Inside Pitch: My Experience with the ACT and 8 Tips I Learned Through the Process

Grace White is a college senior who plays first base for Union University, a DII school in Jackson, Tennessee, and is majoring in Journalism. She is the Sports Editor for the Cardinal & Cream, the school’s student publication, and has a younger sister who plays in the Virginia Unity club organization.

In today’s Inside Pitch, Grace shares her thoughts and experiences taking the ACT in which she scored in the 98^th percentile and has some suggestions to help those getting ready for the test that she learned by taking it three times…

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I made a 32 on the ACT. I could just stop there, and everybody would probably say, “That’s awesome! I’m so proud of you” but I want to share what my experience with the ACT was like to help other people maybe not have the worries that I did because, let me tell you, it was not a walk down the rainbow road for me to get to that 32.

It was only after three tries and almost throwing up before I ever got in the car that I achieved it.

First, let me just say that I really believe that ACT stands for “All-around Crappy Test.” With 60 math questions to answer in 60 minutes and 35 minutes to read four passages and answer the questions plus two other subjects, the ACT feels like it’s designed for you to fail. Maybe that’s why the highest score is a 36.

Anyway, enough ranting: the first time I took it was in December 2016, right after the first semester of my sophomore year of high school. I was extremely anxious about it because (1) I was home-schooled, so I had never taken a proctored test in my life and (2) there was a lot riding on the score I made. The higher my score, the more scholarships I would be able to get from a college.

On the morning of the test, I tried to eat a bacon biscuit, but I only managed to choke down about two slices of bacon and a bite or two of biscuit before I realized that my stomach was going to reject anything else I tried to put in it.

I grabbed my grocery sack filled with #2 wooden pencils, my calculator, and snacks for the break that we would have between math and reading and headed to the garage. As I was about to get in the car, I could feel the bacon and biscuit gurgling in my stomach. I almost lost it right there, but somehow, I was able to keep it together.

When we got to Waverly (Tenn.) Central High School, I was still scared to death. That building had always made me nervous. I guess mostly because it’s a lot bigger than the living room where I had always done my school.

I was relieved when I walked in and saw several people that I knew. I began to think that I might be able to tackle this challenge successfully. It’s a great feeling when you realize that you don’t have to do something alone.

My assigned room was filled with people who had last names that started with T-Z. I sat down and waited nervously for the proctor to give us instructions. I was arranging my pencils and calculator just right and then it hit me… I had forgotten my watch!

My watch was the one thing that I had wanted to remember because I knew that if I could know the time, I would be able to somewhat plan my method of attack and not have to rush. And to make matters worse, there wasn’t a clock on the wall so I was literally going to have to guess how much time was left until the last little bit when the proctor would give us a warning or two.

I didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about that though before the test began. The four-part test (plus I also took the writing part) felt like it took forever but also like it was over before I knew it. Once you start, you hardly stop at all, so you really have to be mentally prepared for that.

I walked out of Waverly Central that day feeling very accomplished but also worrying about what I had made. I really wanted to do well because the better I did, the fewer times I would have to take it.

A few weeks later, I got the notification that I had made a 26. I was so excited, and I just knew that with some practice and calmer nerves, I could do even better.

The next time I took it, which was in December 2017, I had an idea of what I was walking into and came out with a 28. I took it for the third and final time in the summer of 2018. I never dreamed that my score that day would be a 32, but I’m so grateful it was.

Taking the ACT three times gave me a chance to learn different methods that worked for me, and I want to share some of these with you.

Here are the top 3 things that helped me:

1. Become a good skimmer: In the reading section, you are given four sections to read with questions about them. The time limit is 35 minutes, so you really don’t have time to read the whole section carefully before you answer the questions. When you start the test, pick the section that you think will be most interesting or that you can comprehend the best and look at the questions about it. Try to identify key words in the question and then skim over the passage looking for those key words to try to find the answer. It would be a good idea to get a practice ACT reading test to work on this instead of trying it for the first time on the real thing.
2. For the math section, come up with a strategy: For me, this strategy was doing the easy problems that I knew how to do first and then moving on to the harder questions that I knew how to do. Remember that there’s only 60 minutes for 60 questions in this section so you can’t spend forever on one problem. That’s why it’s important to knock out the ones that you know how to do first and then move on to the others. If you don’t have much time after you’ve done all the ones you know, you can always try to make an educated guess on the ones that you don’t know how to work.
3. Don’t leave a bubble blank: The ACT is full of a bunch of questions and not much time to answer them in. If you find yourself with only a few minutes left and not every question answered, make sure you at least put an answer down because even if you guess wrong, it doesn’t hurt your score.

Now, here are some other tips that I believe you will find useful:

1. Practice: You practice for softball, right? The ACT is no different. It’s a good idea to find tests to practice with before you get to the real thing so that it’s not that much of a surprise and so that you have a chance to practice your time management skills.
2. Bring a watch: It’s not guaranteed that there will be a clock on the wall in the room that you’re in. Because of this, it’s good to have a watch so that you can keep track of time yourself.
3. In the English section, don’t just look at the part of the sentence that the question is about: If you get a question about one part of a sentence, such as one asking what kind of punctuation should be there, make sure to look at what comes before and after that part of the sentence because sometimes that part can be affected by what’s around it.
4. Make sure to bring a snack: You won’t have too long of a break between math and reading, but in that time, it’s good to eat a bite of something even if it’s just a peanut butter cracker or two and some water. I know for me it’s a lot harder to think when I’m hungry.
5. Do the one that looks the easiest first: Let’s be honest. By the time you get to the science section, your brain is pretty much fried. What I like to do in this section is look at the different parts for a second and pick the one that looks like it’ll be the easiest to figure out. If you come to a question in that part that is taking too long to answer, move on to another part and come back to that question at the end. But make sure to put an answer down because, remember, even if you guess wrong, it doesn’t count against you.

There you have it, everybody. Eight things that I’ve learned that makes the ACT easier. I hope these help you out!

— Grace White, Extra Inning Softball correspondent