Tag: ACT prep

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How do you teach reading online?

As I prepared our Online ACT Course, the idea of teaching Reading online felt daunting. After all, in all of the years I’ve taught students how to read effectively on SAT and ACT, one gem of wisdom has always rung true: everyone reads in his/her own personal style.

It’s a very individual activity, after all—while we learn to read together in school, we almost exclusively read by ourselves. How can a teacher (or a tutor) swoop in and give advice from on high about how you should be reading?

As it turned out, the ACT Reading course was a lot less daunting—and a lot more fun—than I expected.

The first idea I had to abandon was that we should teach students ONE way to read. That just isn’t how it’s going to work—you have to leave room for students’ individual styles.

Instead of guiding students down a narrow path to success, I decided to highlight the priorities that all students should maintain, regardless of method. Using a passage’s structure to your advantage, for example. Keeping tabs on where the details are located within a passage, whether you learn/memorize them the first time around or not. Knowing that the style of the passage—from Humanities to Natural Science—can help you determine how to read it most effectively. These are strategies and techniques that all students should employ in order to be successful on ACT Reading.

The main challenge that a lot of students face on ACT Reading is speed. On their first try, maybe one student in 10 will finish the section in time. The way to get through the test faster is not simply to rush through it, but to work efficiently. Essentially, you want to work through this section right the first time. You also don’t want to sit and second-guess your answers, but that’s something we’ll cover within the course.

Anyway, I’m really happy with how the Reading course turned out. It’s got a lot of insight to offer students to help them get through the test in the smartest possible way. Take a peek and see if you agree, OK?

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Final Tips for the Upcoming ACT!

Another ACT test is right around the corner! If it feels less festive and anticipatory than, say, the week before Christmas, well, that makes sense. It is totally normal to feel some nervousness and uncertainty just before a big test. We thought we would share with you some tips that will help you perform better and feel more confident as you take on this big challenge. Ready? Here we go.

English

One question type causes the most stress: the ones at the end of the passage that ask you whether or not the author accomplished whatever s/he set out to accomplish. They look like this:

“Suppose the writer’s goal had been to write an essay on the historical impact of the chocolate chip cookie. Would this essay accomplish that goal?”

When I used to see these questions, my brain would complain, “I have to read the whole passage now???” and threaten to revolt. Now that I know this strategy, I actually kind of like these questions. (Is that weird?)

Here’s the strategy: ACT English passages are well organized. That means that the first sentence of each paragraph will be a clear topic sentence. In addition, all of these passages come with a title. Those titles are super helpful! If you go back and carefully read the title plus the topic sentence of each paragraph, you’re going to know exactly what the writer accomplished in the essay, and you’ll be able to answer the question quickly and confidently.

Math

The math strategy I want to share is one of the most useful standardized test strategies of all time. Suppose a question starts with a statement like, “If a and b are integers, and b < a < 0, which of the following will have the greatest value?” In math class, you might be expected to evaluate the five different answer choices to prove why one of them will always have the greatest value. On the ACT, you have a much better option: plug in numbers and let them solve the question for you.

Here’s what you do (it’s really simple): pick numbers for a and b, making sure you play by the rules: they are integers, they both are less than zero, and b is less than a. You could make b = -3 and a = -2. Once you have those values, simply plug them into through the answer choices. Whichever answer choice produces the largest value is the right answer.

What’s amazing about plugging in is that it can help you solve some of the “hardest” questions on the test. Look for opportunities to plug in numbers on questions 45-60…I can almost guarantee that you’ll see one just like the problem mentioned above!

Reading

Ask anyone who has gone through this before what the major challenge is on the Reading Test, and 9 out of 10 will say the same thing: the speed.

This section asks you to do a fair amount of work in an unfair amount of time. Four 800 word passages plus 40 questions…in 35 minutes? That’s a lot of work in not a lot of time. Here’s the thing: you can actually finish the section. The secret is not second-guessing your answers.

In school, you’re used to mulling your answer choices, flipping back and forth from choice (A) to choice (D), weighing the nuances of each one. You can’t afford to do that on the ACT. Here’s what you do instead:

-Read the question carefully.

-Think of an answer in your head.

-When you find an answer that matches what you were thinking, choose it and go to the next question.

-If you have to go back and do some research, do it. If a question gives you a line reference, it is always a good idea to look back.

-If after a minute you are having a hard time finding the evidence you need, or if you are torn between two answers, move on. Circle the question, put your best guess down on the answer sheet, and come back to that question if time allows.

I know that’s different from how you take a test in school, but this is a different test. The main objective here is to get through all 40 questions at as high a level of accuracy as you can. Obsessing over 1-2 questions may help you get those questions right, but if they cost you the chance to answer 6 other questions, then that extra time spent wasn’t worth it, right?

Science

Three words:

Keep. It. Simple.

The whole point of the Science test is to flood you with information. The passages are long, dense, and filled with unfamiliar terms. The questions themselves are designed to overwhelm students through sheer excess of words. I mean, seriously: some of the questions are mind-blowing in the way they use 100 words just to say the simplest thing.

Your job is to ignore the B.S. and find the important stuff. Here’s a sample:

“Based on Figure 2 , a researcher asserted that GSI and K are negatively correlated. The researcher hypothesized that over the subsequent three-month period the value of GSI will steadily increase. According to this claim, the value of K will likely:”

What’s important here?

