Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Foolish Assumptions 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 4
Figuring Out How Long All This Studying Will Take 5
Part 1: Coming to Terms with Reality: An Overview of the ACT 7
Chapter 1: Getting Your ACT Together: ACT 101 9
What to Take to the ACT 10
What Not to Take to the ACT 11
What to Do If You Have Special Circumstances 12
Guessing for Points to Maximize Your Score 12
Your Number’s Up: Scoring on the ACT 13
What the ACT Expects You to Know 13
Repeating the Test for a Better Score 14
Chapter 2: Succeeding on the ACT 17
Surviving the ACT with Four Stress-Busters 17
Inhaling deeply 17
Stretching a little 18
Thinking positive thoughts 18
Practicing POE 18
Avoiding a Few Dumb Mistakes That Can Mess Up Your ACT 18
Losing concentration 19
Panicking over time 19
Messing up on the answer grid 19
Rubbernecking 19
Cheating 20
Worrying about previous sections 20
Worrying about the hard problems 20
Forgetting to double-check 20
Chapter 3: Surviving the College Admissions Process 21
What’s the Main Thing Colleges Look For? 21
How Do Higher ACT Scores Increase My Scholarship Chances? 22
Do Schools Care Whether I Repeat the ACT? 22
What Classes Should I Take in High School? 22
How Helpful Are Sports and Charity? 23
What Should I Say on the College Essay? 23
What Will They Ask Me in the Interview and What Should I Say? 23
How Do I Decide Which School Is Best for Me? 24
What’s the Biggest Mistake Most Students Make in College Planning? 24
How Do I Make My Final Decision? 25
Part 2: Serving Your “Sentence”: The English Test 27
Figuring Out What the English Questions Want You to Know 29
Seeing Is Believing: The Test’s Format 30
The passages 30
The question types 30
Their Pain, Your Gain: Looking Out for Traps That Others Fall into 32
Chapter 5: Getting a Grip on Grammar and Usage 35
Reviewing the Parts of Speech 36
Getting in the action with verbs 36
Identifying the culprit with nouns 37
Avoiding repeating yourself with pronouns 37
Defining nouns with adjectives 37
Clarifying the questions with adverbs 37
Joining together with conjunctions and prepositions 38
Piecing Together the Parts of a Sentence 38
Subjects and predicates 38
Phrases and clauses 39
Keeping Track of Punctuation Rules for Every Occasion 39
Periods and question marks 39
Semicolons 40
Colons 40
Commas 40
Dashes 42
Apostrophes 43
Chapter 6: Spotting Usage Errors and Ripping through Rhetorical Questions 45
Spotting Questions That Test Standard English Conventions 45
Properly placing punctuation marks 45
Picking up on pronoun errors 48
Forming possessives 49
Evaluating verbs 50
Calling out sentence fragments 51
Identifying problems with parallelism 51
Recognizing misplaced modifiers 51
Checking for Proper Production of Writing 53
Eliminating superfluous words 53
Completing the mission 54
Determining the function of a deletion 54
Pondering an addition 55
Creating smooth transitions 55
Organizing and positioning elements 56
Seeing the big picture 57
Sticking to appropriate vocabulary and standard expressions 57
Chapter 7: It’s Not What You Say but How You Say It: English Practice Questions 61
Part 3: Don’t Count Yourself Out: The Math Test 67
Chapter 8: Numbers Nuts and Bolts 69
The Wonderful World of Numbers 69
Keeping it real: Types of numbers 70
Lining things up along the number line 71
Understanding absolute value 71
Getting familiar with prime numbers and factorization 71
Minor Surgery: Basic Math Operations 72
Adding and subtracting 72
Multiplying and dividing 72
Working with odds/evens and positives/negatives 73
Focusing on Fractions, Decimals, and Percentages 73
Converting fractions, decimals, and percentages 74
Working with fractions 74
Pondering percentages 76
Eyeing Ratios and Proportions 77
Ratios 77
Proportions 78
Covering Your Bases: Exponents 79
Smooth Operator: Order of Operations 80
Dealing with Average, Median, Mode, and More 80
Doing better than average on averages 80
Weighing in on weighted averages 81
Mastering medians 82
