focuses on increasing familiarity with the format and types of language that show up in the stories, frequent practice of the types of questions asked, and, as always, identifying tips, tricks, and strategies that work for an individual student to help with combatting the intense time constraint of the ACT reading section.
Before you start to think about what tips and tricks you should make sure to remember on test day, make sure you have a solid big-picture strategy in place that’s going to help you do your best on test day. Once you’ve identified what big-picture ACT reading strategies work well to help you attempt as many questions as possible and answer them correctly as consistently as possible, it’s time to consider what other tips and tricks could help you boost your ACT reading score even higher. We encourage students to use trial-and-error to determine which of the tips and tricks below (if any) work well for you as you work through the ACT reading section.
Tips and tricks that can help anyone increase their ACT reading score:
Answer broader questions last
Just like there are different types of reading stories, there are going to be different types of questions that show up in the ACT reading section. Questions will range from very specific, asking you about vocabulary words within the text, to very broad, asking you about the main idea of the whole story or the mood of the narrator.
Generally, it is smart to save the broader questions and answer those last whenever possible. This is actually a major ACT reading strategy that many students find helps to raise their overall test score.
By saving the broader questions and answering them last, you’ll give yourself more time to understand the story before answering them. As you work through the other questions, you’ll continue to learn about the story and get an even better understanding of its overall purpose. Here is an example of a broad question that asks about the main idea of the entire passage and, therefore, requires a significant understanding of the story as a whole:
You’ll also notice that this question above shows up as question #21. That means that it is the FIRST question asked of the third ACT story. The ACT knows that, even if you’ve just read this entire story, the probability of you answering this question correctly is lower when you answer this question first in the question set than if you were to save it for the end. When you answer the broad questions last, you’re giving yourself a better chance of answering them correctly because you have a better understanding of the story as a whole than you did earlier in the question set.
2. Focus on questions that direct you where to look for the answer
On a similar note to point #1, in addition to broad questions, there are going to be more specific questions. There will usually be a handful of questions for each story that tell you where to look for the answer. These questions range from vocabulary questions that ask you the meaning of a certain word within a context to questions that ask you about the main idea of a paragraph. These questions will guide you to a specific line, set of lines, or paragraph in the text.
Here is an example of a specific question from the same story as the main idea question mentioned above:
This question is similar to the broad question noted earlier because it is still asking you about a main idea. However, this question is far more specific, as it refers only to one paragraph of the entire story. You can attack this question by rereading the last paragraph and considering what you know about main ideas and how to craft paragraphs. Consider the main subject of the paragraph and the overall goal. Use this to help guide you to the correct answer BEFORE you even look at the answer options. Come up with a main idea of the paragraph in your own words, and then look for the answer that best matches your assessment.
You know that the answers to all of the reading questions are there in the story somewhere right in front of you. But many questions will take you longer to find or work through. The question above may take you a few moments to work through, but it should be much quicker than the broad question that asks about the main idea of the story as a whole. By working through the main idea of the last paragraph first, you’ll be increasing your overall understanding of the story, which will make it easier to eventually work through the question that asks about the main idea of the whole story.
By focusing your efforts on questions that guide you to a specific part of the story, you’re eliminating some time-consuming searching and analyzing early on. The broader questions may take you longer since you may not know where you need to look to find them, or they may require more thought and understanding, so many students elect to start with the more specific questions, like the one noted above. These tend to be faster and easier to answer, and then they can fight through the less specific questions later.
3. Be mindful of the clock
The ACT reading time constraint for reading is 35 minutes to work through 40 questions. When you divide your time equally among all four stories, that gives you 8 minutes and 30 seconds to work through each story.
Everyone reads and comprehends at a different speed, but most students will struggle to complete all four stories and all 40 questions in the 35 minutes provided. It’s important to understand your natural reading speed and your overall testing pace when determining what ACT reading strategies you should use on test day. A big part of being successful on the reading section has to do with managing your time.
There are a handful of ways that you can make sure to stay on pace on test day, so make sure you have a plan for this.
There is always a clock in the testing room at the test center, and the test proctor will announce when you have 5 minutes remaining on each section of the test. For some students, this will suffice for helping to manage time. If this is your plan, make sure to check the clock now and then to make sure you’re moving quickly enough. It’s easy to accidentally get wrapped up in the test and end up moving too slowly.
Another option would be to bring a watch on test day. You are allowed to bring a permitted watch into the ACT testing center. You can use any watch that does not connect to the internet and that does not make any noise.
There are some companies that make watches specifically built for helping students on the ACT. Test Buddy makes an ACT test watch that comes pre-programmed with the different ACT time constraints for each section and tells the student what question or story they should be on at any given time to make sure they stay working at an appropriate pace.
The point is that you need to make sure that you’re aware of the clock. Even students who test more quickly need to make sure to stay on a certain pace in order to perform at their best level. Whatever timing method you choose, have a plan to check on the clock periodically throughout the test.
4. Process of Elimination
The ACT reading section (just like all the other sections) is multiple choice. Use this to your advantage. This is a huge tip that you can use to your aid across any section of the ACT.
All of the answers to the questions in the reading section are there somewhere in the reading passages, so you’ll be spending a decent amount of time reviewing parts of the story and digging for answers. You’re allowed to write all over your test booklet, so actually CROSS OUT wrong answers as you eliminate them. This will help you focus on the remaining answer options and give you a better means of making an educated guess if that’s what it comes down to.
5. Skip anything that’s difficult or that’s taking you too long
This is another Golden Rule for the ACT as a whole: Use your time wisely. You NEVER want to spend too much time on any single question in any of the sections. I know it can be really infuriating to be faced with a question that you know you remember learning in school, but you just can’t seem to remember the right equation or the right rule. You sit there and rack your brain, determined that you’re going to remember and get the question right. This is like a death sentence: before you know if, you’ve spent 6 minutes on one problem, and you still haven’t remembered what you’re trying to remember… That’s 6 precious minutes that could have been spent tackling 6 (or more!) other problems.
