ACT Prep: 6 Practice Tests + Content Review + Strategies (2021)

Name: ACT Prep: 6 Practice Tests + Content Review + Strategies (2021)
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ACT Prep: 6 Practice Tests + Content Review + Strategies (2021) makes exam prep stress-free with structured learning.

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Editorial
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The Princeton Review
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Acknowledgments
The completion of this book would not have been possible without
the help and dedication of several individuals. In particular, we would
like to thank Aaron Lindh, High School Content Director for The
Princeton Review.
Special thanks to Amy Minster, Cat Healey, Sara Kuperstein, and
Cynthia Ward for their expert review and contributions to the content
of the book. Thanks also to Aleksei Alferiev, Kevin Baldwin, Emily
Baumbach, Gabby Budzon, Nicole Cosme, Stacey Cowap, Lori
DesRochers, Elizabeth Evangelista, Anne Goldberg-Baldwin, Brad
Kelly, Jomil London, Scott O’Neal, Danielle Perrini, Sara Soriano,
Jess Thomas, and Jimmy Williams for their contributions to this
book. Also thanks to Kris Oglivie, Kathy Carter, and Sarah Litt for
their work on the production of this book.
Special thanks to Adam Robinson, who conceived of and perfected
the Joe Bloggs approach to standardized tests and many other
successful techniques used by The Princeton Review.

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Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgments
Get More (Free) Content
Part I: Orientation
1 Introduction to the ACT
2 ACT Strategy
3 Score Goals
4 Taking the ACT
Part II: How to Crack the ACT English Test
5 Introduction to the ACT English Test
6 Complete
7 Consistent, Clear, and Concise
8 Rhetorical Skills
Part III: How to Crack the ACT Mathematics Test
9 Introduction to the ACT Mathematics Test
10 Fundamentals
11 No More Algebra
12 Plane Geometry
13 Word Problems
14 Graphing and Coordinate Geometry
15 Trigonometry

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16 Advanced Math
Part IV: How to Crack the ACT Reading Test
17 Introduction to the ACT Reading Test
18 The 6-Step Basic Approach
19 Advanced Reading Skills
Part V: How to Crack the ACT Science Test
20 Introduction to the ACT Science Test
21 Scientific Reasoning Skills
22 The Basic Approach
23 Dual Science Passages
Part VI: How to Crack the ACT Writing Test
24 Writing
Part VII: Drill Answers and Explanations
25 Drill Answers and Explanations
Part VIII: The Princeton Review ACT Practice
Exams
26 Practice Exam 1
27 Practice Exam 1: Answers and Explanations
28 Practice Exam 2
29 Practice Exam 2: Answers and Explanations
30 Practice Exam 3
31 Practice Exam 3: Answers and Explanations
32 Practice Exam 4
33 Practice Exam 4: Answers and Explanations

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ISBN
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Once you’ve registered, you can…
Access four more full-length practice tests
Find any late-breaking information released about the ACT
Read our special “College Admissions Insider” and get valuable
advice about the college application process, including tips for
writing a great essay and where to apply for financial aid
Check to see if there have been any corrections or updates to
this edition
Sort colleges by whatever you’re looking for (such as Best
Theater or Dorm), learn more about your top choices, and see
how they all rank according to The Best 386 Colleges
Check out bonus features in your Student Tools, including
comprehensive study guides and short videos to help enhance

