The ACT Reading section consists of four sets of questions and passages, each containing one long or two shorter passages which are designed, as held by the test manufacturers, to be representative of the type and level of their reading required of a college-level freshman. The section has 40 questions and a time limit of 35 minutes. The arrangement of the passage types will stay the same, regardless of the evaluation: a literary fiction passage followed by a humanities (nonfiction narrative) passage, followed by a social sciences and natural sciences passage.
The test makers of the ACT published a new guidebook for the 2017-2018 year that made official what was emerging as a new staple in the reading section of the evaluation — dual passage issues. But before we get into the particulars of the ACT Reading section’s recent updates and what to remember when preparing for the section, let’s take an overview of the reading section more generally.
Among the most overlooked aspects in preparing for the ACT Reading section are the social science and natural science transit types. Students often times simply have not seen as many nonfiction articles or passage from the social or natural sciences in college as literary fiction or nonfiction, and this comparative lack of exposure can cause some particular difficulty.
If you’re getting ready for the ACT with the objective of increasing your score on the ACT Reading section, it’s important to know what’s new and how to approach the passages and questions in this section of this examination.
Here’s What Students Need to Know About the ACT Reading Section
Published at Thu, 10 Aug 2017 14:49:03 +0000
The reading questions don’t test for any understanding beyond the reach of the passages, whether they are facts related to the passage or to the dictionary definitions of vocabulary words. The questions are intended to test for the complementary and supportive skills that viewers use in understanding, processing, and paraphrasing written text across a range of subject areas.
The ACT and the SAT tests have long imitated the other’s creations, and also the dual passage question type is just one such example. The dual passage type requires that a pupil be particularly diligent in their approach to the reading section and move methodically from part to part, passage to passage. The dual passage can put added pressure on the most challenging dimension of the reading section, which is time management; it’ll be important for students to prepare for the reading section with the dual passage in mind.
The most recent guidebook released by the manufacturers of the ACT affirms what has been the recent development of this dual-passage question type, one which students can now expect to see on any upcoming ACT test. I’ve included of what the dual passage segments look like below.
The dual passage questions will ultimately test for the same inference and reasoning skills as the other passages: a student’s ability to infer the main idea or main function of a passage; locate and paraphrase substantial details; understand the order of events; create comparisons of character or opinions within the passage; identify cause-effect relationships; ascertain the meaning of a word from the context in which it is used; draw generalizations; infer the author or narrator’s tone.
Students preparing for the ACT should take the time to fully understand all the test’s segments, content, and what they will want to do in order to improve upon their current scores. In IvyWise, our team of specialist tutors functions to completely evaluate students’ skills and points of weakness in order to come up with a test prep plan which will help them achieve their academic and score goals.
Want to be sure you’re on track with your test prep? Download our free Tutoring and Test Prep Checklist below!
Therefore it’s key that pupils read widely in the range of science writing tested on the ACT, genres that could include Anthropology, Economics, History, Sociology, Psychology, Astronomy, Botany, Ecology, Medicine, and Zoology. Reading texts in these appropriate science genres with ACT style questions in mind is a vital part of any student’s preparation.
Science Passages
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The Basics
Dual-Passages
Source: TPD College Admissions Feed
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