The ACT Reading test is, without a doubt, a difficult test, but today I want to call into question the way the ACT and other test preparers break it down. If it's easier, I explain here in this week's YouTube video.
Let me take a step back and explain what I mean. Parents of students who make good grades in English, who read perfectly well, and even parents of students who read often are just perplexed when this score comes back lower than, say, their ACT Math score. Their sons and daughter need, then, a specific knowledge of this test, a skill base, that can bridge the gap between what they have and what they’re missing.
Today let's look at how the questions break down (specifically, how to categorize the questions). By that I mean this, specifically: how do other test preparers, like the ACT and others like Mometrix, categorize the ACT Reading test’s questions, and how do I do it in The ACT System (and why is mine better)?
Let’s start with the prep book put out by the ACT itself (The Official ACT Prep Guide). I’m open here to a section in the ACT’s book analyzing and categorizing the different types of ACT Reading questions, and we’re given 8...8 technical categories comprised of technical jargon. Here’s my question: how will a student’s knowledge of these 8 categories improve their ACT Reading score? I’d admit that it would if each of these categories was tied to a testable skill...but they aren’t.
Let’s look then at another book, this one put out by Mometrix. In a similar section, they list dozens of categories into which any ACT Reading question can be placed.
Again, if these categories were tied to particular, testable skills, I’d be all about it. But in both cases, these lists are unhelpful and, well, academic, for lack of a better word. They might be good for authors who create practice tests behind the scenes, but are unhelpful for students. There must be a better, more helpful way!
In The ACT System, I break down all ACT Reading questions into 3 categories (and have guided practice through each using real passages). These 3 categories aren’t designed to make me sound smart, or give the student a false feeling of achievement, but are tied to the major skills necessary to actually get more ACT Reading questions correct.
So, what are these 3 categories? Micro, medium, and macro. Micro, of course meaning small, or referring to a detail; medium, meaning requiring reference to a bit more information; and macro, meaning big, or big picture questions.
Let’s start with micro questions, which comprise roughly 40% to 45% of all ACT Reading questions. These questions require the skill of searching a passage for the 1 or 2 sentences that contain the detail or details necessary to get a question correct. A student here has to take out a magnifying glass (metaphorically speaking) and search the passage for the sentence or two that is needed for reference. If you know anything about the ACT Reading strategy that I profess, active reading and annotating, then you know that students ought to have jotted in the margins the main ideas of the paragraphs, which can provide a sort of map as to where to find certain details.
An example question in this category would be something like, “According to the passage, one overlooked similarity between alligators and crocodiles is…”
Secondly, there are medium questions, which also comprise roughly 40-45% of all ACT Reading questions. These questions require the skill of rereading and analyzing a full paragraph, sometimes up to 2 paragraphs (though that’s a little more rare), and apply their analysis to the question. Sometimes, with the annotating and passage map that I mentioned, these questions are already answered in that small summaries of main ideas of paragraphs are already scribbled in the margins. However, we can’t necessarily count on that.
An example question in this category would be something like: “The primary function of the first paragraph is to…”
Lastly, there are macro questions. These are questions that reference the passage as a whole (again, macro, big picture), and really can’t be looked up in the same way that micro and medium question can. To get them right if you’re unsure would require a rereading of the entire passage or at least a lot of the passage, and we don’t have time for that. These questions comprise roughly 15% of questions on the ACT Reading test.
An example question in this category would be something like, “It can most reasonably be inferred that the author has a knowledge of cave art that can best be described as…”
In conclusion, these three categories are tied to particular skills that can be practiced, worked on, and improved upon, resulting in the end goal: more correct bubbles bubbled in and and higher ACT Reading score.
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If you want some free ACT prep cheat sheets that lay it all out in a few pages, then click here!
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