ACT F'd up times

[losikid]

Well i have ACT's to do wednesday...not too worried though.

Although anyone have idea's what the designers of the test are thinking. Biggest thing i noticed when taking the prep test is the time compared to what we have to do.

So the science and reading section is composed of 45 questions and 7 sections. Time limit of 35 minutes.

Ok so 35/45 = .77 = 46 seconds per question, that seems reasonable. But all 45 questions are not based off the same story/experiment. Theres 7 stories in the reading and 7 experiments in the science...each section is 1-2 pages long.

So you have 7-14 pages worth of reading to do, and answer 45 questions in 35 minutes. It takes what 2 minutes to read a page, and actually collect info off of it, so 2 * 14 = 28 thats 28 minutes out of your 35 minutes, so 7 minutes to answer 45 questions thats a whole 10 seconds per question WTF.

The english is screwy too, i think 60 questions in 45 minutes...each question you have to read 1-3 sentences and determine what the proper grammar is. Similiar w/ the math.

So it seems 15-30 seconds is all thats given to answer a question, considering you speed read through the question.

I'm smart...but i read slow, and take my time on test's, usually get a 95% or higher...shoot i even passed physics with 110% since all tests were curved to my score BUT this test is gonna screw with me, college i want to go to needs a combined score of 28 or higher...ACT prep i got a 24 combined, so i gotta figure something out.

Not sure why i'm posting this, i guess for opinions on the test, possibly some idea's on to beat the clock. But mostly its just a chit chat thread to rant about time per question...i wish it was off stuff you know, not about pulling dat off the test...english, science, and reading is mostly just reading the text, putting a little thought into it, and answering the question. Problem is i read slow if i want to take in the info.

[RCTRUX]

I agree they should give you more time to do something that is this important!

[losikid]

Originally Posted by RCTRUX

I agree they should give you more time to do something that is this important!

I'm 90% sure if i had all the time i needed, i could get a compoiste of 32 or higher...highest is 36

[canadianbacon]

This pic will help:

[nismotuningrocks]

The reason they have so much material in such little time is so that colleges can gauge how quickly you process information, the tests aren't about intelligence so much as they are about being quick to think, I don't remember time being my biggest issue on the ACT, it was more of the processing that had me hung up. The ACT is a lot less stressful than the SAT, so you are lucky that your school even takes ACT scores. Just relax and be confident, if you stress or don't power-read you won't have a lot of success. All that being said, Good Luck! hopefully it goes better than you expect!

[killswitch]

I dont know how they are now (I'm 34...), but when I took mine the science section wasn't too bad. If you breezed through physics, you shouldnt have any trouble with the science section. Don't stress about it. That's where most the people I went to high school with screwed themselves. I didnt take mine seriously at all. I didn't take high schoool seriously either, but I always did well in school. I partied till about 3:30 in the morning the night before, flipped through the "prep" books when I was chugging coffee at 5:30am, and went and took the test. I scored a 31 combined. Now I'm not saying that's what you should do... I'm thinking I actually marked what I thought was going to be "important info" while I was doing the reading sections so I didnt spend so much time reading. That may have been on the SAT, but I'm really thinking I did it on both. I've read lots of your posts on here. They always have correct grammar, spelling, and puctuation, so I think you'll do great on the English section, which can really help your overall. The prep test I took was also harder than the actual ACT was. Good luck

[RCTRUX]

On the bright side you will do good on the math considering you figured out all those times and stuff

[losikid]

Originally Posted by killswitch

I dont know how they are now (I'm 34...), but when I took mine the science section wasn't too bad. If you breezed through physics, you shouldnt have any trouble with the science section. Don't stress about it. That's where most the people I went to high school with screwed themselves. I didnt take mine seriously at all. I didn't take high schoool seriously either, but I always did well in school. I partied till about 3:30 in the morning the night before, flipped through the "prep" books when I was chugging coffee at 5:30am, and went and took the test. I scored a 31 combined. Now I'm not saying that's what you should do... I'm thinking I actually marked what I thought was going to be "important info" while I was doing the reading sections so I didnt spend so much time reading. That may have been on the SAT, but I'm really thinking I did it on both. I've read lots of your posts on here. They always have correct grammar, spelling, and puctuation, so I think you'll do great on the English section, which can really help your overall. The prep test I took was also harder than the actual ACT was. Good luck

Yea but i'm slow physics tests i took the whole 90 minutes of class to do, sure i ace'd them, but then again it took me 90 minutes to answer 50 questions.

I can't find my prep scores...but i had like a 30 math, 26 science, 22 reading and 18 in english...i could have done better in english if i would have been aware of time...and fill in the last 20-30 questions instead of leaving blank...I'm just slow, smart but slow i read through the question, understand the question, read through answers, then process of elimination to solve them. Only subject i can speed through is math, as long as i'm in the mood i can spit out answers to math question as fast a calculator, well simple questions.

I'm not stressed at all...i've never been stressed over a test, and i have never studied for a test unless there was an assigned study guide. Yet i have a 3.929 GPA and Class rank of 18, and i know the kids who have a higher gpa than me, its cause they are/could be smart but choose all the easy classes. I just think its alittle BS the test scores used to get into good college is based off how quickly you can read, not if you actually know how to do something. Although as long as i do good in science and math i'm sure a engineering school won't mind if you have an average english and reading score (average is 20 i think)

Yea i'm decent with my basic grammar till i get into complex sentence structures, moving around and joining independent and dependent clauses, etc. BUT act doesn't care if you know how to do advance stuff, just how fast you can do simple stuff. So i should be good.

