Common Mistakes
A student circles the correct answer in the test booklet but accidentally fills in a different letter on the answer sheet.
What is bubbling the wrong answer?
This is the definition of a distractor.
What is a way that a question or potential answers are phrased so as to trick a student who is not paying close attention?
Each occupation has its own ______; bankers, lawyers, and computer professionals, for example, all use among themselves language which outsiders have difficulty following.
A. merits, B., disadvantages, C. rewards, D. jargon, E. problems
What is D. jargon?
This is the purpose of the ACT (2 equally important things!).
What is an entrance exam which measures college readiness + provides schools with a common data point to compare all applicants?
When answering questions, students should find this in the passage to prove their answer.
What is textual evidence?
During a timed reading test, a student spends three minutes trying to solve one question while the clock keeps running.
What is getting stuck on a difficult question?
This may be accurate, but it isn’t directly answering the specific question.
What is accurate but not answering?
_________ by nature, Jones spoke very little even to his own family members.
A. garrulous, B. equivocal, C. taciturn, D. arrogant, E. gregarious
What is C. taciturn?
This is the max score a person can get on the ACT.
What is 36?
If a question is too difficult, students should do this.
What is skip it, mark the question, and return later?
A question asks which statement is NOT true, but the student reads too quickly and chooses a true statement.
What is missing key words in the question?
This answer is plausible, but it’s not directly stated. It is just speculation, and there is a stronger answer with actual evidence in the passage.
What is agreeable but not evidenced?
A businessman must widen his horizons; a ______ attitude will get you nowhere in this age of global communications.
A. moderate, B. petrified, C. parochial, D. diversified, E. comprehensive
What is C. parochial?
These are the four sections on the ACT exam, plus the one optional section.
What is English, Math, Science, and Reading (Writing is optional)?
Students should do this to the passage to track viewpoints and important details.
What is annotate or mark up the text?
A student finds an answer choice that seems mostly correct and selects it without checking the entire answer carefully.
What is choosing a partially correct answer?
This is when a given answer is the opposite of what is stated or it has misattributed a viewpoint.
What is an answer flip?
Plastic bags are _____ symbols of consumer society; they are found wherever you travel.
A. rare, B. ubiquitous, C. ephemeral, D. fleeting, E. covert
What is B. ubiquitous?
This is the national average score.
What is 19.4?
Students should do this before reading the answer choices to avoid being tricked.
What is answer the question in their head first?
A student answers a question about climate change using facts they learned in science class, even though the passage says something different.
What is using prior knowledge instead of the passage?
These include language the same as or similar to what is stated in the passage, but it is twisted or modified in some small way.
What is a passage echo?
Scrooge, in the famous novel by Dickens, was a ______; he hated the rest of mankind.
A. misanthrope, B. hypochondriac, C. philanthropist, D. hedonist, E. sybarite
What is A. misanthrope?
This is Moberly High School's average ACT score (as of 2024).
What is 17? (I found out our 2025 score went up to 18.7! YAY! Can y'all do better?)
Because there is no penalty for wrong answers, students should always do this.
What is guess instead of leaving a question blank? (1 in 4 chance, people!)