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six month act study guide

picture of nadyja von ebers nadyja von ebers : nov 1, 2017 10:46:16 am

act test prep teachers high school

if you are reading this, it’s likely that you have at least six months to prepare for the act, and that is a fantastic news! if you’re taking the act in 6 months that means you have plenty of time to get fully prepped without letting your grades suffer or resorting to unhelpful cramming or undue stress. this really is the sweet spot for being well-prepared.

the idea behind a six-month study plan is to ensure that you’re not ever flooded with excessive amounts of test prep, so the trick is to stay on schedule. it’s a “slow and steady wins the race” type study guide!

and when your act date is in the distant future (six months can seem like forever), it can be tough to stay focused and not get distracted by other more pressing deadlines. the best way to stay on track and reach your goal is with a study schedule–so voilả! here you go! save the study schedule below on your computer or phone, print it out, tape it to your mirror, check it off–do whatever you need to do to keep yourself accountable. you will thank yourself when you ace the test.

if you have less time before your test, you might want to check out the three month study schedule (very similar to this schedule, but faster paced) or one month study schedule instead. or, if you’ve really let it slide (oops): the one week schedule. but again, if you’re at least six months out at this point, you have the luxury of working through your test prep-content at a less intensive pace that will make your entire semester easier.

how this study plan is organized

this schedule spans 6 months, and is broken into 12 two-week study sessions that are designed to give you some flexibility. the act is important, but it shouldn’t be your entire life. you need time to do other things, and you’ll want to decide on your own which days you will devote to studying and which you won’t. altogether, the bi-weekly work should take you about 6 hour per week (more if you do additional lessons or practice tests), so you should be able to divide it up fairly easily. don’t, however, try to do it all on saturday–that would be one rough saturday.

personally, i suggest studying for two or three days during the week for a couple hours each day (this could include some study hall time at school!) and then devoting a couple of additional hours on the weekend to things like practice tests and review, but if your schedule is more erratic, you can adjust it to whatever works best for you. the point is to make sure you dedicate specific days to study, so whether that means regular study on monday, wednesday, and friday, or a marathon study session every tuesday, decide in advance what your act study days will be and try to stick to them.

by the time you finish this study plan, you will have completed at least seven full act tests (at least) and hundreds of additional practice questions. not too shabby!

each week, there are four things to do, including:

magoosh lessons: watch our lesson videos for strategy and background information. if you’re completely comfortable with a topic already (for example, with triangle properties), you might want to skip through a lesson quickly. that’s all right, to an extent, but never pass over a lesson completely because there might be very helpful tips and tricks you didn’t know.
magoosh practice: click the “practice” tab at the top of the page from within your magoosh account, and you can customize a practice session that contains the topics mentioned for each week. for each and every question you get wrong, watch the explanation video. this is the most important part of your preparation—you need to isolate where you make mistakes and learn how to avoid them.
blog reading and video watching: these act blog posts will provide you with additional test tips and strategy advice. they’re a great supplement to the lesson videos.
practice test: at least one day every two weeks, you’ll need either approximately 1.5 to 2 hours (for a half test) or 3.5 hours (for a full-length practice test) using official released act tests or magoosh tests. this is massively important for building up your stamina. the act is a marathon—you need to train to feel comfortable taking such a long test.

materials:

magoosh act premium account
the official act prep guide (a.k.a. “the red book”)
the magoosh act blog (you are here right now!)
preparing for the act guide
act student website
act flashcards from magoosh
act lessons app
magoosh free act ebook
magoosh’s free study timer app for iphone/ipad for timing yourself on exam sections and keeping yourself on pace. currently only available in itunes.

extra practice:

if you’re looking for more practice intensive practice, try…

our very own practice test includes over 200 of our premium questions in printable, pdf form. take it like you would any other timed practice test, score your test using our raw to scaled score grader, then watch the explanation videos for the questions you missed.