Good to know prep test is harder...although the difficulty isn't what bothers me, just time. 7 sections and 45 questions in 35 minutes i don't understand how its possible to get a 36 / 100%

[Blazerbogger]

There's really no need to read the entire story before answering the questions. A good technique I learned was to read the question first, then go back and find the answer in the story. Good luck!

[losikid]

Originally Posted by nismotuningrocks

The reason they have so much material in such little time is so that colleges can gauge how quickly you process information, the tests aren't about intelligence so much as they are about being quick to think, I don't remember time being my biggest issue on the ACT, it was more of the processing that had me hung up. The ACT is a lot less stressful than the SAT, so you are lucky that your school even takes ACT scores. Just relax and be confident, if you stress or don't power-read you won't have a lot of success. All that being said, Good Luck! hopefully it goes better than you expect!

Stress isn't an issue, just time to complete enough questions to get a high score.

Yea i think ACT is whats used on all colorado colleges...i'm planning on Colorado School of Mines. Our HS doesn't even offer SAT testing...or a testing location.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by canadianbacon12

This pic will help:

I don't think a cell phone will help on act, takes too long to send a text

[danielk]

Sounds like you'll do just fine on the math.

[ROSS]

dont stress at all...as others have said its not difficult, just meant to test your quick thinking.

i didnt do any of the prep tests and got a 32 average.
and im not the smartest or quickest test taker.
math and science were a breeze for me, but for the english and reading i did a lot of skimming and guessing

good luck

but by best advice for you is to not stress...the more the over think something, the more discouraged you will become

[killswitch]

Originally Posted by RCTRUX

On the bright side you will do good on the math considering you figured out all those times and stuff

no chit... I was actually thinking the same thing after I posted my first comment.

[Destroyer]

Skim the questions first, find what you need to be pulling from the stuff you read. If you can't get the answer quick, skip the question and go back later. Don't leave anything blank, take the last 30sec to make sure every bubble has a clear mark.

I think I spent more time in a "test taking strategies" class than I ever did on actual test prep. If all else fails, you can take it over.

Are they still doing the SAT's with the "write an essay" section? I was the first year they did that, very lame.

[losikid]

Yea math is my strong suit...i was halfway though w/ algerba in 5th grade teachers put me through algebra 5th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade...when the HS counselors tried to put me in algebra again my freshman year i flipped out on them, so i had honors/IB geometry and algebra 2 my freshman year, pre calc sophmore, didn't take AP calc this year though because it was during my community college classes (Machining and Auto CAD). By the time i graduate i'll have like 8 math credits.

[losikid]

Originally Posted by Destroyer

Skim the questions first, find what you need to be pulling from the stuff you read. If you can't get the answer quick, skip the question and go back later. Don't leave anything blank, take the last 30sec to make sure every bubble has a clear mark.

I think I spent more time in a "test taking strategies" class than I ever did on actual test prep. If all else fails, you can take it over.

Are they still doing the SAT's with the "write an essay" section? I was the first year they did that, very lame.

No we don't take SAT's HS counselors don't even mention it really

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by losikid

No we don't take SAT's HS counselors don't even mention it really

Seriously? Wow....I had to take both. I did much better on the ACTs...

[losikid]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

Seriously? Wow....I had to take both. I did much better on the ACTs...

Yea, i don't think i've heard the counselors mention it more than once...but then again they didn't really mention the ACT's till we took the prep test...spent a whole week, away from class doing test prep, registration, practice tests, test taking staregies, more test prep, etc etc etc....I would have much rather been in class making metal chips fly

All the schools (colleges) in colorado say they have no preference of SAT or ACT ... our school district only does ACT i think, beings i haven't heard of any SAT testing sessions.

[binaryterror]

Originally Posted by losikid

Although anyone have idea's what the designers of the test are thinking. Biggest thing i noticed when taking the prep test is the time compared to what we have to do.

So the science and reading section is composed of 45 questions and 7 sections. Time limit of 35 minutes.

I remember finishing all the sections early, however I learned power/speed reading in HS as well as would always finish tests quick no matter the subject. Long test taking typically causes over analysis in most, and I know myself would have done worse lingering on questions. My goal was "answer, move on

As mentioned the entire point of the ACT's is to find natural talent, not how smart you are. Given enough time many could logically figure a correct answer, but the point of ACT's is to show you know the information and how to do it in a stressed environment.

This replicates work. If I had to do a process in 2 hours...I have to. Even if I could do it in 3 because I was slow doesn't mean I'm the best fit when others can do it in 2.

Try doing some power reading exercises, it really helps on the ACT test.

Originally Posted by losikid

Stress isn't an issue, just time to complete enough questions to get a high score.

Not true its clear you are stressed about the conditions of the test. You are stressing over the time issue which if you let it get to you will greatly affect the outcome of the test. Relax, do some reading exercises to learn to quickly read and process info.

Yea i think ACT is whats used on all colorado colleges...i'm planning on Colorado School of Mines. Our HS doesn't even offer SAT testing...or a testing location.

My HS (years back) offered neither ACT or SAT. We had to drive to other testing facilities, some schools some other buildings.