The ACT^® For Dummies^®, 4th Edition

by Michelle Rose Gilman; Veronica Saydak; Suzee Vlk (Suzee Vlk Test Prep)

• ISBN13: 9780764596520
• ISBN10: 0764596527
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-08-01
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Boost your test-taking skills and beat the clock Prepare for the ACT? quickly and painlessly and maximize your score! Are you one of the millions of students taking the ACT? Have no fear! This friendly guide gives you the competitive edge by fully preparing you for every section of the ACT, including the optional writing test. You get two complete practice tests plus sample questions -- all updated -- along with proven test-taking strategies to improve your score. Discover how to * Study for each section * Stay focused during the test * Manage your time wisely * Make smart guesses * Spot test traps and tricks

Author Biography

Michelle Rose Gilman is proud to be known as Noah’s mom (Hi Noah!). A graduate from the University of South Florida, Michelle found her niche early and at 19 was already working with emotionally disturbed and learning-disabled students in hospital settings. At 21 she made the trek to California and there she found her passion for helping teenage students become more successful in school and life. What started as a small tutoring business in the garage of her California home, quickly expanded and grew to the point where traffic control was necessary on her residential street. Today, Michelle is the Founder and CEO of Fusion Learning Center, a private school and tutoring/test prep facility in Solana Beach, CA, serving over 2,000 students per year. She has taught tens of thousands of students since 1988. She created the Mentoring Approach to Learning and is the author of various books on self-esteem, writing, and motivational topics. Michelle founded the Addiction and Recovery Division at Fusion and has overseen dozens of programs focused on helping kids become healthy adults. She currently specializes in motivating the unmotivatable adolescent, comforting their shell-shocked parents, and assisting her staff of 27 teachers.

Veronica Saydak graduated from the University of San Diego with a Bachelors Degree in English. She found her real education in travel and seeing the world. She has traveled to over 12 countries, studying various cultures through their literature and lifestyles. She has been a highly coveted English teacher, specializing in writing, for over 4 years. Currently, Veronica is the Director of Student Development at Fusion Learning Center, where she is responsible for program development, staff supervision, and teaching her students on a one-to-one basis. As an administrator, Veronica specializes in the emotional well-being of over 400 students. Her wit and humor might not solve the world’s problems but it definitely makes the world feel lighter.

Although more likely to admit to being a used-car salesperson, Suzee Vlk was a test prep specialist from 1975 to her death in 2003, working her way through graduate business school and law school teaching courses in ACT, SAT I, GRE, GMAT, and LSAT preparation. By her own description, she found the paranoia and take-no-prisoners mindset required for doing well on the ACT a big help in developing cutthroat tactics to use in the boardroom or courtroom. Eventually, she became president of Suzee Vlk Test Prep and taught thousands of students in dozens of courses at universities and private corporations. She wrote material used in SAT and GRE preparation software and videos. Her prep books for the ACT and other standardized exams have been published worldwide.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(1)
About This Book	1	(1)
You Can Run, but You Can't Hide	1	(1)
How This Book Is Organized	2	(2)
Part I: Coming to Terms with Reality: An Overview of the ACT	2	(1)
Part II: Serving Your ``Sentence'': English Review and Test	2	(1)
Part III: Writing the Writing Test Rightly: You Have a Choice	3	(1)
Part IV: Don't Count Yourself Out: The Math Review and Mini-Test	3	(1)
Part V: Time to Read the Riot ACT: The Reading Test	3	(1)
Part VI: Proven to Cause Brain Defects in Laboratory Rats: The Science Reasoning Test	3	(1)
