kristin fracchia

act science strategy: answering “yes/no because…” questions

many of the trickiest questions on the act science test ask you to do more than just identify details and trends in the data, they ask you to make inferences about the presented scientific situations and experiments. sometimes they ask you what would happen if something changed about the scientific situation or what the results might be of an additional experiment. it goes without saying that these questions can be quite taxing on your poor little brain.

many of these inference questions fall into a category i call “yes/no, because…” questions because they look something like this:

1. question-blah-blah-blah-blah?

liam got a 35 on the act. get a higher act score with magoosh.

a. yes, because x.
b. yes, because y.
c. no, because x.
d. no, because y.

where the x’s and y’s above are standing in for different reasons in the answer choices.

these “yes/no, because….” questions are two-part questions. you have to get both parts right (what comes before the comma and what comes after) in order to get the correct answer. because these questions can be quite complex, many students spend a lot of time reading and rereading them without getting very far.

so you need to find a better strategy. the video below will walk you through a simple and effective approach to tackling these questions that will make them much easier for you. check it out!

watch more videos about the act science test on our magooshact youtube channel!

 

author

  • kristin fracchia

    dr. kristin fracchia has over fifteen years of expertise in college and graduate school admissions and with a variety of standardized tests, including the act, sat, gre, gmat, and lsat, with several 99% scores. she had a phd from the university of california, irvine, an ma degree from the catholic university, and ba degrees in secondary education and english literature from the university of maryland, college park. she was the recipient of the 2013 excellence in teaching award and the chancellor’s club fellowship from the university of california, irvine. she’s worked as a high school teacher and university professor, as an independent college and graduate school admissions counselor, and as an expert tutor for standardized tests, helping hundreds of students gain acceptance into premier national and international institutions. she now develops accessible and effective edtech products for magoosh. her free online content and youtube videos providing test prep and college admissions advice have received over 6 million views in over 125 countries. kristin is an advocate for improving access to education: you can check out her tedx talk on the topic. follow kristin on linkedin!

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