Victory for the ACT Student Text 15e

192 • M ATH

OVERVIEW

The ACT Mathematics Test, according to the test-writers, presupposes a knowledge of basic math formulas and computational skills. The ACT Mathematics Test items are pretty much the same kind of questions you’d see on a regular test—except they are multiple-choice questions. Here is the distribution of items by topic on the ACT Mathematics Test: ACT MATHEMATICS TEST TOPICS (60 items; 60 minutes) Content Approximate Number Approximate Percentage Integration of Essential Skills (rates, percentages, proportions, area, volume, averages) 25 42% Number and Quantity (properties of numbers, complex numbers, vectors, matrices) 5 8% Algebra and Functions (evaluating sequences, solving equations and inequalities, solving quadratic equations, slope of a line, graphs of equations) 16 27% Geometry (triangles, rectangles and squares, circles, trigonometry) 8 13% Statistics and Probability (average, median, mean, probability, data representation) 6 10% You do not have to know all of the tested topics to do well on the exam. For example, you could choose to skip all of the geometry and statistics and probability items, miss another eight questions, and still get a 24 on the ACT Mathematics Test, which is a good score. For a very respectable score of 21 (above the national average), you need a raw score of about 33, which you can get if you choose to skip all the geometry and statistics and probability items plus the ‡‹‰Š– Šƒ”†‡•– ƒŽ‰‡„”ƒ ƒ† ˆ—…–‹‘• ‹–‡• ƒ† ‡‡’ ›‘—” ™”‘‰ ƒ•™‡”• †‘™ –‘ ϐ‹˜‡Ǥ This is not a recommended strategy. You want to make sure that you answer any questions you know how to answer and guess on the rest. But these calculations show that you can do quite well on the math portion of the ACT test even if you’re not exactly a math whiz.