Managing modes 82
Getting ready for range 82
Abracadabra: Elementary Algebra 82
Variables 101 83
Solving simple equations 83
Adding and subtracting expressions 84
Multiplying and dividing expressions 85
Curses! FOILed again 85
Extracting by factoring 86
Solving a system of equations 88
Chapter 9: Getting into Shapes: Geometry and Trig Review 91
Toeing the Line 91
Analyzing Angles 92
Triangle Trauma 94
Classifying triangles 94
Sizing up triangles 95
Zeroing in on similar triangles 96
Figuring out area and perimeter 97
Taking the shortcut: Pythagorean triples and other common side ratios 97
Thanks 4 Nothing: A Quick Look at Quadrilaterals 100
Missing Parrots and Other Polly-Gones (Or Should We Say “Polygons”?) 102
Measuring up polygons 103
Solving for volume 103
Running Around in Circles 104
Trying Your Hand at Trigonometry 109
Introducing trigonometric functions 110
Circumventing the unit circle 112
Measuring in radians 113
Graphing trig functions on a coordinate plane 114
Applying the Law of Sines and Law of Cosines 116
Chapter 10: Algebra and Other Sleeping Aids 119
Suffering Inequalities 119
Using Your Imagination: Complex Numbers 120
Too Hip to Be Square: Roots and Radicals 121
Adding and subtracting radicals 122
Multiplying and dividing radicals 122
Working from the inside out 123
Thinking Exponentially: Logarithms 123
Log rules 124
Natural logarithms 124
Barely Functioning with Functions 124
Taking a Flight on the Coordinate Plane 125
Defining the coordinate plane 125
Knowing which formulas you need to guide your flight 126
Graphing more functions 128
Evaluating graphs of functions 132
Picking Your Way through Percent Increase, Probability, Permutations, and Combinations 134
Managing the ups and downs 134
Practicing probability 135
Calculating outcomes and orderings 137
Setting Up Sequences 140
Managing Matrices 140
Chapter 11: Numb and Number: Acing the Mathematics Test 143
What You See Is What You Get: The Format and Breakdown of the Math Test 143
Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder: What Isn’t on the Math Test 144
Getting into the Grind: The Approach 145
Translating English into Math 146
Time Flies When You’re Having Fun: Timing Tips 147
Skim for your favorite questions 147
Backsolve when the answers are actual values 148
Plug in values for variables 149
Kindly refrain from showing off everything you know 150
Put aside two minutes to fill in the remaining ovals 150
Do’s, Don’ts, and Darns: What to Do and Not Do on the Math Test 150
Do get the lead out 150
Don’t start working until you’ve read the entire problem 151
Do reread the problem with your answer inserted 151
Don’t strike out over a difficult question early on 151
Chapter 12: More Fun than a Root Canal: Mathematics Practice Questions 153
Part 4: Time to Read the Riot ACT: The Reading Test 161
Chapter 13: This, Too, Shall Pass(age): Sailing through the Reading Test 163
Facing 40 Questions: The Reading Test 163
Timing 164
Scoring 164
Getting Prepared: Reading Test Strategies 164
Approach passages efficiently 164
Skim the passage effectively 166
Skip a passage if necessary 167
Identifying Reading Question Types and Formats 168
Find key ideas and details 168
Determine craft and structure 170
Integrate knowledge and ideas 171
Approaching Comparative Passages 172
Chapter 14: Where Are SparkNotes When You Need Them? Reading Practice Questions 173
Part 5: Studying Brain Defects in Laboratory Rats: The Science Test 179
Chapter 15: From Frankenstein to Einstein: Excelling on the Science Test 181
Examining the Science Test’s Format 182
Classifying Passage Format 182
Data-representation passages 182
Research summaries 183
Conflicting viewpoints 185
Analyzing Tables, Graphs, and Diagrams 186
Tackling tables 187
Grappling with graphs 187
Dissecting diagrams 188
Examining Experimental Procedures 189
Independent and dependent variables 189
The control 190
Immersing Yourself in Answer Choices 191
Considering Question Types 192
Questions about results 193
Questions about procedure 196
