ACT strategy suggestions for slow readers?

[Kendall]

My son took the ACT on Saturday for the first time. He is a sophomore. I suspect, based on the practice test scores, that he will do well on the first two sections. He said that the reading and science portion were hard, not the questions themselves, but finishing the reading. He didn’t get to the last reading for either test, though he did bubble in blind guesses.

 

He reads well, and remembers what he reads but he reads slowly. We have an ACT test prep book, which he didn’t have much time to look at, but he did glance at the tips. The ACT prep book recommended something like underlining key words in the questions, then underlining key words in the reading, then writing the main point of the first few sentences of each paragraph.

 

I am wondering what the best strategy for slow readers is. He missed very few on the reading portion of the PSAT. I’m not sure if he used a different strategy or if it had shorter readings.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Kendall

[Maverick]

I teach ACT & SAT prep, and the strategy I teach is to mark up the passage as they read and jot down a brief main idea/summary (just a few words) before reading & answering the questions. Most people don't have time to read the questions, then read the passage, then read and answer the questions (which some prep books teach). So go straight to the passage, then when you get to the questions you have made yourself sort of a table of contents on the passage with your underlining of key phrases, circling of important names & dates, etc. This makes it easier to find what you're looking for when you go back to look for an answer in the passage.

 

It is not unusual for students to not finish the science test. It takes time to look for the litle details in the charts/graphs/passages & requires careful reading to get the right answer. On the science I recommend the read & mark-up strategy only on the "conflicting hypothesis" type passages. Otherwise go straight to the questions and search for the details you need one question at a time.

 

You may want to consider how you can help him speed up his reading--not just for the tests, but for when he gets to college. He is going to have to absorb a great deal of material in a short time in his college classes(typically much more than high school) and being able to read quickly will be a huge help, if not a necessity for survival! Sylvan Learning Centers offer a three-week accelerated reading class that teaches kids how to read quickly (using tricks that many of us do without thinking about it like reading "chunks" of text instead of word-by-word and scanning the eye down the middle of the page and "catching" the words on the end of each line out of the corner of your eye). I teach the Sylvan class so I know about it, but I believe there are other options you can do at home. Just a thought. Good luck to your ds!

[Brigid in NC]

I had my son review these ACT science prep videos before taking the ACT last weekend. He said he thought they helped a lot -- both with speed and with strategies.

 

The teacher in the video talks very fast, and tells the kids that they will need to read as fast as he is talking. He "talks" them through an entire science practice test, at a pace that is necessary to finish.

 

I think in the science section of the ACT it's really not about science IMHO, but about acquiring test-taking skills.

 

(There are 7 or 8 of them, and this is the first)

 

Here is the link for the ACT practice test he refers to:

http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/preparing.pdf

[Kendall]

Thank you both so much! Your responses have been really helpful.