Nathan Standridge - ACT Verbal Prep Course

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All rights reserved. Duplication, distribution, or data base storage of any part of this work is prohibited without prior written approval from the publisher. ISBN-10: 1889057665
ISBN-13: 978-1889057668 ACT is a registered trademark of ACT Inc., which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this book. 9058 Lloyd Place
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Website: www.novapress.net ABOUT THIS BOOK If you dont have a pencil in your hand, get one now! Dont just read this bookwrite on it, study it, scrutinize it! In short, for the next four weeks, this book should be a part of your life. When you have finished the book, it should be marked-up, dog-eared, tattered and torn. Although the ACT is a difficult test, it is a very learnable test.

This is not to say that the ACT is beatable. There is no bag of tricks that will show you how to master it overnight. You probably have already realized this. Some books, nevertheless, offer inside stuff or tricks which they claim will enable you to beat the test. These include declaring that answer-choices B, C, or D are more likely to be correct than choices A or E. This tactic, like most of its type, does not work.

The only reason its offered is to give students the feeling that he or she is getting the inside scoop on the test. The truth is the ACT cannot be beaten. But it can be mastered through hard work, analytical thought, and by training yourself to think like a test writer. Many of the exercises in this book are designed to prompt you to think like a test writer. The ACT verbal section is not easynor is this book. To improve your ACT verbal score, you must be willing to work; if you study hard and master the techniques in this book, your score will improve significantly.

This book will introduce you to numerous analytic techniques that will help you immensely, not only on the ACT but in college as well. For this reason, studying for the ACT can be a rewarding and satisfying experience. To insure that you perform at your expected level on the actual ACT, you need to develop a level of skill that is greater than what is tested on the ACT. Hence, about 10% of the problems in this book are harder than actual ACT problems. Although the quick-fix method is not offered in this book, about 10% of the material presented here is dedicated to studying how the questions are constructed. Knowing how the problems are written and how the test writers think will give you useful insight into the problems and make them less mysterious.

Moreover, familiarity with the ACTs structure will help reduce your anxiety. The more you know about this test, the less anxious you will be the day you take it. CONTENTS

The Verbal Section contains three parts: English Test, Reading Test, and Writing Test. The English Test is 45 minutes long and consists of 75 multiple-choice questions. The test is designed to measure your ability to revise and edit a piece of writing. Two categories of questions appear on the test: Usage/Mechanics Punctuation Basic grammar Sentence structure Rhetorical Skills General writing style Organization These subsections have their own scores: The Usage/Mechanics score is based on 40 questions, and the Rhetorical Skills score is based on 35 questions.

The English Test is always the first test given.

The Reading Test is 35 minutes long and consists of 40 multiple-choice questions. Its too late now to pretend that you cant read, so strap on your reading hat and get ready to read about the following subjects: Humanities: This passage can be about music, dance, theater, art, architecture, language, ethics, literary criticism, and even philosophy. Social Studies: The social studies passage can include sociology, anthropology, history, geography, psychology, political science, and economics. Natural Sciences: The natural science passage can cover chemistry, biology, physics, and other physical sciences. The Writing Test is 30 minutes long and consists of one prompt from which to write an essay. The Writing Test is 30 minutes long and consists of one prompt from which to write an essay.

Although the Writing Test is optional, three-quarters of colleges and universities require this section of the ACT, so it might be in your best interest to take it. The Writing Test is always the last test given.

Some questions on the ACT are rather hard. And since it is a time-pressured test, you may not be able to answer every question. Often students become obsessed with a particular problem and waste valuable time trying to solve it. To get a top score, learn to cut your losses and move on.

All questions are worth the same number of points, regardless of their difficulty. There is no penalty for guessing on the ACT. So, if you skip a question or do not finish a section in time, be sure to at least mark an answer for good measure.

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