additional video lessons

if you’re looking for additional video lessons, particularly for math, there are plenty on magoosh. many cover more fundamental review or take a more advanced look at topics. when you have extra time, watch the lesson videos on the topics you feel you need the most. for extra practice, you can always practice with additional questions in magoosh or use the practice questions on the act student website

weeks 1-2: english and math

magoosh lessons

math

intro to act math
backsolving (algebra)
vics-picking numbers (algebra)
mental math: estimation (general math strategies)
assumptions & estimation (geometry) (the lesson videos above will help you learn how to attack math problems on the act using smart strategies instead of the methods you normally apply in school)
properties of real numbers (arithmetic and fractions)
intro to decimals (arithmetic and fractions)
fraction properties – i (arithmetic and fractions)
simplifying expressions (algebra)
multiplying expressions (algebra)

english

intro to the act english test
act english question types
subject verb agreement
verb tense
commas
apostrophes
dashes
semicolons
colons
other punctuation

magoosh practice

30 math questions (custom practice set for: arithmetic & fractions, word problems, and algebra)
2 english passages (30 questions)
review the text or video explanations for any questions you got wrong, and start keeping an error log with notes on the questions you struggled with. (after you complete the questions, you can do this by going to the “practice” tab and setting the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.”)
in your error log, list each question you got wrong noting:

why you got it wrong
what the correct answer is
what you would do next time to avoid making the same mistake

blog reading

how to study for the act
how to study for an act retake (if applicable)
act math
math formulas on the act
act english
act english study guide

official practice

complete the english and math sections from the “improving your ____ score chapters” in the official act prep guide. make sure you set aside the time to practice these back-to-back. you are practicing stamina!
check your answers and continue to update your error log.

weeks 3-4: reading and science

magoosh lessons

reading

introduction to the act reading test
act reading passage types
act reading question types

science

intro to the act science test
intro to science test passage types
intro to science question types
using key terms

magoosh practice

2 reading passages (20 questions)
2 science data representation passages, 2 science research summaries passages (go to the “practice” tab and set the “section” to data representation and research summaries, respectively, under “custom practice”)
review text and/or video explanations for incorrect answers, and update your error log.

blog reading

half practice test

complete the reading and science sections from the “improving your ________ score” chapters in the official act prep guide. make sure you set aside the time to practice these back-to-back. you are practicing stamina!
check your answers and continue to update your error log.

week 5-6: english and math

magoosh lessons

english:

adjectives and adverbs
pronoun cases
idioms
run-on sentences and comma splices
sentence fragments
misplaced modifiers
parallelism
singular and plural
conjunctions

math:

working with percents (percents and ratios)
percent increases and decreases (percents and ratios)
intro to ratios (percents and ratios)
combining ratios (percents and ratios)
ratios and rates (percents and ratios)
prime numbers (integer properties)
prime factorization (integer properties)
even and odd integers (integer properties)

magoosh practice

2 english passages (30 questions)
30 math questions (custom practice set for: percents and ratios, arithmetic and fractions, integer properties, word problems, and algebra)

blog reading:

full practice test:

test 1 in the official act prep guide.
you need 3.5 hours of complete solitude for this. no phone, no music, no internet, and no tv! try to mimic the conditions of the test as closely as possible. make sure to review your error log before you begin so that the mistakes you want to avoid are fresh in your mind. make sure to find a quiet place and to complete the practice test in the allotted time limits. we’ll talk about the essay later in this study schedule, but for right now, don’t worry about it.

weeks 7-8 reading and science

magoosh lessons

reading

approaching passages
wrong answers
example passage
basic strategies

science

unfamiliar terms
understanding tables, graphs, and figures
finding trends and patterns
linking tables and graphs

magoosh practice

20 reading questions
2 science data representation passages, 2 science research summaries passages (set the “section” to “data representation” and “research summaries”, respectively, on the “custom practice” tab)
review text and video explanations for questions you got wrong. update your error log!

blog reading

half practice test

test 2 in the official act guide: reading and science. remember to find a quiet space, time yourself, and update your error log when you are done!