Part VII: I'd Rather Wait for the Movie: Full-Length Practice ACTs	3	(1)
Part VIII: The Part of Tens	3	(1)
Icons Used in This Book	4	(1)
Where to Go from Here	4	(1)
Making a Commitment	5	(2)
Part I: Coming to Terms with Reality: An Overview of the ACT	7	(18)
Getting Your ACT Together: The Format	9	(6)
I'd Forget My Head If It Wasn't Attached: What to Take to the ACT	9	(1)
What Not to Take to the ACT	10	(1)
Normal Is Boring: Unusual Circumstances	11	(1)
Anything's Better than Nothing: Guessing for Points	11	(1)
Your Number's Up: Scoring	12	(1)
So How Do I Know that I'm a Genius? What Scores Mean	12	(1)
What Do They Want from Me? What Is Tested?	12	(1)
Practice Makes Perfect: Repeating the Test	13	(2)
Succeeding on the ACT	15	(6)
Four Stress-Busters to Help You Survive the ACT	15	(1)
Counting to four	15	(1)
Stretching	15	(1)
Practicing visualization	16	(1)
Thinking positively	16	(1)
Nine Points to Always Double-Check	16	(2)
Exponents	16	(1)
Common-sense connections	16	(1)
Decimal places	17	(1)
Operations signs	17	(1)
Political correctness	17	(1)
-ing and other beware! words	17	(1)
Context	17	(1)
Grammar	17	(1)
Completed answer grid	17	(1)
Ten Dumb Things You Can Do to Mess Up Your ACT	18	(3)
Losing concentration	18	(1)
Panicking over time	18	(1)
Messing up numbering on the answer grid	18	(1)
Rubbernecking	19	(1)
Cheating	19	(1)
Worrying about previous sections	19	(1)
Worrying about the hard problems	19	(1)
Transferring information from problem to problem or section to section	20	(1)
Forgetting to double-check	20	(1)
Looking back and doing ``coulda-shoulda''	20	(1)
Reading the Admissions Committee's Mind: What Colleges Want	21	(4)
What's the Number One Thing That Colleges Look For?	21	(1)
How Important Is the ACT, Really?	21	(1)
Do Schools Care Whether I Repeat the ACT?	22	(1)
Can I Take the ACT Instead of the SAT I?	22	(1)
If I Mess Up Big-Time on the ACT, What Can I Do to Compensate?	22	(1)
What Classes Do You Recommend That I Take as a Senior? Junior? Sophomore?	22	(1)
How Helpful Are Charity Work and Sports?	23	(1)
What Should I Say on the College Essay?	23	(1)
What Will They Ask Me in the Interview, and What Should I Say?	23	(1)
How Can I Decide Which School Is Best for Me?	24	(1)
What's the Biggest Mistake Most Students Make in College Planning?	24	(1)
Part II: Serving Your ``Sentence'': English Review and Test	25	(28)
Glamour Grammar: The Five-Star Review	27	(14)
Subject-Verb Agreement	27	(2)
Pronouns	29	(1)
Adjectives and Adverbs	30	(1)
Sentence Structure	31	(1)
Parallelism	32	(1)
Comparisons	32	(1)
Diction	33	(6)
affect/effect	33	(1)
amount/number	33	(1)
anxious/eager	34	(1)
assure/ensure	34	(1)
between/among	34	(1)
complement/compliment	35	(1)
eminent/immanent/imminent	35	(1)
everyday/every day	35	(1)
farther/further	35	(1)
flaunt/flout	36	(1)
founder/flounder	36	(1)
good/well	36	(1)
if/whether	36	(1)
imply/infer	37	(1)
it's/its	37	(1)
less/fewer	37	(1)
lie/lay	37	(1)
phase/faze	38	(1)
prescribe/proscribe	38	(1)
principle/principal	38	(1)
rise/raze/raise	39	(1)
stationary/stationery	39	(1)
who/whom	39	(1)
Miscellaneous Mistakes	39	(2)
hardly	39	(1)
hopefully	40	(1)
if . . . would	40	(1)
in regards to . . . in regard to	40	(1)
where . . . that	40	(1)
Misspellers of the World, Untie! Mastering the English Test	41	(6)
Seeing Is Believing: The Format of the Test	41	(1)
The passages	41	(1)
The questions	42	(1)
The answer choices	42	(1)
Being Boxed In: The Box Questions	42	(1)
What Do They Want Outta Me? What the English Usage Questions Test	43	(1)
Maximizing the Gain, Minimizing the Pain: Questions Worth Looking For	44	(2)
Looking for short, diction-type questions	44	(1)
Going for pure grammar	44	(1)
Ignoring superfluous info	45	(1)
Their Pain, Your Gain: Traps That Others Have Fallen Into	46	(1)
It's Not What You Say, It's How You Say It: English Practice Questions	47	(6)
Part III: Writing the Writing Test Rightly: You Have a Choice	53	(24)
ACT Write: The First Words on Essay Writing	55	(10)
Rattle Your Writing with Some Loose Screws	55	(3)
Thought diarrhea: Writing before you think	56	(1)
The attack of the clock: Panicking about time	56	(1)
Being too relaxed: Not noticing your time limit	56	(1)
