Peterson’s ACT® Prep Guide is your guide to test-taking tips and strategy, practice, and insight straight from the experts – making it the best ACT prep book out there. Everything one needs to know about the ACT exam is included—test content, structure, and format info. This guide includes 6 full-length tests and ACT content and procedures you’ll follow when actually taking the test; an in-depth review of the optional Writing Test and how it is scored; examples of all the question types you can expect to find on the ACT; and suggestions on how you might approach the questions. Peterson’s tried-and-true test-taking strategies and tips will help you score high on exam day.
How This Book is Arranged
This book is divided into five chapters:
Chapter 1: About the ACT.
This chapter describes the purpose of the ACT, how to register for it, and what to expect at the test center. Things like what to wear and what you need to bring with you on test day are also covered.
Chapter 2: General Test Taking Strategies.
This chapter provides general test-taking strategies that apply to the ACT overall. You will learn how to prepare physically, mentally and emotionally for test day.
Chapter 3: Test Format and Content.
This chapter takes you step-by-step through each of the individual tests of the ACT (English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing) and includes sample questions to help you prepare and to familiarize yourself with the ACT test format. The example passages and questions in this chapter, taken from previous ACTs and representing each of the content areas that make up the test, help illustrate some of the different types of questions you can expect to see when you take the ACT.
Chapter 4: Practice ACT Tests.
In this chapter you’ll find three complete practice ACT tests, copies of real answer documents that you will use to record your answers, three complete sets of explanatory answers for the questions on all of the multiple-choice tests, and a description of the testing conditions under which you should take the practice tests.
Chapter 5: Interpreting Your ACT Test Scores.
This chapter will help you learn as much as possible from your performance on the practice tests. You will also learn how to use the ACT scores you’ll receive when you take the actual ACT. In particular, this chapter tells you exactly what kind of score information is best to use to find out:
- How your performance compares to that of other college bound students
- What your areas of relative strength and weakness are
- How to identify areas where you might want to get additional instruction in order to be better prepared for college
The ACT isn’t an IQ test—it doesn’t measure your basic intelligence. It’s an achievement test that’s been carefully designed—using surveys of classroom teachers, reviews of curriculum guides for schools all over the country, and advice from curriculum specialists and college faculty—to be one of several effective tools for evaluating your readiness for college work.
This book is intended to help you know what to expect when you take the ACT, so you can relax and concentrate on doing your best. The more you know about what to expect on any test you take, the more likely it is that your performance on that test will accurately reflect your overall preparation and achievement in the areas it measures. Knowing what to expect can help reduce any nervousness you may feel as you approach the test. Not only will this information make you more comfortable, it can also help keep your performance on the test from being unfairly hampered by outside factors, like worrying about what’s going to happen next. The ACT measures your understanding of what you’ve been taught in courses that you are expected to have completed by the time you enter college. It has taken you years to learn all this material, and it will take you some time to review for the ACT. You can’t expect to cram for the ACT in a night or two. However, any review should be helpful to you, even if it just makes you more comfortable when you actually sit down to take the ACT. We hope this book helps you to gauge how much reviewing you feel you need to do. You can also check ACT Prep Online Course or ACT Practice tests offered by Peterson’s.
