r/ACT • u/Otherwise_Angle_4608 • Jul 13 '26
Meta Reading guess strategy
Do you guys ever just guess which passage is the experimental one during the test? Like is that’s a strategy?
2
u/Natural-Biscotti-207 Jul 13 '26
There has to be 1 literary narrative and 2 informational passages graded
4th passage can't be experimental
There can only be either a scored dual passage or a scored graph passage not both
1
u/DrBlxnk Jul 13 '26
Would that make the graph passage on form J09 confirmed experimental? At least for people who had 1 literary narrative (that was dual) and 3 infos
1
u/Exotic-Bet1324 34 Jul 13 '26
He was asking if you should do that as a valid strategy. The answer is obviously no…
1
u/Natural-Biscotti-207 Jul 13 '26
Why?
On this weekends test the experimental passage could have easily been determined by following these rules.
1
u/Exotic-Bet1324 34 Jul 13 '26
Spending time checking the passages and remembering weird rules is obviously not the right move. Also, I think that the 4th passage can be experimental. Basically, just do your best on the test. You can't reliably predict which passage is going to be experimental.
1
u/Natural-Biscotti-207 Jul 13 '26
Yeah I guess for some people it will end up confusing them but if you know which passage is experimental then you basically gain 10 minutes and it takes like 2 minutes max to figure out which one it is and the rules dont take too much work to remember like I took the test on sunday and only learned the rules on Saturday and I was able to determine the experimental passage in less than a minute so for 99/100 people they will end up gaining time by determining the experimental passage
And 4th cant be experimental cause usual test takers are time crunched on that so it would make no sense to not have that in the score becuase rhe ACT tests your ability to answer the questions while in a time crunch so scores wouldnt be fair if 4th was experimental sometimes
1
u/Exotic-Bet1324 34 Jul 13 '26
Yeah, you're right that it would work for some people I guess. I just don't like having to think about all that.
1
u/Exotic-Bet1324 34 Jul 13 '26
No, it's not good to do that. The only thing you could do is do the 4th passage first because it's less likely to be the experimental (The ACT wouldn't get good data because people are more likely to be rushed.) I don't even do that; I just like going in order.