My Two Biggest Tips for the ACT Science Section

Hello everyone! In this week’s blog post, I go over my 2 biggest tips for the ACT Science Section. Read on to learn more!

The ACT Science Section consists of 40 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 35 minutes. The SAT doesn’t offer a science section on the test, therefore this section specifically pertains to the ACT. This section aims to test your critical thinking, analytical, and reasoning skills in science-based questions. It’s a bit unlike other standardized tests and students take a bit more time to get used to it. Therefore, it is an essential section of the test that you must get familiar with, to help increase your chances of scoring better overall.

This section uses a bit of comprehension, meaning that they give you passages – or small texts – that you must read to get context on the question. Then, they will give you a set of questions to answer based on what you’ve just read. Some questions are about a specific scientific experiment, while others may be more generally based on a concept in science.

There are many approaches to the Science Section. Some students, who are more familiar with science concepts, will skim over the informational text in each set of questions, and direct their attention towards the questions. Others may focus more on the text before they dive into the questions. Regarding this, I would suggest you take the approach that better suits you.

Personally, I preferred to read through the text to grasp every minor detail, and this did help me when answering the questions. However, feel free to take the approach you wish to. Note, however, that some details mentioned in the text may be useful in some questions, so look carefully in the text when you refer back after reading the questions.

Many people say that you don’t need to know science to do well in the Science section of the ACT. This is true! However, please note that there will be a few questions that require a basic understanding of science (basic biology, chemistry, physics, etc.). Other than that, for the most part, questions will base primarily on the given information, and all you have to do is use your reasoning skills to deduce

the answer.

I’ll be going over my 2 biggest tips when it comes to tackling the ACT Science Section.

Tip #1: Look in the Proper Place

In the ACT Science section, the questions will specifically state where to look for the answer. For example, the question may start off as “In passage 2,” or “According to Table 1,” etc. Look at the specified text or figure, and try to deduce your answer from that. If they don’t specify a place, then you will need to read around until you figure out your answer. However, if it’s specified, then you may not need to look at any other information, besides the specified text or figure.

This tip saves a tremendous amount of time and can help you focus your attention on specific information to find an answer. Additionally, you’ll be able to

get through your questions easier, since you’ll know where to look.

Tip #2: Move on

If you can’t find the answer to a question in 30 seconds, then move on. Sometimes questions may take more time than you anticipated, and you may not have time to complete all of the questions. In this case, skip over the harder and more concept-based questions, and try to complete the simpler, experimental ones. Whichever questions you find easy, do those first.

You’ll save time, and get more questions done in the spare amount of time you have. Focusing on one question for 2-3 minutes will only reduce the time you have to do the other questions, and you may end up getting even more incorrect answers.

I hope you all found this post useful! Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

Until next time, bye!