Anyone have any tips for the act test?

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ultimamax:
Brush up on your algebra and whatnot

On the science section if you read the entire passage you'll almost run out of time. Just read the questions and then backtrack to the graphs/charts that look relevant.

It's not a big deal if you don't do that good the first time lots of people do it more than once

hillkill:
I remember literally nothing about tan, cos, and sine. I also don't know radians (I've been told there's calc questions like this).

ultimamax:

--- Quote from: hillkill on June 09, 2017, 05:49:54 PM ---I remember literally nothing about tan, cos, and sine. I also don't know radians (I've been told there's calc questions like this).

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I can't remember if there's actually trigonometry on the ACT. There's almost certainly not calculus though, that'd be loving crazy. Most peopledon't even get to calculus before college.

Radians are just a different way of expressing an angle. Instead of degrees, which are arbitrarily cut up into 360 degrees, radians are cut up based on the ratio of ratio to the circumference. Here's a good intuitive visual

SeventhSandwich:
The advice I post every time this thread comes up:

--- Quote ---My tips are to remember that the ACT is essentially a time trial (in contrast, the SAT trips people up by phrasing the questions in a confusing way). Your score will pretty much depend on whether you can finish all of the questions with the time you're given.

On the writing section, spend at least 2 minutes just calmly thinking about everything you're gonna write (especially the evidence you're going to use in your essay, since the logical organization of your essay is what they actually grade). If you can write an essay in 20 minutes, you can do it in 18 too.

On math, don't do unnecessary algebra. If you have a problem where you can figure out the answer backwards (i.e., plugging the multiple choice answers into a given formula), do that. You don't get bonus points for rigorously proving the algebraic solution.

Lastly, on science, absolutely do not read the preamble that's given before each section. The science section tests your ability to understand what a graph is saying (like whether x is increasing along with y, or whether x & y are correlated, etc). There will likely be only one question on the entire science section that relies on a background understanding of the concept being demonstrated, and it's usually extremely simple (IIRC, on my test it was asking for the real reason why water is sucked up into a beaker when a match is lit underneath it). Unless you stumble upon a question that can't be answered without it (which you won't) then don't bother reading it. I'm not convinced that it's possible to finish the entire science section if you actually try to read and absorb the background information in each section.
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ultimamax:

--- Quote from: SeventhSandwich on June 09, 2017, 08:10:45 PM ---The advice I post every time this thread comes up:

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Good advice. Remember to keep in mind that the essay has nothing to do with your composite score - its a separate score that lots of institutions don't even give a stuff about. Don't freak out about it unless you want to get into a school that values the essay score.

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