Expressing your inner poet: Using creativity as a crutch	56	(1)
Big words with big consequences: Using words you don't know	56	(1)
Expecting perfection in 30 minutes: Being overcritical of yourself	57	(1)
Speaking another language: Dude, they want to read English	57	(1)
Being a wimp: Not taking a solid stand	57	(1)
You are not an island: Forgetting that people really read this stuff	57	(1)
Do not do not repeat yourself: 'nuff said	58	(1)
Leaving the bathroom with TP on your shoe: Not editing your essay	58	(1)
Making the Grade: How the ACT Folks Are Going to Score You	58	(1)
Example Essays and Their Scores	58	(7)
1 is the loneliest number: How not to be a 1	59	(1)
2 little 2 late: Steer clear of coming in second	59	(1)
Still on the wrong side of the tracks	60	(1)
The grass is greener on this side	60	(1)
Star material: Five-star winners	61	(1)
You unlocked the code: A perfect score	62	(3)
Write Right: The Writing Test Review	65	(10)
Keeping It Simple: Making a Judgment	65	(1)
Fightin' with Their Words: Incorporating the Question	66	(1)
Putting Up Your Dukes: Deciding Your Position and Writing About It	67	(1)
Throwing a Good First Punch: The Hook	67	(2)
The Proof Is in the Pudding: Proving Yourself	69	(1)
Specific examples	69	(1)
Variety of examples	69	(1)
Hamburger Writing: The Organization of the Essay	70	(2)
Top Bun: The introduction	70	(1)
The Three Meats: Example paragraphs	70	(1)
Transitions	71	(1)
The Bottom Bun: Conclusion	71	(1)
Wielding the Red Pen: Editing and Proofing	72	(1)
Relax, you've already learned it	72	(1)
Top four editing techniques	72	(1)
This Was Not a Prescription: Handwriting	73	(2)
Practicing Promptly with Practice Prompts: Essay Practice Examples	75	(2)
Writing Prompt #1	75	(1)
Writing Prompt #2	76	(1)
Part IV: Don't Count Yourself Out: The Math Review and Mini-Test	77	(66)
Ogling More Figures than a Beauty Pageant Judge: Geometry Review	79	(20)
You Gotta Have an Angle	79	(3)
Triangle Trauma	82	(5)
Similar figures	84	(1)
Area	85	(1)
Pythagorean theorem	85	(1)
Pythagorean triples	86	(1)
Thanks 4 Nothing: Quadrilaterals	87	(3)
Quaint quads: Bizarre quadrilaterals	89	(1)
Leftovers again: Shaded-area problems	89	(1)
Missing Parrots and Other Polly-Gones	90	(3)
One interior angle	90	(1)
Volume	91	(1)
Total surface area (TSA)	92	(1)
I'm Too Much of a Klutz for Coordinate Geometry	93	(1)
Running Around in Circles	94	(5)
Catching Some (X's, Y's, and) Z's: Algebra and Other Sleeping Aids	99	(18)
The Powers That Be: Bases and Exponents	99	(2)
Keep It in Proportion: Ratios	101	(1)
Things Aren't What They Seem: Symbolism	102	(3)
Abracadabra: Algebra	105	(3)
Solve for x in an equation	105	(1)
Curses! Foiled again	106	(2)
Fact-or Fiction: Factoring	108	(1)
Too Hip to Be Square: Roots and Radicals	108	(2)
Addition and subtraction	109	(1)
Multiplication and division	109	(1)
Inside out	110	(1)
Probably Probability	110	(1)
Rule 1: Create a fraction	110	(1)
Rule 2: Multiply consecutive probabilities	111	(1)
The Stats Don't Lie: Statistics	111	(2)
Median	112	(1)
Mode	112	(1)
Range	112	(1)
Don't Soak Your Head: SOH CAH TOA	113	(2)
How to Use All This Junk: Trigonometric Ratios of Angles	115	(1)
No Nervous Breakdowns, Please	116	(1)
Reviewing Miscellaneous Math You Probably Already Know	117	(14)
Dirty Math: Time, Rate, and Distance	117	(1)
It All Averages Out: Averages	118	(2)
Missing term average problem	119	(1)
Weighted averages	119	(1)
Percentage Panic	120	(2)
Ready, Sets, Go: Number Sets	122	(1)
Prime and Composite Numbers	123	(1)
I'm All Mixed Up: Mixture Problems	124	(1)
Greed Is Great: Interest Problems	124	(1)
All Work and No Play: Work Problems	125	(1)
Smooth Operator: Order of Operations	126	(1)
Measuring Up: Units of Measurement	126	(2)
Broken Hearts, Broken Numbers: Fractions	128	(3)
Adding or subtracting fractions	128	(1)
Multiplying fractions	128	(1)
Dividing fractions	129	(1)
Working with mixed numbers	129	(2)
Numb and Number: Acing the Mathematics Test	131	(6)
What You See Is What You Get: The Format and Breakdown	131	(1)
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: What Isn't on the Mathematics Test	132	(1)
Getting into the Grind: The Approach	133	(1)
Time Flies When You're Having Fun: Timing Tips	134	(1)
