Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016)

Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016) Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016) Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016) Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016) Preview English and Reading Workout for the ACT, 3rd Edition by Review, Princeton (2016)

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v4.1

a

Part II: English

2 The ACT English Test

Fun Facts about the English Test

English Drills Answers

4 English Practice Test 1

5 English Practice Test 1 Answers and Explanations

6 English Practice Test 2

7 English Practice Test 2 Answers and Explanations

8 English Practice Test 3

9 English Practice Test 3 Answers and Explanations

Part III: Reading

10 The ACT Reading Test

Fun Facts about the Reading Test

Personal Order of Difficulty (POOD)

Pacing

POE

The Basic Approach

11 Reading Practice Test 1

12 Reading Practice Test 1 Answers and Explanations

13 Reading Practice Test 2

14 Reading Practice Test 2 Answers and Explanations

15 Reading Practice Test 3

16 Reading Practice Test 3 Answers and Explanations

17 Reading Practice Test 4

18 Reading Practice Test 4 Answers and Explanations

Part IV: Writing

19 The ACT Writing Test

Part V: Paying for College 101

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Proven Techniques

Applied Strategies

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Part I

Orientation

Chapter 1

Introduction to the English and Reading Tests

The ACT is an important part of college admissions Most schools requiretheir applicants to submit either SAT or ACT scores, but no school willmandate which particular test to take—they just want to see good scores For

a long time, different schools would accept only one or the other If youwanted to apply to schools in the Midwest, you took the ACT, but if youwanted to apply to schools on the East or West Coast, you took the SAT

The good news is that these rules are obsolete All schools that require astandardized test will take either the ACT or SAT

For more on admissions, see The Princeton Review’s

The Best 380 Colleges or visit our

website, PrincetonReview.com

This is good news indeed for test-takers While there are many similaritiesbetween the two tests, many students find they do better on one than on theother The expert advice of The Princeton Review is to take whichever testyou do better on While you can certainly take both, you should focus yourefforts on one for substantive score improvement True improvement takeshard work, and it can be tough to become an expert on both tests And sinceschools will accept scores for either one, you won’t win any brownie pointsfor punishing yourself

Since you bought this book, we assume you’ve already made the decision toboost your ACT score This book provides a strategic and efficient way toimprove your scores, specifically on English and Reading For a more

thorough review of content and exhaustive practice, we recommend Cracking the ACT and 1,460 ACT Practice Questions.

See The Princeton Review’s

companion book,

Math and Science Workout

for the ACT.

FUN FACTS ABOUT THE ACT

The ACT is nothing like the tests you take in school In your English class,you may learn grammar, but do you have to fix underlined portions? Youmay have to read a lot, but do you write papers or take speed tests oncomprehension?

All of the content review and strategies we teach in the following lessons arebased on the specific structure and format of the ACT Before you can beat atest, you have to know how it’s built

When students and schools talk about ACT scores, they mean the compositescore, a range of 1–36 The composite is an average of the four multiplechoice tests, each scored on the same 1–36 scale Neither the Writing testscore nor the combined English plus Writing score affect the composite

It’s All About the Composite

Whether you look at your score online or wait to get it in the mail, the biggestnumber on the page is always the composite While admissions offices willcertainly see the individual scores of all five tests (and their sub-scores),schools will use the composite to evaluate your application, and that’s whyit’s the only one that matters in the end

The composite is an average: Let the full weight of that sink in Do you need

to bring up all four scores equally to raise your composite? Do you need to be

a superstar in all four tests? Should you focus more on your weaknesses thanyour strengths? No, no, and absolutely not The best way to improve yourcomposite is to shore up your weaknesses but exploit your strengths as much

as possible

To improve your ACT score, use your strengths to lift the

composite score as high as possible

You don’t need to be a rock star on all four tests Identify two, maybe threetests, and focus on raising those scores as much as you can to raise yourcomposite Work on your weakest scores to keep them from pulling youdown Think of it this way: If you have only one hour to devote to practicethe week before the ACT, put that hour to your best subjects

English and Reading Scores

These two make a good pair Every student is different, but many studentsbegin with English as one of their higher scores and Reading as one of the

lower There is no content to review for Reading Instead, it’s entirely based If Reading ever had a child with Math, the result would be English.For the most part, English is rules-based, like Math Review the right rules,and your score zooms But English also requires comprehension and analysis,skills similar to those used for Reading.

skill-Time

Time is your enemy on the ACT You have less than a minute per question

on either the English or Reading—and it’s not as if there’s extra time forreading the passages The Princeton Review’s strategies are all based on thistime crunch You can think of both the English and Reading tests as open-book tests, but you can neither waste all your time reading the whole booknor skip it altogether

IS THE ACT CHANGING?

