One's father's favorite thing to say before his child takes a test is, "Always double-check! If your mother and I had double-checked before we left the hospital with you, we might have brought home a normal child....."
Mental and emotional child abuse aside, that dad has a point. Double-checking is integral to getting what you want. The test-makers know what types of careless mistakes students make, so they build those mistakes into the test. This section shares some of the most common areas in which test-takers get sloppy.
Exponents
Make sure that as you multiplied like bases, you added the exponents (x5 + X5 = X10), and that as you divided like bases, you subtracted the exponents (X9/X3 = X6). Forgetting this and just multiplying (X5 * X5 = X25) or dividing (X9/X3 = X3) instead of adding or subtracting is all too easy to do.
Common-sense Connections
Think about what a math question is asking. If you are asked to find the weight of a child, and your answer is 400 pounds, something went haywire somewhere. If McCaela is bicycling, and you deduce that she bikes at a rate of 220 mph, sign that woman up for the Olympics!
Decimal Places
If a question has two or more answers with the same digits, you know that the decimal point is being tested. If the choices are .05, 0.5, 5, 50, and 500, double-check that your decimal point is in the right place.
Operations Signs
Double check all operations signs (+, -, /, and x) when you move from one side of the equal sign to the other side.
Political Correctness
The grammar and reading portions of the ACT contain very few correct, negative-sounding answers. If a passage talks about the people, especially those in a minority group, it never says nasty things about them. The entire ACT is sweetness and light; if your answer is pretty and mean-spirited, it is probably wrong.
-ing and other beware! words
Always double-check the words that give you trouble: lie or lay and affect or effect, for example. Pay close attention to the -ing words as well.
Context
When you're talking the English and Reading tests, read a few sentences before and after the sentence you're working on. You won't get tripped up by an answer choice that seems correct in the sentence but isn't because of text that precedes or follows the sentence.
Grammar
To double-check your work, insert your answer into the sentence and read it again. Does your answer still make sense?
Completed Answer Grid
If you've read through this book, you've seen the following information a gazillion times, but it bears repeating: Wrong answers on the ACT are not penalized. You lose no points for a mistake. Therefore, it behooves you to answer every question, even if you have to make wild guesses to do so. When you see that you have only a minute or two left, fill in answer for every question left in the test. You may pick up several points for lucky guesses.
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