ACT Prep Science
Credited to: Kristine Fisher
ACT Prep Science Test
35
minutes
40 questions
7 passages
ACT Prep Science Test
 The
science test is a test of your
science reasoning skills.
 All of the information you need to
answer the questions correctly is
provided in the passages
ACT Prep Science Test
The
Questions
– The questions cover:
• Biology
• Earth & Space Sciences
• Chemistry
• Physics
•All four areas are represented
•At least one passage and no more than two passage
represent each content area
ACT Prep Science Test
 15
questions - data representation
 18 questions – research summaries
 7 questions – conflicting viewpoints
ACT Prep Science Test
 20
questions - analysis
 13 questions – generalization
 7 questions – understanding
 THE
QUESTIONS DO NOT GET
HARDER AS YOU PROGRESS
THROUGH THE TEST
ACT Prep Science Test
• The ACT science test emphasizes
scientific reasoning skills rather than
recall of scientific content,
mathematical skill, or reading ability
ACT Prep Science Test
 Unlike
the math test you will not
be required to remember formulas,
definitions, etc.
 You are tested on your ability to
examine information using text,
chart, graphs and tables.
ACT Prep Science
 Things
to do:
 Read carefully
 Underline
 Make notes in your booklet
 Draw conclusions as you are reading
 Make sure you understand the question
ACT Prep Science
 Things
to do:
Draw lines or in some way indicate
which charts/graphs/experiments go
together
 Refer – don’t try to remember
 Look for patterns and trends in data
 Look for words that are italicized, bold,
underlined or capitalized – they will ask a
question relating to this word
ACT Prep Science

Things to do:

Look at the answer choices before answering
questions
 Unlike math or English where you should try to
determine the answer before looking at the
answer choices
 For science, where you will be analyzing
information displayed in charts and graphs it is
beneficial to narrow down the amount of
information you need to study by looking at the
answer choices
ACT Prep Science

Don’t…
 Get bogged down in details
 Worry about understanding everything
 Confuse charts and graphs
 Try to remember every detail
ACT Prep Science

Reading Tables and Graphs
 Determine what is being represented
 What do the columns and rows represent
 Note units of measurement
 Look for trends in the data
ACT Prep Science

Experiments
 Remember how experiments work
 Usually there is a control group plus
experimental group or groups
 In well-designed experiments, the only
difference between groups will be a variation
of the factors being tested
 Look for differences - variations
 What do the results show?
ACT Prep Science

Conflicting Viewpoints
 One passage will be conflicting viewpoints
 A lot of reading – usually takes a little longer
 Try to determine each scientists point of view
 What do they agree on? Disagree?
 Reminder – refer don’t remember
 Underline
 You will not have to determine if a viewpoint is
correct instead you will be asked to identify
similarities and differences among viewpoints
ACT Prep Science

TIMING
 Again – passages are not arranged in order of
difficulty
 The most difficult passage for you may be the
easiest for someone else
 Try to spend 5 minutes on each passage
 About 30 seconds per question
ACT Prep Science
Don’t leave any questions unanswered
No penalty for wrong answers – only credit
for correct answers
GUESS if you don’t know the right
answers – 25% chance of getting the right
answer
ACT Prep Science
If you are not done with passage one after 5
minutes - don’t worry but if you are still in
passage one after 15 minutes have passed you
will need to work more quickly
ACT Prep Science
Don’t spend time agonizing over a questions
Avoid thinking long and hard about answer
choices
If you are stuck – make your best guess and
move on
ACT Prep Science
Don’t panic if you can’t finish all passages
Try to do well on at least 5 passages
ACT Prep Science
If you have less than 3 minutes remaining for an
entire passage
skip the pre-reading
look for questions that refer to a specific
experiment/graph etc
Refer to the cited location
MAKE SURE YOU FILL-IN AN ANSWER FOR
EVERY QUESTION