Remember that every single question is worth the same amount of points: pick and choose your battles wisely so that you can work through as many questions as possible. NEVER hesitate to skip something that you think is going to be difficult or that you think will take you a long time to complete.
The best case scenario will be that you have time left over at the end of the test to return to the questions you skipped and attempt them at that time. If not, you’ve been smart to use your time on questions that you found to be easier and more straightforward than those that would have slowed you down more.
6. Practice imagery while reading
When you read, do you find yourself picturing in your heads the different parts of a story or text? Most students will naturally picture characters and scenes in their heads when they read engaging, interesting texts, making a movie in their head of the story. This is why so many people love to read - your brain literally puts you into the story.
This concept of making pictures in your head as you read is referred to as “concept imagery,” and it is a skill that can be practiced and developed to help increase reading comprehension.
However, some students struggle with imagery in general, and many struggle with imagery when reading difficult texts or dull, uninteresting texts. Sadly, the ACT reading stories are not always very interesting, and chances are you will have to read about at least a topic or two that you don’t find particularly fun.
One way that you can help yourself work through difficult and uninteresting stories on test day is by practicing your concept imagery leading up to test day. Focus on making pictures in your head of the practice stories you read. Make pictures for different people and places. Pay attention to any details in the story - if they describe a characters with brown hair and blue eyes, adjust your picture and focus on making a movie in your mind that reflects what you’re reading.
You can even practice your imagery with your textbooks. It’s going to be challenging to make pictures out of the reading material you do for classes like chemistry, biology, and calculus, but it can be done, and it will actually help you to retain information.
This may sound kind of crazy if you are not familiar with this practice, but creating concept imagery while reading is proven to assist in reading comprehension, which is EXACTLY what you need for test day.
Lindamood-Bell, a leading education company in the areas of literacy and reading comprehension, helps students build reading comprehension through concept imagery. Lindamood-Bell instructs students to consider 12 main “structure words” when making mental images from texts: What, Size, Color, Number, Shape, Where, Movement, Mood, Background, Perspective, When, Sound.
If you can identify as many of these twelve aspects as possible and use them to assist you in creating a vivid mental image of the story you’re reading, you’re going to have a mental picture that matches the story well. This will help you to more easily recall certain aspects of a text, understand the overall meaning, and, for the sake of the ACT, answer questions quickly.
Take a look at an expert from a story about exoplanets -- planets that have been discovered that orbit stars other than the sun.
Consider the structure words mentioned above, and try to make a vivid mental movie of this paragraph as you read it. While at first this paragraph may seem complex or boring, hopefully these structure words help you to create a semi-interesting movie in your head.
For “where,” hopefully you’re picturing outer space, and, more specifically, you’re picturing planets FAR AWAY from their stars. The “movement” you should be picturing is of stars being slightly tugged back and forth very slowly around their stars. You can make similar pictures for “size,” “number,” and “what.” Size = large “big” exoplanets, “93-million-mile distance.” Number = 11 exoplanets with pictures taken. What = exoplanets in outer space that rotate around stars other than the sun.
Though some of the structure words don’t really apply to this specific story, try to identify as many ask you can. This may take some time to get used to at first, and you’ll wonder if you have time to complete this practice on test day. However, this process will become second-nature with increased practice and you’ll find yourself using this skill to help you with anything you read. If you can picture it, your comprehension will be stronger than if you simply read words and don’t take the time to process them fully. Focusing on creating concept imagery will keep you from zoning out while you read and help you more easily recall the information from the story when prompted by the questions.
7. Don’t be afraid to change up your strategy
You will spend a lot of time practicing reading strategies and making sure that you have one in place for test day that’s going to help you reach your goal ACT reading score. However, sometimes the ACT will mess with your plans.
After all, you have no way of knowing what the specific topics of the four stories on test day will be. All you know is that one falls into each of these four categories: prose fiction, social science, humanities, and natural science.
That being said, it’s VERY possible that you might end up with a story that, for whatever reason, you really do not like or you find really boring. Many students will perform better on stories that they find interesting or engaging. This isn’t exactly surprising. Students are bound to be more engaged with stories that are interesting, so overall reading comprehension and recall will be much better than for a story that’s difficult to get through.
If you run into a story that you find particularly boring, that seems super difficult to you, or that you just can’t seem to pay attention to and you find yourself zoning out, don’t be afraid to change up your strategy.
Even if your test day strategy that you’ve been practicing is to read the whole story before going to the questions, it’s important to recognize when you don’t have time to sit and fight through reading a difficult or boring story. Pay close attention to your pace, and if you’re taking too long, maybe jump right into the questions or skip the story and come back later if you have time.
The key takeaway is that, no matter how prepared you think you are for the ACT reading section, you may be thrown a curveball of a story that, for whatever reason, is just particularly awful for you. Don’t let this throw you off. Know when it’s time to ditch your strategy and attack a story from a different angle.
There you have it: ACT reading tips and tricks to help you reach your goal score.
The ACT reading section can be pretty difficult, especially if you don’t know what to expect. Most students are not used to being examined on how quickly they read and comprehend stories, but with practice and increased familiarity this is a section that anyone can do well on.
Good luck, and happy studying!
INTERESTED IN TUTORING?
Working one-on-one with a test prep & college counseling expert can help you maximize your score on test day and get accepted to your dream school. Whatever your college prep goals, our team can help!
I want to sign up! - Set up online lessons using the link to our scheduling system.
I want more information! - Fill out the information in the link, and someone will reach out soon.