Read the general guidelines for the ACT. Review the expectations, location of the testing site and time limitations to eliminate surprises on testing day. Over half of the questions test knowledge in usage and mechanics, while the other items evaluate rhetorical skills.
Take practice tests online or in print to assess skills. Practice tests provide opportunities to uncover areas of potential weakness. Purchase an ACT test practice book or workbook. These books provide hints, tips and review materials that can help to increase scores. The publishers of these practice materials base their tips and suggestions on research and can offer insight into areas of test-taking strategies beyond specific content areas.
Complete practice tests at a desk or table. Creating a workspace as similar as possible to the testing environment will allow for a more realistic simulation of testing conditions. Time practice tests. Completing the practice tests in a limited time frame allows the student to be comfortable working within specific time constraints similar to those of the actual test. Students taking the English portion of the ACT must answer 75 questions in 45 minutes, so appropriate pacing is crucial.
Analyze incorrect answers carefully. Answer keys often include explanations and underlying critical thinking techniques that can help in identifying correct responses. Review practice test results to identify patterns of errors. Look for frequent errors and assess whether the test questions incorrectly answered involve paragraph sequencing, word choice, transitional phrases or other areas.
Identify areas for improvement. Focus review sessions on those areas and question types. Review rules of grammar and rhetoric in an English textbook or handbook. The test covers usage, mechanics and rhetorical skills, so include these topics in the review sessions. Study common errors in the English language. Review rules for avoiding run-on sentences, sentence fragments and comma splices, as well as errors in parallelism, subject-verb agreement, possessives and punctuation.
Review online resources. Choose reputable online resources that provide review, practice and helpful tips. Web sites with an .edu extension indicate affiliation with an education institution, often a university, and usually demonstrate reliability and validity.
Enroll in an ACT-prep course. Tutoring centers offer ongoing classes in test preparation that can help hone skills required for scoring higher on standardized tests in general and the ACT in particular. Local colleges sometimes provide low-cost or cost-free instruction.