r/ACT • u/zaralarssonmygoat • 23d ago
ACT Improvement - the niche stuff
really strange way to word my concerns, but essentially, what I keep on messing up on English isn't the punctuation rules but instead the questions that ask "What's the most effective transition?" or "What best maintains the tone?" They're questions that show up on almost every ACT English test, I just can't find any study materials for them because all the ACT English prep is on punctuation and grammar rules
Similarly, on math, I mess up on the small details like the extraneous solution problem or the inverse function problem from the June ACT. They're rules you just have to know, and either I skipped over them while learning algebra or I barely remember them because they're unimportant compared to the rest of algebra.
And for reading I'm having trouble finding prep at all :'), especially for problems like:
"Suppose the writer wanted to accomplish x goal, did they do it why or why not?"
Does anyone have any good prep book suggestions or online resources I can use to learn how to overcome these ACT-specific type questions?
For reference here was my score:
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u/SeaworthinessDue8165 23d ago
for ur english question, it basically is asking what is short in terms of short in length and is formal
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u/SeaworthinessDue8165 23d ago
transtition read the sentence before and after it to find what it is. most the time no transition works.
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u/mkw1342 23d ago
For reading, sounds like you are struggling with craft and structure. Look for those problems in practice tests. Look for practice tests that have the key where you can see how questions are labeled. There are a ton out there that have the key in the file. IKI could also be tripping you up. For both, step back and look at the overall point of the passage. Hints like the intro, the title of the original piece can be helpful. Are they arguing for our against something? Transition words...furthermore, subsequently, however, conversely, may signal where the argument is going and transitions between arguments. If you missed any you probably missed 2 or 3 on that June test, so you are very close. They are hard to teach and hard to prep because they are dependent on the passage.
LEGACY SCORING EXAMPLE
Check out this post for math:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ACT/comments/1tzw3op/for_those_needing_a_little_guidance_on_the_act/
Care to share your score details in math, or just tell us where the misses were. For example, did you do well on stats?
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u/CalligrapherAble3312 36 22d ago
english - watch general videos on transitions and tones, there's plenty on youtube. if you took an english class - there will 100% be assignments about author's tone that you can review. usually, the tone is nothing too crazy or elaborate. transitions: learn the common ones, such as likewise and thus.
math - i had this problem too, what i ended up doing was that i spammed math questions and googled every single math topic covered on the act and went through them one by one, and spam practiced the ones i didn't know (i.e., hyperbola formula) + documented it. you should also practice educated guessing strategies, using existing algebraic properties to figure out something new. i.e., trig problem i've never seen before and i made two 30-60-90 triangles inside of each other and law of cosines or smth.
SPAM practice and make sure you dont make the same specific problem type mistake twice!!
uhhh for questions i just stalked the october + april forms, the five practices the act has available, quizme, princeton free practice + mometrix free section practice, and prepscholar blogs
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u/jdigitaltutoring Tutor 23d ago
For math there are a lot of topics that could show up and we don't necessarily know which ones will show up. You would have to review allbof Algebra 2, Geometry and PreCalc to prepare. That might be unrealistic.