weeks 9-10: english and math

magoosh lessons

math

triangles – part i (geometry)
triangles – part ii (geometry)
right triangles (geometry)
similar triangles (geometry)
quadrilaterals (geometry)
circles (geometry)
circles, arcs and sectors (geometry)
rectangular solids (geometry)
cylinders, cones, spheres (geometry)

english

writer’s/essay goal
adding or deleting sentences
best illustration questions
least acceptable questions
introducing and concluding paragraphs
ordering sentences and paragraphs
transitions

magoosh practice

30 math problems set for: geometry, word problems, algebra, percents & ratios
2 english passages (30 questions)

blog reading

half practice test

test 2 from the official act prep guide: english and math. remember to find a quiet space, time yourself, and update your error log when you are done!

weeks 11-12: reading, science, and essay

magoosh lessons

reading

using key words
main ideas
comparison passages
line reference

science

pacing on the act science test
how to read the act science test
the conflicting viewpoints passage
science knowledge on the act science test

writing (if you are taking the essay (or if you are not sure), make sure to complete all the lessons and essay practice below!)

introduction to the essay
how to wow the graders
time management

magoosh practice

2 reading passages (20 questions)
2 conflicting viewpoints passages (set the section to “conflicting viewpoints”), 1 research summaries passage, 1 data representation passage
review all incorrect answers. go to the “practice” tab, set the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.” continue to update your error log.

blog reading

half practice test

test 3 from the official act prep guide: reading and science. remember to find a quiet space, time yourself, and update your error log when you are done!

weeks 13-14: english, math, essay

magoosh lessons

english

redundant meanings
ambiguous pronouns
concision and wordiness
clarity in phrasing
tone
passive and active voice
pronoun agreement

math

the coordinate plane (coordinate geometry)
graphing lines (coordinate geometry)
slope (coordinate geometry)
distance between two points (coordinate geometry)
reflections in the x-y plane (coordinate geometry)
rotations in the x-y plane (coordinate geometry)
regions of inequalities (coordinate geometry)

essay

example essay prompt
planning the essay
coming up with examples
structuring the essay

magoosh practice

30 math problems set for: arithmetic & fractions, powers & roots, word problems, algebra, percents & ratios, geometry, coordinate geometry and integer properties
2 english passages (30 questions)
review all incorrect answers. go to the “practice” tab, set the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.” remember to update your error log.

blog reading (it’s about that point in the study schedule where studying and life might be getting to you a little bit, so let’s talk about getting refreshed!)

taking a break (equally applicable to act or sat!)
how to stay awake and aware
the best napping techniques

half practice test + essay practice

test 3 from the official act prep guide: english and math. remember to find a quiet space, time yourself, and update your error log when you are done!
if you are taking the essay, practice outlining an essay from the act here or use one of magoosh’s practice essays (go to the “practice” tab, select “practice test” and skip to the end of a practice test to find a prompt.) spend 15-20 minutes on your outline.

weeks 15-16: reading and science

magoosh lessons

reading

meaning of words
main idea
inference
author’s method (purpose)
author’s voice

science

math problems on the act science test
the scientific method
answering “yes/no, because” questions
finding clues in the answer choices

magoosh practice

2 reading passages (20 questions)
4 science passages (of any type)
review all incorrect answers. go to the “practice” tab, set the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.” remember to update your error log.

blog reading

official practice

complete the practice questions in every section available on the act website.
if you are taking the writing test, make sure to write a complete essay.

