ACT Master Class

ACT Master Class

Brought to you by RG Prep

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Welcome!

Allow me to introduce myself

Quick Intake

Where you want to be

Where you're at

Part 1:

Unlocking the ACT

Uncover all the hidden aspects to the most important test in your high school career

Unlocking The ACT: Changes!

Unlocking The ACT: Changes!

About this Science section...

Unlocking The ACT: The ENHANCED ACT

3 Sections + 1 optional

Total time: 2 Hours 5 Min (2 Hours 45 Min)

English (NEW)

Science

Math (NEW)

Reading (NEW)

45 Questions in 50 Minutes

36 Questions in 40 Minutes

50 Questions in 35 Minutes

40 Questions in 35 Minutes

42s/Question

1min 7s/Question

1min 7s/Question

53s/Question

Reading (old)

Math (old)

English (OLD)

40 Questions in 35 Minutes

60 Questions in 60 Minutes

75 Questions in 45 Minutes

53s/Question

60s/Question

36s/Question

Unlocking The ACT: The ENHANCED ACT

Field Testing

• Moving from the "5th" ACT section to embedded field test questions
• Implications
• Why this is here
• Standardized test -> need a standard
• Passage-based sections
• Everything BUT math (~4/50)

Unlocking The ACT: Riverside Stats

27.37

88

Students from 2025 RHS Engineering Senior class took the ACT

Average ACT score

Scoring: 1 - 36

• Composite score is all sections added then averaged
• Each section is weighted equally

To achieve an ACT score that will help you in admissions, you are in the right place.

Unlocking The ACT: A Brief Overview

55%

of students increased their ACT scores by at least 2 points after engaging in some form of prep

You are headed in the right direction

Anyone can reach a perfect 36. You don't have to be a genius. You just need quality reps. And a lot of them.

Unlocking The ACT: A Brief Overview

Now... My Top 10 Secrets to Scoring a 35+ on the ACT

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#1: The ACT is repeatable

• Two meanings
• The amount of practice questions you do → degree to which your score will increase

• Immediate feedback is key
• Correcting errors
• Noticing patterns in mistakes
• Adopting a learner-mentality
• This limitation and others have several implications that provide us with opportunities to "beat" the test

The way we practice is the way we perform, and this is no different with the ACT.

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#2: Practice with real ACTs

• Quality ACT practice tests are important because of repetitiveness
• Don't train the wrong muscles
• Need more official ACTs for your practice?
• ACT 2025-2026 Red Book
• Online (be careful)
• Ask me!

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#3: Determine your bottleneck

• The secret to scoring that near-perfect or perfect ACT score comes down to two factors:
• Speed and accuracy
• The key is to train both skills - but in different ways
• The question to ask: Am I bottlenecked (limited) by my speed or by my knowledge of content?

• How to determine this

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#4: Improving your speed

• Regularly complete timed practice sets
• 10 -15 questions

• Goal: Gradually reduce your time per question
• Skip and return
• Use section-specific shortcuts
• Set benchmarks

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#5: Improving your accuracy

• Practice slowly without time limits
• Goal: Focus on understanding without pressure
• Review, review, review
• Watching game tape back
• Use my missed question review template (will send after Master Class)

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#6: Make a study plan

• Stick with it!
• Block off time to make your ACT prep a priority
• Do something every day
• Even if just a 10 question worksheet
• Track your progress - what gets measured gets managed
• Time per question
• Score increases (by section and composite)
• Number of errors made (and type)
• Night before
• 30 minutes English - nothing heavy
• Sleep!

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#7: Understand your strengths and weaknesses

• Investigate your weak and strong sections of the ACT
• How to identify
• Take full-length ACT under realistic conditions
• Score reports

• How to divide and conquer your weaknesses
• Go from highest to lowest proportion
• Every question is weighted equally
• Focus on accuracy, then speed

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#8: The 80 / 20 rule

• Spend time mastering the high-impact areas of the ACT
• Back to repeatability
• The ACT tests the same type of questions frequently
• Apply it by section
• English: commas, mastering your approach, sentence structure
• Math: algebra, geometry, plugging in ACs
• Reading: passage mapping, line references first, speed
• Science: graphs, pick out what matters, passage mapping

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#9: How to guess by section

• Reminder: the ACT is standardized
• That means it's specific about the right answer choices, as well as the wrong answer choices (must follow a standard)

• English:
• Focus on "NO CHANGE" and the most concise answer choices (least wordy)
• Unless otherwise specified (more on question types)
• With commas, less is more
• Math:
• Backsolve from middle answer (if time)
• Otherwise guess A/F or D/J consistently
• Last 10: "which of the following" - guess D/J

