ACT Math Strategies

1. Answer what you know first. All questions are worth the same, so don't waste time on material you have not learned.


2. Underline important information in the questions and read the questions two or three times.

3. Look over the answer choices before solving the problem. The answer choices will often help guide you in how to set up the problem.

4. Be sure to answer the question. Sometimes you will be given a lot of information to solve a simple one step problem. Circle the question to help you stay focused on the question.

5. Guess and check. Use the guess and check method you learned in elementary school. Sometimes you may be able to find your answer by plugging in the answer choices.

6. Guess if you don't know the answer. There is no penality for wrong answers. Don't leave any answer blank.

7. Draw pictures to find your answer. This helps expeciallly when solving geometry problems.

8. Figures are not always drawn to scale. Use the information given in the question to determine the actual size of the objects.

9. Mark the questions you skip, so you won't forget to go back to them.

10. Show your work. You may get an answer that is not one of the answer choices. That is when you can go back and look at your work to find your mistake.

11. Carefully read all instructions.