weeks 17-18: english and math

magoosh lessons

english

comparatives and superlatives
neither/nor
who v. whom
word choice
dependent and independent clauses
parenthetical information

math

foil method (algebra)
two equations, two unknowns – i (algebra)
inequalities – i (algebra)
law of exponents – i (powers and roots)
law of exponents – ii (powers and roots)
negative exponents (power and roots)
square roots (powers and roots)
intro to sohcahtoa (trigonometry)
sohcatoa and special triangles (trigonometry)
fundamental trig identities (trigonometry)
trigonometric functions (trigonometry)
inverse trig functions (trigonometry)
unit circle: intro and quadrants (trigonometry)
matrices (trigonometry)

magoosh practice

30 math problems set for all fields
2 english passages (30 questions)

blog reading

how to use your calculator wisely

half practice test

complete two sections of whichever subjects you feel you need the most work on at this point. you can either complete these on magoosh (go to the “practice” tab and select “practice test”) or use the questions on the act student website under sample test questions.

weeks 19-20: everything + essay

magoosh lessons

math

absolute value equations (algebra)
absolute value inequalities (algebra)
age questions (word problems)
intro to motion questions (word problems)
average speed (word problems)
arithmetic sequences (word problems)
geometric sequences (word problems)
intro to act data interpretation (data interpretation)
types of graphics (data interpretation)
tables of values (data interpretation)
intro to complex numbers (extra topics)
logarithms (extra topics)

writing

the introduction
the body paragraphs
the conclusion
the importance of style
top grammar rules for the essay
proofreading your essay

magoosh practice

20 english questions
20 math questions set for all categories
20 reading questions
3 science passages (of any type)
review all incorrect answers. go to the “practice” tab, set the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.” update your error log!

blog reading

10 tips to rock the pacing on the act test

full practice test

use the practice test at the back of the preparing for the act guide–it is the most recently released act test available! print it out, and make sure you set aside the time to complete the test in one sitting. remember to review your error log before you begin so you are on the lookout for anything that normally trips you up. i recommend taking this one at a library or other quiet place where you are surrounded by other people. if you are taking the essay, make sure to do the essay as well and ask a trusted friend, parent, or teacher to grade it using the act rubric. check your answers and continue to update your error log.

weeks 21-22: everything!

magoosh lessons

math

circles in the x-y plane (coordinate geometry)
mean, median and mode (statistics)
weighted averages (statistics)
introduction to counting (counting)
fundamental counting principle (counting)
intro to probability (probability)
arithmetic with complex numbers (extra topics)
transformation of functions (extra topics)
formal logic (extra topics)

magoosh practice

20 english questions
20 math questions set for all categories
20 reading questions
3 science passages (of any type)
review all incorrect answers. go to the “practice” tab, set the question pool to “incorrect” and the number of questions to “no limit.” update your error log!

rest or practice test

option 1:

take a break! i generally recommend that students take it easy the weekend before the test so they are not burned out when they take it for real the following weekend. if you feel like you want to do some more prep, this is a good time to brush up on any grammar or math concepts you are struggling with or do extra practice on your weakest sections of the act.

option 2:

if you slacked on previous practice test weekends, you can do whichever test you missed this weekend.

weeks 23-24: everything + final review

magoosh lessons

review your error log and re-watch any lessons on topics you have continued to struggle with.
watch any additional math videos on topics you are uncertain about (or want to view the more advanced videos on)

magoosh practice

review all remaining incorrect responses in magoosh (set the custom practice tab settings to “incorrect” and “no limit”)
answer as many of the remaining questions in each subject on magoosh as possible (set “unanswered” and “no limit”)

blog reading:

the day before you test

review your entire error log and make yourself a “cheat sheet” of final reminders to review the morning of the exam. this can include things like “watch out for run-on sentences!” and “the area of a trapezoid is (base 1 + base 2)/2 * height.”
review last-minute test day tips once more and pack your bag.
do something you enjoy. go to bed early for at least several days before the test.

test day!

it’s test day, which means no last minute prep! do some light exercise, eat a full breakfast, and give yourself plenty of time to get to the test center. don’t forget:

#2 pencils (not mechanical)
calculator
watch
drink
snack
admissions ticket
photo id
jacket or sweatshirt

review your list of last-minute pointers before you go into the testing center so you can walk into the test confident that you have put in three months of hard work and are ready to show it!

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