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#9: How to guess by section

• Reading:
• Avoid extreme language ("always", "never", "only", etc.)
• Trust direct evidence
• Skip little detail questions
• Science:
• Guess answers that align with trends
• Ignore big words
• Look for contradictions (answer choices that go against each other)
• DON'T WASTE TIME ON CONFLICTING VIEWPOINTS - leave for end

Unlocking The ACT: Top 10 Secrets to Scoring 35+

#10: Memorize key rules/formulas

• Memorize the ACT Math Formulas to Know (will send everyone along with the review template)
• Study and memorize key grammar rules
• Outside of those two, don't waste your time memorizing specifics that don't appear frequently
• You can get very far by simply doing lots of practice questions and consistently reviewing that practice

Part 2:

The English Section

From comma placement, to word choice, to grammar rules that you don't know and those you don't need to know

English: 3 Strategies and 2 Rules

• 50 Qs in 35 min
• The ACT English section tests your ability to edit punctuation, sentence structure, and grammar in 5 passages.

Let me drop 3 of my best strategies on you, as well as 2 rules you should know.

The English Section: Strategies

Strategy #1: Remember the 4 C's

Ex: Consistent

• Complete
• Consistent
• Clear
• Concise

HINT: Use these to eliminate clearly wrong answer choices

Ex: Concise

The English Section: Strategies

Strategy #2: Trust Your Ear!

• A lot of the errors and clunkiness that the English section requires you to edit can be fixed by what sounds right to you intuitively
• Sound it out in your head or write it out on paper
• Don't overthink it - most English questions are not designed to be difficult because there is just a lot to answer with not much time
• Reminder

The English Section: Strategies

Strategy #3: Let the Answers Guide You

• Clues and guide
• Comparing and contrasting
• Speed
• Answering vs. picking the right answer

Answer choice elimination is one key tactic that is always something you can rely on when you are stuck - in any section

Grammar and Strategies: Grammar Rules

Rule #1: Punctuation

• Commas (will get their own slide), apostrophes, colons, semicolons, dashes, periods
• Possessives vs. contractions
• Singular and plural possessives
• Family's and families'
• Common contraction: it's
• Connecting clauses and phrases
• Semicolons
• Only correct if it could be replaced with a period
• Eliminate semicolon ACs with this fact
• Colons
• Introduce explanations or lists
• Dashes
• Two uses: marking off nonessential clause or phrase (like commas) and introducing a list or explanation (like colon)

Grammar and Strategies: Grammar Rules

Rule #2: Commas

• If you want to succeed on the ACT English section, you need to make commas your best friend
• Key point: when in doubt, leave it out!
• Statistically you are more likely to miss a question from adding a comma than you are from leaving one out
• 4 key rules
• Modifying phrases and clauses

• Restrictive vs non-restrictive
• Clauses starting with "which" and "that"
• Introductory phrases and clauses

• Connecting independent clauses with a conjunction

• Separating items in a list

Part 3:

The Math Section

How to answer 45 math questions in just 50 minutes - and get them right.

Math: 4 Strategies and 3 Topics

• 45 Qs in 50 min
• The ACT Math section gets "harder" as you progress
• Time management is everything
• Skip often

Let's dive into some crucial strategies and topics

Strategies and Your Calculator: Strategies

Strategy #1: Get Your Timing Locked

• Ultimately, we won't get far without an effective timing technique
• Speeding up:

• First 40: 30 minutes
• This leaves you adequate time for the last 20 (most time-consuming)
• Skipping
• Becoming confident and aware of your questions and your skip questions
• Learn to let go of a question

Strategies and Your Calculator: Strategies

Strategy #2: Backsolve and Plug

• Backsolving
• Binary search
• Plugging
• Numbers properties
• Theoretical > practical
• Remember: simple, appropriate, and sufficient

Ex: Backsolve

Ex: Plug

Strategies and Your Calculator: Strategies

Strategy #3: Draw It Out!

• The danger of trying to hold too much in your brain
• Get it out - paper and calculator
• We are all visual learners
• What makes math difficult
• Keep diagrams simple and accurate
• Do not waste time making your drawing look perfect - this should help, not harm you

Strategies and Your Calculator: Strategies

Strategy #4: Translate Words Into Math

• We suck at word problems, and test-makers know this
• Try to slow you down- don't let them!
• Key tactic: know the translations
• Take it one phrase/word at a time
• Again, avoid taxing your mental and focus enery unneccesarily
• Underline and annotate
• Bonus strategy: Notes

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #1: Triangles

• Angles add up to 180 degrees
• Area = 1/2bh
• Special rights
• SOHCAHTOA
• Angle-side relationships to know
• Shortest side opposite smallest angle
• Longest side opposite largest angle
• a^2 + b^2 = c^2
• Pythagorean triplets
• Law of cosine and sine