-GSI and K are negatively correlated.

-GSI is increasing.

-We’re looking at Figure 2.

You really only need the first two facts here. “Negatively correlated” means that as one goes up, the other goes down. What happens to K as GSI increases? You guessed it: it decreases.

On the Science Test, don’t try to understand everything within the passage and the questions. Hunt for key terms, look for simple relationships, and move on to the next question. In simpler terms: Keep It Simple.

Writing (optional)

For those of you taking the optional Writing test, here are a couple of hot tips:

-When you address the perspectives that are given, try to do more than just “agree” or “disagree.” Write about how the authors made their points. Are their arguments supported by evidence? Did they make any broad generalizations, or appeals to emotion? The more specific you can get about the techniques the authors employed, the better your score will be.

-Write a ton. Length is your friend! I hope it’s obvious that you shouldn’t include fluff in order to make it longer, but whenever you have the chance to explain your thinking in greater depth, do so. Length is the clearest indicator of score on the ACT essay—so don’t be shy! Write as much as you possibly can!

 

That’s it! Hope you found these tips helpful.

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Top Five Facts About the ACT

 

One: Speed is Critical

If you’re considering taking the ACT, one important factor to consider is speed. Students must answer more questions on the ACT than the SAT in a similar amount of time. So start by asking yourself: do I work quickly? Consider your testing experience in school. If you generally finish tests and turn them in within, say, the first one-third of students, then you should be able to handle the pace of the ACT. If you’re not a student who works quickly, you can improve your pace with timed practice; however, a slower pace can be an impediment to achieving a high score on the ACT.

 

Two: Science is Not so Science-y

Just because science is not your strongest subject does not mean you shouldn’t take the ACT. Question: what are they really testing on the science section? If you said “Um. Hello! Science!” you are actually wrong. Sure, there is a need for basic science knowledge, like the difference between mitosis and meiosis; however, what students really need to know is how to read tables, diagrams, and graphs. Often the questions tell you exactly where to look (i.e. “Based on Table 2…”)!

 

Three: ACT is the Equivalent of the SAT

Every admissions office will consider ACT and SAT scores the same way, meaning neither test is superior to the other. We’re encouraging most of our students to take the ACT since there simply isn’t enough material on the Redesigned SAT. Ultimately the decision to take one test over the other should be based on practice test results and students’ experience and comfort level with the format of the tests.

 

Four: Standardized Content = Opportunity to Improve

Guess what? The ACT test is always the same! Sure the numbers and passages change but the general content and format of the test stays the same. With sufficient practice students can and should improve their scores.

For instance, there are four passage types on the Reading test: Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative, Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science. They always appear in the same order. In our book, “Tutor Ted’s Guide to the ACT,” we teach students the nine types of questions that appear on the Reading test and how to answer them, as well as which questions appear more frequently on one passage type versus another. Applying these tools on timed practice tests will help students gain the confidence they need to tackle the Reading test. This applies to all five sections of the test.

 

Five: The Essay is a Necessary Evil

While the essay does not count towards your overall score, many schools actually want to see it. The format of the essay changed in fall 2015, and students have found it to be more challenging. Now students have to analyze and evaluate three perspectives, share their own perspective, and explain how their perspective relates to the three perspectives provided, all in 40 minutes! In our ACT Guide, we provide instructions on how to create a Blueprint and write a killer essay in the time allotted.

 

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How College Admissions Offices View New SAT vs. ACT

With the arrival of the Redesigned SAT, we reached out to our friends in the admissions offices at Harvard, Princeton, and Northwestern to find out how they will handle the new test, the old test, and the ACT. Here are the questions we asked followed by their answers.

 

What is your opinion of the new SAT?

“The new SAT is as new to us as it is to the students so we will have to see how everything unfolds but we commit to giving students fair consideration and I don’t imagine that our review process will change drastically.”

 

Is the ACT the equal of the SAT?

“We accept the results from both the ACT and SAT and consider them in the same way.”

 

How will you compare Redesigned SAT results to ACT and old SAT results?

“We will likely eventually get a score concordance table from ACT and the College Board that allows us to compare results. We don’t have that table yet but that is what we have used in the past.”

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We write books. Here’s why.

For as long as I’ve been tutoring students for admissions tests, I’ve been writing materials to use in session. It started innocently enough: I wanted to work with a student on shape geometry during our lesson. I didn’t just want to throw problems at him and walk him through how to do them. I wanted him to remember the problem-solving techniques we used so that he could use those tools on problems in the future. I wrote a three page chapter on triangles, and much of what went into that first Word document lives on, more than a decade later, in our SAT and ACT books.

Why do we write our own materials? The easy answer is that we’re not completely satisfied with the books that are out there. That answer is appropriately snappy, but it’s definitely not the whole truth. The real answer is that we have our own style, our own philosophy about how students learn best. Our crazy idea is that students learn best when they are engaged. Teach people in a way…

• that is relevant to them
• that’s funny
• that shows them why the content is valuable to them

…and the result is that student learn the material so that it becomes central to them. They don’t just memorize; they understand.

That is why we write our own books. Our students deserve it.