Kaplan Publishing - ACT Math & Science Prep: Includes 500+ Practice Questions (Kaplan Test Prep)

Section One

Chapter One

Congratulations! By picking up this workbook, youre making a commitment to yourself to learn about the ACT and how you can do your very best on the Science and Math sections of the test. The information in this chapter will tell you what you need to know about the ACT. Youll know what to expect on Test Day, so you can walk into your test center feeling confident and prepared. Going into the ACT with that positive attitude is crucial. Familiarizing yourself with the test structure and working through practice problems are a huge part of creating the mind-set that will help you ace the ACT. Lets get started.

The ACT is divided into five tests: English, Mathematics, Reading, Science, and Writing. You can elect to take the ACT with only the first four tests, which make up the multiple-choice portion of the ACT. The fifth test, in which you produce an essay, is an optional test.

No matter where or when you take the ACT, the order of the sections and the time allotted for each are always the same. This consistency works in your favor: The more you know about what to expect on Test Day, the more confident youll feel. You may know that one section of the test, lets say, Science, usually seems more challenging for you, but at least you know that Science will always be fourth. The ACT wont ever surprise you by making the Science section the first thing you see when you open your exam booklet. Knowing the structure of the ACT will help you feel in control of your test-taking experience.

The following table summarizes the predictable structure of the ACT:

Heres your first ACT practice question:

• One of the most important ways to succeed on a standardized test is to:

  1. do nothing but practice problems in your spare time the week before the test.
  2. talk to anyone who will listen about how nervous you are.
  3. choose choice (C) for any multiple-choice question youre unsure about.
  4. understand what a standardized test is and why taking it doesnt have to be a demoralizing experience.

Which answer did you choose? Although some of the choices may have made you groan or grimace if you recognized they werent true, we hope you spotted that option (D) is the best answer.

As you use this book and apply the Kaplan strategies to work through practice problems, youll come to see that the test experience need not be demoralizing at all. Right now, however, you may be apprehensive for a variety of reasons. Your own teachers didnt write the test. Youve heard the test maker includes trick answers. You feel weak in one of the content areas and dont know how you can possibly improve enough to do well on that test section. Thousands of students will be taking the test. All of these things can seem very intimidating.

Lets look carefully at that last reason. The simple fact that thousands of students from different places take the ACT is actually a good thing. It means that the test is necessarily constructed in a deliberate and predictable way. Because its a standardized test, the ACT must include very specific content and skills that are consistent from one test date to another. The need for standardization makes it predictable, not intimidating. Its predictable not simply in the layout of the test sections in the booklet, but also in the topics that are tested and even in the way those topics are tested. Working the practice problems in this book will help you understand not only how each topic is tested but also how to approach the various question types.

If you feel anxious about the predominance of multiple-choice questions on the ACT, think about this fact: For multiple-choice questions, there has to be only one right answer, and its right there in front of you in the test booklet. A question that could be interpreted differently by students from different schools, even different parts of the country, whove had different teachers and different high school courses, would never make it onto the ACT. Each question on the ACT is put there to test a specific skill. Either the question or the passage its associated with (for English, Reading, and Science) must include information that allows all students to determine the correct answer.

There can be no ambiguity about which answer is best for a multiple-choice question on a standardized test. This workbook will teach you proven Kaplan strategies for finding that answer. The Kaplan strategies, along with your understanding about how the test is structured and written, will put you in control of your ACT Test Day experience.

Lets look at how your ACT composite score is calculated. For each multiple-choice section of the test (English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science), the number of questions you answer correctly is totaled. No points are deducted for wrong answers. The total correct for each section is called the raw score for that section. Thus, the highest possible raw score for a section is the total number of questions in that section.

Because each version of the ACT is different (more in the wording of the questions than in the types of questions or skills needed to answer them), a conversion from the raw score to a scaled score is necessary. For each version of the ACT that is written, the test maker generates a conversion chart that indicates what scaled score each raw score is equivalent to. The conversion from raw score to scaled score is what allows for accurate comparison of test scores even though there are slight variations in each version of the test. The scaled score ranges from a low of 1 to a high of 36 for each of the first four test sections. Scaled scores have the same meaning for all the different versions of the ACT offered on different test dates.

The score for each of the first three sections of the ACT is broken down further into subscores. The subscores for a particular section do not necessarily add up to the overall score for the section. The following table lists the subscores that are reported for each section.