Common Mistakes on the ACT (American College Testing) Exam

Note: The ACT is known for its fast pace and straightforward questions (less trickery than the SAT, but more time pressure).

A. Science: The "Outside Knowledge" Anxiety

Many students panic because they think they need to remember complex biology, chemistry, or physics facts.

• Mistake 1: Reading the Passage First

  • Scenario: A student reads a dense paragraph about genetics or chemistry before looking at the questions. They get bogged down in jargon they don't understand.

  • Fix: The ACT Science section is 90% Graph and Chart reading. Go straight to the questions. If a question asks, "What does Figure 2 show?", go to Figure 2. You rarely need to understand the topic (genetics, geology) to interpret the data.

• Mistake 2: Conflicting Viewpoints (The "Fighting Scientists" Section)

  • Scenario: The passage presents two scientists with opposing theories. The question asks, "What is one point of agreement between Scientist 1 and Scientist 2?" The student picks an answer that is true for one scientist but not the other.

  • Fix: For these questions, cover half the passage. Read Scientist 1's view and find a fact. Then, check if that exact fact is stated by Scientist 2. If Scientist 2 disagrees or doesn't mention it, it's not a point of agreement.

B. English: The "Comma Overload" Mistake

The ACT English section loves to test punctuation.

• Mistake 3: Adding a Comma Every Time You Pause

  • Scenario: You read a sentence aloud, and you naturally pause. The instinct is to put a comma there. The ACT uses this instinct against you.

  • Example: "The captain of the team, ran onto the field."

  • Fix: Learn the difference between essential and non-essential clauses. In the sentence above, "of the team" is necessary to identify which captain we are talking about, so it should not be surrounded by commas. If you remove the phrase and the sentence still makes sense, use commas. If the sentence breaks, don't.

C. Math (Overall)

• Mistake 4: Running Out of Time on the Last 10 Questions

  • Scenario: The ACT Math section has 60 questions in 60 minutes. Students spend 2 minutes on a hard question in the middle, meaning they have to rush or guess on the final 10.

  • Fix: The ACT Math questions are (roughly) ordered by difficulty. The first 30 are easy, the middle 20 are medium, the last 10 are hard. If you are stuck on question #25 (an easy one), you are mismanaging time. If you are stuck on question #55, it's okay to guess and move on; the last 5 are usually the hardest.