Skim for your favorite questions	134	(1)
Start in the middle when plugging in the answer choices	134	(1)
Kindly refrain from showing off everything you know	134	(1)
Put aside two minutes to fill in the remaining ovals	135	(1)
Do's, Don'ts, and Darns: What to Do and Not Do in the Math Test	135	(2)
Do get the lead out	135	(1)
Don't start working until you've read the entire problem	136	(1)
Do reread the problem with your answer inserted	136	(1)
Don't strike out over a difficult question early on	136	(1)
More Fun Than a Root Canal: Mathematics Practice Questions	137	(6)
Part V: Time to Read the Riot ACT: The Reading Test	143	(14)
This, Too, Shall Pass(age): Sailing through the Reading Test	145	(6)
Facing Forty (Questions): The Reading Test	145	(3)
Timing	146	(1)
Scoring	146	(1)
Reading strategies	146	(2)
I've Been Meaning to Ask You Something: The Questions	148	(1)
Main idea	148	(1)
Details	148	(1)
Tone, attitude, and inference	148	(1)
Vocabulary in context	149	(1)
Negative or reverse questions	149	(1)
Tips and Traps	149	(2)
Where Are Cliffs Notes When You Need Them? Reading Practice Questions	151	(6)
Passage 1	151	(3)
Passage 2	154	(3)
Part VI: Proven to Cause Brain Defects in Laboratory Rats: The Science Reasoning Test	157	(22)
Frankenstein to Einstein: Excelling on the Science Reasoning Test	159	(10)
I'm Mad, but I'm No Scientist: What Do I Need to Know?	159	(1)
Too Graphic for Words: The Format	159	(1)
Chalk Talk: Developing a Game Plan	160	(1)
The Android's Favorite: Data Representation	160	(3)
After the game plan: Executing the play	161	(1)
Going for pay dirt: The ``data-analysis'' question	162	(1)
That's It in a Nutshell: Research Summaries	163	(2)
Purpose	163	(1)
Experimental design	163	(1)
Just tell me what you want: Question styles	164	(1)
Warring Factions: Conflicting Viewpoints	165	(1)
Asking for Trouble: Question Styles	166	(1)
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow: The Conclusion	167	(2)
Faking Atomic Ache Won't Get You Out of This: Science Practice Questions	169	(10)
Passage	169	(2)
Initial Analysis	171	(8)
Part VII: I'd Rather Wait for the Movie: Full-Length Practice ACTs	179	(172)
How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Day, Part I: Practice Exam 1	181	(46)
Answer Sheet	182	(3)
English Test	185	(10)
Mathematics Test	195	(8)
Reading Test	203	(8)
Science Reasoning Test	211	(12)
Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty: Subscores	223	(1)
Score One for Our Side: The Scoring Key	223	(2)
Answer Key	225	(2)
Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations	227	(38)
English Test	227	(8)
Mathematics Test	235	(13)
Reading Test	248	(6)
Science Reasoning	254	(11)
How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Day, Part II: Practice Exam 2	265	(46)
Answer Sheet	266	(3)
English Test	269	(11)
Mathematics Test	280	(8)
Reading Test	288	(8)
Science Reasoning Test	296	(11)
Getting Down to the Nitty-Gritty: Subscores	307	(1)
Score One for Our Side: The Scoring Key	307	(2)
Answer Key	309	(2)
Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations	311	(40)
English Test	311	(9)
Mathematics Test	320	(12)
Reading Test	332	(6)
Science Reasoning Test	338	(13)
Part VIII: The Part of Tens	351	(8)
Ten Wrong Rumors About the ACT	353	(4)
You Can't Study for the ACT	353	(1)
Different States Have Different ACTs	353	(1)
The ACT Has a Passing Score	354	(1)
The ACT Tests IQ	354	(1)
If You Don't Know the Answer, Choose A or F	354	(1)
You Should Never Guess	354	(1)
The ACT Is Easier than the SAT I	354	(1)
The ACT Is the Same as the Achievement Test	355	(1)
You Have to Write an Essay	355	(1)
You Can't Take Both the SAT I and the ACT	355	(2)
Ten Differences between the ACT and the SAT	357	(2)
The ACT Emphasizes English Grammar; The SAT I Emphasizes Vocabulary	357	(1)
The ACT Has an Optional Essay Question; The SAT I Has a Required Essay Section	357	(1)
The ACT Questions Are All Multiple-Choice; SAT I Math Questions Aren't	357	(1)
The ACT Tests Science Reasoning; The SAT I Doesn't	358	(1)
The ACT Doesn't Penalize You for Guessing; The SAT I Does	358	(1)
The ACT Has Five Long Sections; The SAT I Has Ten Short Sections	358	(1)
The ACT Has No Experimental Sections; The SAT I Has One	358	(1)
Index	359