Tips and Strategies
Speed Reading
Reading Section
Question types
Miscellaneous
100
This is the best preparation for the ACT Reading/English/Writing sections.
Reading
100
True or false: You should use the speed reading techniques when you are trying to read a novel for English class.
False!
100
True or False: The ACT reading sections gives you poetry passages to analyze.
False
100
These kinds of questions ask about the passage as a whole.
What are main idea questions?
100
True or False: You lose points for selecting the wrong answer on the ACT.
False
200
If you are unsure of an answer, you should do this and move on.
Guess OR mark it and come back to it later
200
True or false: when speed reading, you should let your eyes linger on one word at a time and move your eyes rapidly from word to word.
False!
200
This passage type is fictional writing and usually involves dialogue.
prose
200
These questions ask you to understand something that isn’t directly stated in the passage.
What are inference questions?
200
True or False: Some questions are worth more than others.
False!!!
300
These two things will benefit you most the night before and morning of the ACT.
Getting a good night's sleep and eating a good breakfast
300
What is one strategy for not reading out loud in your head?
counting, or saying AEIOU, or putting your fingers over your lips
300
This passage-type might include topics such as birds' eggs, dinosaur fossils or the parts of a cell.
natural sciences
300
These questions ask about specific parts of the passage.
What are detail questions.
300
The test starts at this time.
8 am
400
Doing this will ensure that you have enough time to finish each section on the ACT.
Numbering the passages OR pacing yourself
400
Which speed reading strategy would work best for improving your pacing during the Reading section of the ACT?
timing yourself during practice tests OR practicing reading with pencil or note card at home
400
This passage type is usually a story, but non-fiction.
humanities
400
These questions ask about a word as it is used in a passage.
What are vocabulary-in-context questions?
400
The ACT creators consider this composite score to show that a student is "college ready."
21
500
You should bring these four things with you to the test site.
1) a few No. 2 pencils, 2) a valid photo ID, 3) your test ticket, and 4) snacks or drinks
500
This is the process of reading each word out loud to yourself in your head, one word at a time.
What is subvocalizing?
500
This type of passage would be appreciated by a student of history.
social sciences
500
These questions ask about the purpose of a specific part of the passage.
What are function questions?
500
These are the four genres, in order, that appear on the reading test.
What are prose fiction, social science, humanities, and natural science?
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