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THE ACT
Welcome to ACT Prep, 2021 Edition. The ACT is a standardized test
used for college admissions. But you probably already knew that. In
this book, we’ll tell you all the things you didn’t know about the ACT,
all to show you how to crack the test and get your best score.
The ACT has traditionally been a pencil-and-paper exam but is now
also available on the computer (what ACT calls the “ACT Online
Test,” which still needs to be taken at a test center and not at home).
While the pencil-and-paper test is usually taken on Saturday
mornings, some states offer a special state-administration during the
school day. Non-Saturday testing is available but only for students
who live in remote areas or who can’t test on Saturdays for religious
reasons.
Where Does the ACT Come From?
The ACT is written by a nonprofit organization that used to call itself
American College Testing but now just calls itself ACT. The company
has been producing the ACT since it introduced the test in 1959 as an
alternative to the College Board’s SAT. ACT also writes ACT Aspire
and PreACT, which are tests you may have taken earlier in your
academic career. The organization also provides a broad range of
services to educational agencies and business institutions.
What Does the ACT Test?
The nice people who write the ACT—we’ll refer to them as “ACT”
from now on—describe it as an assessment of college readiness, “a
curriculum- and standards-based educational and career planning
tool that assesses students’ academic readiness for college.”
We at The Princeton Review have always been skeptical when any
standardized test makes broad claims of what it can measure. In our
opinion, a standardized test is just a measure of how well you take
that test. Granted, ACT has spent an extraordinary amount of time
analyzing data and providing the results of their research to various

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educational institutions and agencies. In fact, ACT has contributed to
the development of the Common Core Standards Initiative, an
educational reform that aligns diverse state curricula into national
uniform standards.
With all due respect to ACT and the various state and federal
agencies working on the Common Core, we still think the ACT is just
a measure of how well you take the ACT. Many factors other than
mastery of the “curriculum-based” content determine your
performance on a standardized test. That’s why we’ll teach you both
the content you need as well as crucial test-taking strategies.
Focus!
If you were getting ready to take a history
test, you’d study history. If you were preparing
for a basketball game, you’d practice
basketball. So if you’re preparing for the ACT,
study the ACT!
What’s on the ACT?
The ACT consists of four multiple-choice, timed tests: English, Math,
Reading, and Science, always given in that order. The ACT Plus
Writing also includes an essay, with the Writing Test given after the
Science Test. (ACT calls them tests, but we may also use the term
“sections” in this book to avoid confusion.) In Parts II–VI, we’ll
thoroughly review the content and strategies you need for each test.
1. English Test (45 minutes—75 questions)
You will be given 5 essays total with some words or phrases
underlined. The essays will be situated on the left side of the page,
while on the right side of the page you will be asked whether each
underlined portion is correct as written or whether one of the three
alternatives listed would be better. The English Test is a test of
grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and rhetorical skills.
Throughout each essay, commonly known as a passage, there will

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also be questions about overall organization and style or perhaps
about how the writing could be revised or strengthened.
2. Math Test (60 minutes—60 questions)
These are the regular, multiple-choice math questions you’ve been
doing all your life. The easier questions, which test basic math
proficiency, tend to come first, but the folks at ACT can mix in easy,
medium, and difficult problems throughout the Math test. A good
third of the test covers pre-algebra and elementary algebra. Slightly
less than a third covers intermediate algebra and coordinate
geometry (graphing). Regular geometry accounts for less than a
quarter of the questions, and there are typically four questions that
cover trigonometry.
3. Reading Test (35 minutes—40 questions)
In this test, there will be four reading passages of about 800 words
each—the average length of a magazine article but maybe not as
entertaining to read. There is always one prose fiction (or literary
narrative) passage, one social science passage, one humanities
passage, and one natural science passage, and they are always in that
order. One of these passages will consist of a dual passage in which
the total length of the two passages will still be about 800 words.
Each passage will be followed by 10 questions.
4. Science Test (35 minutes—40 questions)
No specific scientific knowledge is necessary to do well on the
Science test. You won’t need to know the chemical makeup of
hydrochloric acid or any formulas. Instead, you will be asked to
understand scientific information presented in graphs, charts, tables,
and research summaries, and you will have to make sense of one
disagreement between two to four scientists.
5. Optional Writing Test (40 minutes)
The ACT Plus Writing contains an “optional” writing test featuring a
single essay. We recommend you take the “ACT Plus Writing”
version of the test because many schools require or recommend it.