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #2: Matrices

• Often the first time you will come across matrices is on the ACT Math section
• Things to know:
• Matrix referred to by its dimensions
• Scalar multiplication
• Matrix addition
• Note: you can only add/subtract two matrices with same dimensions
• Multiplying matrices
• # of columns in first matrix MUST equal # of rows in second

• Determinant
• Dot product

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #3: Imaginary and Complex Numbers

• Yes, not only do we have difficult enough REAL math material on this section, we also get to deal with the imaginary
• i
• Square root of -1

• The powers of i
• i^2 = -1
• i^3 = -i
• i^4 = 1
• Note: memorization isn't always helpful. Here, it can be
• Anytime you get to the square root of a negative, you can rewrite is as the square root of the positive attached with i
• sqrt(-16) = 4i

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #3: Imaginary and Complex Numbers

• Complex conjugate
• If a complex number (a + bi) is a root of a polynomial, than its conjugate (a - bi) is also a root
• The product of complex number and its conjugate is a real number (a^2 + b^2)
• Multiply to simplify

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #4: Probability

• How to think about probability
• Desired outcomes/all possible outcomes
• Expressing probabilities
• Fractional
• 100% chance expressed as probability
• Either/Or prob

• Combined prob
• Key words: All/Both

Important Content: Topic Review

Topic #4: Probability

• Keys to success:
• Pay attention to positive or negative probability
• Don't forget to manipulate the total available options
• Denominator will change often with ACT probability
• Probability falls between 0 and 1

Part 4

Reading Section

Reading Strategies

• 36 Qs in 40 min
• 4 passages with 9 questions each
• Split into A/B passage for one
• Tests your ability to comprehend various genres of excerpts and answer questions based on big picture, little details, tone, vocab, etc.

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #1: Passage Approach

• Should you skim? Read the questions first? Digest the passage entirely?
• Different strategies will work for different people
• Your job is finding the one that you are comfortable with
• If you are an annotater:
• Strongly discourage note-taking
• The correct answer will almost always be spelled out
• Do not make your job harder and take more of your time!

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #1: Passage Approach

• Some approaches you could take:
• Skim the passage and go to questions
• Timing split: 20/80
• Read the passage fully and go to questions
• Split: 50/50
• Read the passage to get a good idea and then go to questions
• Split: 35/65
• Start with the questions and read as needed (the Science approach)

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #1: Passage Approach

• Some approaches you could take:
• Skim the passage and go to questions
• Timing split: 20/80
• Read the passage fully and go to questions
• Split: 50/50
• Read the passage to get a good idea and then go to questions
• Split: 35/65
• Start with the questions and read as needed (the Science approach)

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #2: Speed Read

• Disclaimer
• Some takeaways:
• Work to stop subvocalizing

• Open up your vision to see the sentence not the word
• Know what you want from the text
• Reading questions first, or at least skimming them
• Practice with easy, fun texts
• Bonus: remind yourself to read fast:)

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #3: Start Easy

• Reiteration of ACT hack from day 1
• Don't let a passage consume your time and energy
• Skip it and move to the Natural Science (if like me you are more direct-information and logic-minded)
• Same applies to questions
• It's dangerously easy to allow yourself to lose track of time - don't!
• Skip it as soon as you get that inkling, hey I am spending too much time/energy/focus here

The Reading Section: Strategies

Strategy #4 Look For the Big 3

• What should you be looking for in your skim, glance, or digest of the passage?
• The big 3:
• Relationships
• Events
• Emotions
• Different categories of passages will emphasize 1 or 2 of these 3 elements
• Humanities and Prose Fiction
• Sciences
• The key here is that we can predict what we will see in questions before we get to them

Part 5:

The Science Section

Last but not least, the infamous not-actually-testing-you-for-science section

Science Strategies

• 40 Qs in 35 min
• What this section is
• What this section is not
• The beautiful thing is - 99% of the time the information will be right in front of you!

The Science Section: Strategies

Strategy #1: Double-Check Labels

• How the test-makers get you on this section
• Keep track with a simple tool everyone should have
• Don't overlook this extremely simple but effective strategy!
• This is where you will miss questions

The Science Section: Strategies

Strategy (Rule) #2: Don't Read the Passage!

• Questions > passage
• Unnatural at first

• The goal is to recognize info and data rather than to understand the passage
• Separate signal from noise
• There is a reason this section is last!
• Establish basic relationships between info

The Science Section: Strategies

Strategy #3: Conflicting Viewpoints Method

• Conflicting viewpoints passage
• Exception to previous strategy
• The tried and true method:
• Save time
• Read!
• Notes and summaries
• Answer through process of elim
• Bonus: some of these "parties" are just stupid

Thank You!

Best of luck in mastering the ACT