The Reading Portion of ACT
Quick Tips and Strategies
The Reading Test Includes
• One Prose Fiction passage
with ten questions
• One Social Sciences
passage with ten questions
• One Humanities passage
with ten questions
• One Natural Sciences
passage with ten questions
The Timing
• You need to answer 40 questions in 35
minutes
• The gives you just under nine minutes for
every passage
The Directions:
• DIRECTIONS: The passage in
this test is followed by
several questions. After
reading the passage,
choose the best answer to
each question and fill in the
corresponding oval on your
answer document. You may
refer to the passage as
often as necessary.
What you SHOULD Do:
• Pre-read the passage
• Skim through the passage
– Get a sense of the gist or main
idea of the passage
– See how everything fits together
to support that main idea
• Don’t read slowly!
• Don’t get bogged down with
details!
Mark Up the Passage: ABC
• Abbreviate margin notes
• Bracket key sentences
• Circle key words and phrases
– Look for transitional words
• however,
• therefore
• on one hand. . . On the other hand
You Already Know How to Do
This:
• Main Idea = THESIS STATEMENT
• Topic Sentences = the subideas that are covered in
each paragraph
For Example: The Introduction
• How should the law treat a mentally
disturbed person who commits a criminal
offense? Should individuals whose mental
faculties are impaired be held responsible
for their actions? These questions are of
concern to social scientists, to members of
the legal profession, and to individuals who
work with criminal offenders.
Topic Sentences
• Over the centuries, an important part of
Western law has been the concept that a
civilized society should not punish a
person who is mentally incapable of controlling his or her conduct.
• The McNaghten Rule was adopted in the
United States, and the distinction of
knowing right from wrong remained the
basis of most decisions of legal insanity
for over a century
• During the 1970s, a number of state and
federal courts adopted a broader legal
definition
• The problem of legal responsibility in the
case of mentally disordered individuals is
currently a topic of intense debate
• Despite the current controversy, actual
cases of acquittal by reason of insanity are
quite rare
Consider the Question Stem
• Quickly look at the basic questions
– Look at ONLY the questions
– Don’t even consider the answers
• Identify what is being asked
Three Main Types of Reading Questions
• Specific Questions
– Detail
• Ask about what is stated in the passage
– Vocabulary-in-Context
• Asks the meaning of a word in context
– Function
• Asks why a word, sentence, or example is used
• Inference Questions
– Read between the lines
– Draw a conclusion
• Big Picture Questions
– Ask what the point of the whole passage is
The Questions:
1. One of the author’s main points about the
legal concept of responsibility in the
passage is that:
2. Based on the passage, the primary
purpose for the 1970s redefinition of
insanity proposed by the American Law
Institute was to:
3. From information in the third and fourth
paragraphs (lines 35–58) it can reasonably
be inferred that the legal definition of
insanity was changed in the 1970s after:
4. According to the explanation provided in
the fourth paragraph (lines 43–58), use of
the word appreciate in the phrase “to
appreciate the wrongfulness” (lines 48–49)
instead of know implies which of the
following?
5. The passage indicates that the
McNaghten case became the basis for
future decisions about legal insanity
because:
6. The passage states that McNaghten
wanted to kill the English prime minister
because the Scotsman thought that he:
Refer to the Passage
• Zone into what you need
to read in order to answer
the question
• Remember to read around
any lines given in the
question stem.
– Answer may be above or
below the actual lines cited.
Answer the question in your
own words
• Do this BEFORE you look at
the answer choices
• Don’t get bogged down
reading every possible
answer!
Match Your Answer with One
of the Choices
• Avoid trying to see if any
other answers “look right”
• Remember: other answers
are there to confuse you,
so don’t think about them
any more than you
absolutely have to.
Let’s Review the Five Steps:
1. Pre-read the Passage
2. Consider the Question
Stem
3. Refer to the Passage
4. Answer the Question in
Your Own Words
5. Match Your Answer with
One of the Choices
Other Tips
• Find and Paraphrase
– Never read and remember
• Skip Around
– Look at those topic sentences
– Zone in on the most likely portion to
FIND your answer
• Skip questions you don’t
understand
– If you can’t figure out the big
picture, by answering the details
you might clarify the big picture
Tips for Specific Reading Passages
• The tips above work for 3 of the
4 passages
– Social Studies
– Humanities
– Natural Sciences
• Fiction is different!
Focus on the characters
• Who are these people?
– What are they like?
– How are they related to each
other?
• What is their state of mind?
–
–
–
–
Are they angry?
Sad?
Reflective?
Excited?
Focus on the characters
• What’s going on?
– What’s happening on the
surface?
– What’s happening beneath the
surface?
• What’s the author’s attitude
toward the characters?
• Most of the passages focus on one
person or are written from the point of
view of one of the characters.
– Figure out who this main character is
– Pay special attention to what he/she is like
• Read between the lines to determine
unspoken emotions and attitudes
– A momentary frown
– A pointed or sarcastic comment
• Spend more time reading the Prose
Fiction passage
– The questions go faster than the other three
reading sections.