Questions about viewpoints 200
Chapter 16: Faking Atomic Ache Won’t Get You out of This: Science Practice Questions 203
Passage 204
Initial Analysis 206
Questions 206
Part 6: Writing Rightly: The Optional Writing Test 213
Chapter 17: Excelling on Your Essay: The Writing Test Review 215
What to Expect From the ACT Writing Test 215
Making the Grade: How the ACT Folks Score Your Essay 216
Examining the Prompt and Creating a Thesis 216
Putting Up Your Dukes: Defending Your Perspective 218
Throwing a Good First Punch: The Hook 218
The Proof Is in the Pudding: Defending Yourself 219
Using specific examples 219
Mixing things up with a variety of examples 220
Forming logical arguments 220
Hamburger Writing: Organizing Your Essay 222
The top bun: Introduction 222
The three meats: Example paragraphs 222
The lettuce, tomato, and special sauce: Transitions 223
The bottom bun: Conclusion 224
Wielding the Red Pen: Editing and Proofing 224
Using the touch method to look for spelling mistakes and ghost words 224
Calling all action verbs: Be descriptive 224
Avoiding problems with punk-tu-a-tion: Punctuate properly 225
Handwriting check: Write legibly 225
Writing Don’ts 225
Writing before you think 225
Panicking about time 225
Referring to the perspectives by number 226
Sticking to the status quo 226
Using words you don’t know 226
Being overly critical of yourself 227
Writing like you speak 227
Repeating yourself over and over again 227
Failing to edit your essay 227
Reviewing Some Example Essays and Their Scores 227
1 — 1 is the loneliest number: How not to be a 1 228
2 — 2 little 2 late: Steering clear of coming in second 228
3 — Still finding yourself on the wrong side of the tracks 228
4 — Reaching 4 a better score 229
5 — Shining brightly: A 5-star winner 230
6 — Unlocking the code to a perfect score 231
Chapter 18: Practicing Promptly with Practice Prompts: Essay Practice Questions 233
Writing Prompt 1 233
Writing Prompt 2 235
Part 7: Putting It All Together with Three Full-Length Practice ACTs 237
Chapter 19: Practice Exam 1 239
Answer Sheet 240
English Test 242
Mathematics Test 253
Reading Test 263
Science Test 273
Writing Test 285
Chapter 20: Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations 287
English Test 287
Mathematics Test 297
Reading Test 310
Science Test 317
Writing Test 323
Sample response 323
Score One for Your Side: The Scoring Guide 324
Answer Key for Practice Exam 1 326
Chapter 21: Practice Exam 2 329
Answer Sheet 330
English Test 332
Mathematics Test 343
Reading Test 352
Science Test 360
Writing Test 370
Chapter 22: Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations 371
English Test 371
Mathematics Test 382
Reading Test 395
Science Test 402
Writing Test 411
Sample response 411
Answer Key for Practice Exam 2 413
Chapter 23: Practice Exam 3 415
Answer Sheet 416
English Test 418
Mathematics Test 429
Reading Test 439
Science Test 449
Writing Test 459
Chapter 24: Practice Exam 3: Answers and Explanations 461
English Test 461
Mathematics Test 471
Reading Test 490
Science Test 497
Writing Test 504
Sample response 504
Answer Key for Practice Exam 3 505
Part 8: The Part of Tens 507
Chapter 25: Ten Wrong Rumors about the ACT 509
You Can’t Study for the ACT 509
Different States Have Different ACTs 509
The ACT Has a Passing Score 510
The ACT Tests IQ 510
You Can’t Use a Calculator on the ACT 510
You Should Never Guess on the ACT 510
The ACT Is Easier Than the SAT 511
Selective Colleges Prefer the SAT to the ACT 511
You Have to Write an Essay 511
You Shouldn’t Take Both the SAT and the ACT 511
Chapter 26: Attention, Parents! Ten Ways You Can Help Your Child Succeed on the ACT 513
Give Awesome Test-Prep Materials 513
Encourage Studying 513
Supply a Good Study Environment 514
Take Practice Tests Together 514
Model Good Grammar 514
Help Memorize Math Formulas 514
Encourage Reading 514
Explore Colleges Together 514
Arrive at the Test Site on Time 515
Help Keep a Proper Perspective 515
Index 517
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