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On test day you may think that you don’t need it, but you might later
decide to apply to a school that requires a writing score. The last
thing you want is to be forced into taking the whole ACT all over
again…this time with the Writing test. The essay requires that you
consider a socially relevant prompt and three perspectives on that
prompt. The essay is scored by two graders who will each assign four
scores of 1–6 that are then averaged and combined for a total score
of 2–12. This score will NOT factor into your composite score.
How Is the ACT Scored?
Scores for each of the four multiple-choice tests are reported on a
scale of 1 to 36 (36 being the highest score possible). The four scores
are averaged to yield your composite score, which is the score
colleges and universities use to help determine admission. An
average ending in .5 or .75 is rounded up, whereas an average ending
in .25 is rounded down. Next to each score is a percentile ranking.
Percentile ranking refers to how you performed on the test relative to
other people who took it at the same time. For instance, a percentile
ranking of 87 indicates that you scored higher than 87 percent of the
people who took the test, and the other 13 percent scored equal to or
higher than you.
Some of the scores have subcategories. For instance, English is
broken down into Usage/Mechanics and Rhetorical Skills. In these
subcategories, scores are reported on a scale of 1 to 18 (18 being the
highest score possible). They are also reported as percentiles.
ACT will also give two cross-test scores called “STEM” (Science,
Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and “ELA” (English,
Language Arts). Your STEM score is simply an average of your Math
and Science scores. Your ELA score is taken from your English,
Reading, and Writing scores. (If you don’t take the Writing test, you
won’t receive an ELA score.) Neither score has any influence on your
composite, nor, frankly, as far as we can tell, on your college
admission.

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On your score report, ACT also indicates if you met their “College
Readiness Benchmark Scores”: 18 in English, 22 in Math, 22 in
Reading, and 23 in Science. ACT maintains that these benchmarks
can predict college “success,” defined as a “50 percent or higher
probability of earning a B or higher in the corresponding college
course or courses.” These scores and their meaning have been
determined by ACT’s own research and data, not by any studies done
by colleges and universities themselves.
When Should You Take the ACT?
If you haven’t already, go to ACTStudent.org and create your free
ACT Web Account. You can register for tests, view your scores, and
request score reports for colleges through this account. You can also
view the specific test dates and centers for the upcoming academic
year.
The ACT is given seven times a year: September, October, December,
February, April, June, and July. The February and July
administrations are not available in New York.
Many states also offer an additional ACT as part of their state testing.
Check with your high school to see if and when your state offers a
special ACT. Your school will register you automatically for a state
ACT. You must register yourself for all other administrations.
Traditionally, most students wait until the spring of their junior year
to take the ACT. Many high schools still recommend the spring of the
junior year because the content of the Math test includes topics some
curricula do not cover before then. However, these topics appear in
only a handful of questions, and many juniors take their first ACT in
the fall or winter.
We recommend that you consider your own schedule when picking
your test dates. Do you play a fall sport and carry a heavier load of
extracurricular activities in the fall? Is winter a quiet time in between
semesters? Do you act in the spring musical and plan to take several

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AP exams? Have you been dreaming of attending Big State
University since you were a toddler and already plan to apply for
early decision? Let the answers to these questions determine your
test dates. But we recommend taking your first test after you’ve done
some prep and feel comfortable that you’ve learned enough in school
to achieve your goal score. For most students, this is sometime in
junior year (grade 11).
How Many Times Should You Take the ACT?
For security reasons, ACT will not let you take the exam more than 12
times in your lifetime. But we certainly hope no one is dismayed by
this restriction. There are certainly better things to do with your time
on a Saturday morning, and we don’t believe any college will accept
“taking the ACT” as an extracurricular activity!
The Princeton Review recommends that you plan to take the ACT
two to three times. If you achieve your goal score in your first
administration, great. Take the money and run. On the other hand, if
after three tests you have reason and motivation to take the ACT
again, do it. On your first day of college, you will neither remember
nor care how many times you had to take the ACT.
In fact, at many colleges, the median number of times admitted
students took the ACT (or SAT) is 3. In other words, it’s perfectly fine
(and normal!) to retake the ACT.
Looking for more help on the ACT? Check out
princetonreview.com for information on self-
paced courses, live courses, and tutoring!

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