Starting in late 2015, the ACT will be changing Many of the changes to thetest won’t impact how students test or the types of questions they’ll need toanswer, but rather how their scores are reported and the kind of informationthey’ll be able to gather from their results

One section that will be affected by the changes is the Writing Test As of thepublication of this book, we know that the ACT Writing Test will bechanging at some point during “fall 2015” (that’s a pretty big window) Here

is what we do know about this revised Writing Test

Writing Test

The ACT Writing test will have one essay prompt, and you’ll have time tocraft a response (ACT, Inc has not yet revealed how much time you willhave) The prompt will define an issue and present three points of view on theissue; you will be asked to respond to a question by analyzing the threepositions, coming up with your own view on the issue, and explaining howyour position relates to the other three While topics in the past have directly

related to high school life, the present topics cover a diverse range of issues,such as different perspectives and issues within technology or nature orhistory For example, one prompt asked students to assess the growingpresence of technology in our lives: Does our reliance on machines take awaypart of our humanity? Are automatons a good solution for tackling repetitivejobs? Do intelligent machines force us to broaden what we consider human?When you register for the test, you’ll have to decide whether you need to takethis part of the exam We’ll talk more about that later.

Watch for Updates!

Visit PrincetonReview.com/ ACTchanges for late-breaking

news and updates.

• STEM score: This score represents students’ overall performance on the

math and science sections of the ACT The goal of this score is to helpstudents better understand their strengths in math and science and howthey might use those strengths to guide their academic and career goals

• Progress Toward Career Readiness Indicator: This is meant to help

students understand the extent to which they are prepared for a future

career It can also help teachers guide their students towards numerouscareer pathways

• English Language Arts Score: This score measures achievement in the

English, reading, and writing portions of the exam (for students who take

all three of those sections), and allows students to see how their

performance compares with others

• Text Complexity Progress Indicator: This is intended to help students

determine how well they understand the kinds of complex texts that theywill encounter in college and whether they need to improve This score isbased on a student’s performance on all of the writing passages

So as we said before, these changes to the test won’t impact how students test or the types of questions they’ll need to answer, but rather how their

scores are reported and the kind of information they’ll be able to gather fromtheir results

If you do take the Writing test, you will receive an additional score: yourWriting subscore, which will range from 2–12 This score is not factored intothe composite, so taking the Writing test will not have a direct impact on yourcomposite score Be sure to check ACT’s website to determine whether yourtarget schools want you to take the ACT Writing test Also, check out Part IV

of this book for more information and practice for the revised Writing test

STRATEGIES

You will raise your ACT score not by working harder but by working

smarter, and a smart test-taker is a strategic test-taker You will target

specific content to review, you will apply an effective and efficient approach,and you will employ the common sense that frequently deserts many of uswhen we pick up a number 2 pencil

Each test on the ACT demands a different approach, and even the mostuniversal strategies vary in their applications In the chapters that follow,we’ll discuss these terms in greater detail customized to English and Reading

Check out these helpful Princeton Review signature strategies.

Personal Order of Difficulty (POOD)

If time is going to run out, would you rather it run out on the hardest Readingpassage or on the easiest? Of course you want it to run out on the points youare less likely to get right On the English test, you can’t afford to spend toolong on questions you find the most time-consuming and never even get to abunch of questions you’d nail The trick is to know how to pick your order ofpassages and questions in Reading, and how to pace yourself in English toget to as many easy questions as you can

We’ll discuss in greater detail what these mean in the individual lessons, butfor now, understand that you have to make smart decisions for good reasonsquickly as you move through each test

The Best Way to Bubble In

Work a page at a time, circling your answers right on the booklet Transfer a page’s worth of answers to the scantron at one time It’s better to stay focused on working questions rather than disrupt your concentration to find where you left off on the scantron You’ll be more accurate at both tasks Do not wait until the end, however, to transfer all the answers from that test onto your scantron Go a page at a time.

Now

Does a question look okay? Do you know how to do it? Do it Now.

Later

Will this question take a long time to work? Leave it and come back to it

Later Circle the question number for easy reference to return.

Never

Test-taker, know thyself Know the topics that are your worst and learn the

signs that flash danger Don’t waste time on questions you should Never do.

Instead, use more time to answer the Now and Later questions accurately

Letter of the Day (LOTD)

Just because you don’t work a question doesn’t mean you don’t answer it.

There is no penalty for wrong answers on the ACT, so you should neverleave any blanks on your scantron When you guess on Never questions, pickyour favorite two-letter combo of answers and stick with it For example,always choose A/F or C/H If you’re consistent, you’re statistically morelikely to pick up more points

Process of Elimination (POE)

On English and Reading both, it’s more important, and often easier, to knowwhat’s wrong and eliminate it rather than try to find out what’s right In fact,

on English POE is so strong you may find few Never questions

It’s worth the time to eliminate what’s wrong and pick from what’s leftbefore you move on On Reading, you may have absolutely no idea what you

have read, but you’ll likely know what you haven’t and be able to eliminate a

few wrong answers Using POE to get rid of at least one or two wronganswers will substantially increase your odds of getting a question right

Proven Techniques

Familiarize yourself with these Princeton Review techniques before you dive into the practice drills.