I do a little ACT tutoring. I have watched just about every YouTube video on every ACT subject tested. Everyone has their own take on how to approach each test, which leads to a wide variety of opinions.
The Reading Test (and Science test), as opposed to the English and Math tests, seems to have fewer moving parts overall. The English test has a million grammar and sentence structure rules and Math, well, you know...
Professional tutors (ain't me!) are split on how to approach the reading test. Some say go to questions first, and some say read the passage first. Some say read and annotate in the margins first, some say that takes too much time. What to do?
I honestly don't know of a specific "go-to" strategy. Below I will post my suggestions. I think they are useful if one is not the greatest/fastest reader in the world. I think these provide some structure on how to approach the reading passages.
Use at your own risk!
Additional Tips:
Read the source information at the very beginning of the passage. Depending on the topic, there can be useful information about the passage overall. It is good to know where it is going to take you before you start skimming the questions.
Don't read in any detail the answer choices that are wordy overall. A question that has just one or two-word answer choices is worth a skim just to get the overall feel for the question.
Yes, this prep work takes valuable time. I think the time you save in having the questions mapped out will be more than worth the upfront investment of time. Plus, it may reduce some of the reading you have to do overall.
ACT does not care about how you arrive at an answer, nor do they care if you liked the passage or not!
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