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Learn to navigate the ACT Reading test with ease by identifying and avoiding common distracters, enhancing your ability to distinguish right and wrong answers. Discover strategies to sharpen your skills and increase your score.
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Who Knows the Answer? • How many reading sections will there be on the ACT Reading test? • What are the four types of reading passages you will encounter on the ACT Reading Test? • How do you put the reading selections in order from easiest to most difficult? • How will ACT writers try to trick you into selecting the wrong answers? • What should you do before you read the passages? • What things should you circle/underline as you read?
Notes: ACT Reading Test Distracters • Process of Elimination: • You’ll raise your ACT Reading score if you’re good at spotting not only right answers but wrong answers too. • Wrong answers are called “distracters”. • Designed to “misdirect” your thinking. • Designed to break your concentration and throw you off course. • What kinds are there?
Notes: ACT Reading Test Distracters • 4 Major Kinds of ACT Reading Test Distracters: • Type 1: Distortions • Type 2: The Switch • Type 3: Extremes • Type 4: Choices That Sound Too “Nice”
Distracter Type 1: Distortions • Steal words directly from the passage and then use them to create a statement that does NOT reflect the content of the passage. • Use the author’s words to DISTORT his/her meaning. Ex: • (Original) “Tom loves going to the movies with Mary.” • “Tom fell in love with Mary at the movies.” • “Tom and Mary love movies.” • “Tom and Mary generally enjoy seeing movies about love.
Distracter Type 1: Distortions • Each one of those would make a good ACT distracter. Imagine you get a question like this: • According to the passage, which of the following statements is true regarding Tom and Mary? • Tom fell in love with Mary at the movies. • Tom enjoys viewing motion pictures with Mary as his companion. • Tom and Mary generally enjoy seeing movies about love. • Both Tom and Mary love going to the movies.
Distracter Type 1: Distortions • Each one of those would make a good ACT distracter. Imagine you get a question like this: • According to the passage, which of the following statements is true regarding Tom and Mary? • Tom fell in love with Mary at the movies. • Tom enjoys viewing motion pictures with Mary as his companion. • Tom and Mary generally enjoy seeing movies about love. • Both Tom and Mary love going to the movies.
Distracter Type 2: The Switch • Some ACT distracters take the truth and switch it around. Example: • Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of its history and then in terms of the science on which it was founded. • We’ve learned Professor Thorne discusses history first, and science second.
Distracter Type 2: The Switch • Now, look at this statement: • Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of the science on which it was founded, and then in terms of its history. • Statement 2 looks like Statement 1, but it’s backward. Professor Thorne is doing things in the wrong order: science first and history second. • Statement 2 takes the truth and turns it around. • That’s the essence of “the switch”.
Distracter Type 2: The Switch • But, ACT writers get even more sneaky. • Sometimes, they change the wording and at the same time, turn the meaning upside down. • Statement 1:Professor Thorne generally explains a technological discovery first in terms of its history and then in terms of the science on which it was founded. • Statement 3: After Professor Thorne describes the scientific aspects of a technological breakthrough he explains the historical context in which the breakthrough was made. • Statement 3 is a switch because it begins with the word “after”.
Distracter Type 3: Extremes • If an answer choice indicates something is always so, invariably so, or never so, it’s USUALLY WRONG! • These are called EXTREMES, and you should be very suspicious of them. • Words like “completely,” “perfectly,” and “absolutely” also signal an extreme. • Extremes tend to be wrong because they’re usually debatable, and the ACT writers know that.
Distracter Type 3: Extremes • Examples: • Patients who are chronically depressed never enjoy their lives. • Never? Ever? It’s pretty hard to prove the truth of such a statement. • It’s one thing to say that depressed patients have difficulty enjoying their lives or that they tend not to enjoy their lives, but to say that they never enjoy their lives just cannot be correct.
Distracter Type 3: Extremes • More Examples: Why would each of the following be an incorrect answer on the ACT? • A political leader should seek to make peace at all costs. • In order to lead a productive life, a citizen must devote all of his energy to his work.
Distracter Type 4: Choices That Sound Too “Nice” • Some distracters will appeal to you simply because they sound “nice,” even though they have little to do with the question or the passage. • Such distracters might draw on something you already know, or on the surface they might just seem reasonable and correct.
Distracter Type 4: Choices That Sound Too “Nice” • Take a look at the following examples: • Ultimately, the voting public knows its own best interest. • Structure is important, but it should not be imposed in such a way as to stifle creativity. • The ideal society is one that allows for individual difference, but at the same time creates a people united in interest. • All people have a right to live and die with dignity.
Distracter Type 4: Choices That Sound Too “Nice” • These thoughts are so “nice” and “sensible” as to seem practically beyond challenge. • Some students read and think, “This must be right!” • Sometimes these kinds of statements do represent the correct answer; other times, they don’t. • Check back with the question and ask yourself whether the answer choice is just a sweet and easy sentiment or whether it really answers the question you are asked.
