Preparing for the ACT® Test

2015

2016 FREE

Preparing for the ACT

Test

www.actstudent.org

What’s Inside

•

Full-Length Practice Tests, including a Writing Test

•

Information about the Optional Writing Test

•

Strategies to Prepare for the Tests

•

What to Expect on Test Day

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en español en www.actstudent.org

Contents

1. General Preparation for the ACT Tests ............ 2

2. Strategies for Taking the ACT Tests............... 4

3. What to Expect on Test Day..................... 9

4. Taking the Practice Tests...................... 10

Practice Multiple-Choice Tests............... 11

Practice Writing Test ...................... 53

5. Scoring Your Tests ........................... 56

How to Score the Multiple-Choice Tests ....... 56

How to Score the Writing Test ............... 61

6. Sample Answer Document..................... 63

A Message to Students

This booklet, which is provided free of charge, is intended

to help you do your best on the ACT

test. Included in

this booklet are complete practice tests—“retired” ACT

questions that were administered to students on a National

test date—including a writing prompt, a sample answer

document, answer keys, and self-scoring instructions.

Read this booklet carefully and take the practice tests well

before test day so you will be familiar with the tests, what

they measure, and the strategies you can use to do your

best on test day.

Go to www.actstudent.org for additional ACT test

preparation materials, including ACT Online Prep

™

, The

Real ACT Prep Guide, sample questions, and the Question

of the Day.

The ACT is administered nationally and internationally

to examinees in English, including all instructions and

questions. Select states testing as part of the State and

District testing program permit the use of translated

instructions, but such testing does not result in a college-

reportable score.

ACT is committed to representing the diversity of society

in all its aspects, including race, ethnicity, and gender.

Thus, test passages, questions, and writing prompts are

deliberately chosen to reflect a range of cultures.

ACT is also committed to ensuring that test questions and

writing prompts are fair—that they do not disadvantage

any particular group of examinees. Extensive reviews of

the fairness of test materials are rigorously conducted by

both ACT staff and external consultants. ACT also employs

statistical procedures to help ensure that test materials do

not unfairly affect the performance of any group.

Note: Since the ACT is a curriculum-based achievement

test, research is periodically conducted and tests are

updated accordingly to ensure test content continues

to reflect classroom instruction and remains a relevant

predictor of college and career readiness. As a result, you

may notice subtle differences between this practice test

and the test you actually take on test day.

General Preparation

for the ACT Tests

General Test-Taking

Strategies for the ACT

The ACT contains multiple-choice tests in four areas:

English, mathematics, reading, and science. Each of these

tests contains questions that offer either four or five answer

choices from which you are to choose the correct, or best,

answer. The following suggestions apply to all four tests:

Pace yourself.

The time limits set for each test give nearly everyone enough

time to finish all the questions. However, because the

English, reading, and science tests contain a considerable

amount of text, it is important to pace yourself so you will not

spend too much time on one passage. Similarly, try not to

spend too much time puzzling over an answer to a specific

problem in the mathematics test. Go on to the other

questions and come back if there is time. Your supervisor

will announce when you have five minutes remaining on

each test.

Read the directions for each test carefully.

Before you begin taking one of the tests, read the

directions carefully. The English, reading, and science

tests ask for the “best” answer. Do not respond as soon as

you identify a correct answer. Read and consider all of the

answer choices and choose the answer that best responds

to the question.

The mathematics test asks for the “correct” answer. Read

each question carefully to make sure you understand the

type of answer required. Then, you may want to work out

the answer you feel is correct and look for it among the

choices given. If your answer is not among the choices

provided, reread the question and consider all of the

answer choices.

Read each question carefully.

It is important that you understand what each question

asks. Some questions will require you to go through several

steps to find the correct or best answer, while others can

be answered more quickly.

Answer the easy questions rst.

The best strategy for taking the tests is to answer the easy

questions and skip the questions you find difficult. After

answering all of the easy questions, go back and answer

the more difficult questions if you have time.

NOTE: This booklet is covered by federal copyright laws that prohibit the

reproduction of the test questions without the prior express, written per-

mission of ACT, Inc. No portion of this booklet may be copied or distrib-

uted without written permission of ACT.

ACT endorses the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education and the Code of

Professional Responsibilities in Educational Measurement, guides to the conduct

of those involved in educational testing. ACT is committed to ensuring that each

of its testing programs upholds the guidelines in each Code. A copy of each

Code may be obtained free of charge from ACT Customer Services (70), PO Box

1008, Iowa City, IA 52243-1008, 319.337.1429.

Use logic on more difficult questions.

When you return to the more difficult questions, try to

use logic to eliminate incorrect answers to a question.

Compare the answer choices to each other and note how

they differ. Such differences may provide clues as to what

the question requires. Eliminate as many incorrect answers

as you can, then make an educated guess from the

remaining answers.

Answer every question.

Your score on the tests will be based only on the number

of questions that you answer correctly; there is no penalty

for guessing. Thus, you should answer every question

within the time allowed for each test.

Review your work.

If there is time left after you have answered every question in

a test, go back and check your work on that test. You will not

be allowed to go back to any other test or mark responses to

a test after time has been called on that test.

Be precise in marking your answer document.

Be sure that you properly fill in the correct ovals on your

answer document. Check to be sure that the number of

the line of ovals on your answer document is the same as

the number of the question you are answering and that you

mark only one response for each question.

Erase completely.

If you want to change a multiple-choice answer, be sure

to use a soft eraser that will not leave smudges and erase

the unintended mark completely. Do not cross out answers

or use correction fluid or tape; you must erase. Correction

fluid/tape, smudges, or unintended marks may cause

errors in scoring.

To students approved to test at National test centers

with extended time:

You will be allowed up to 5 hours total to work on the

multiple-choice tests at your own pace, including breaks

between tests. If you are taking the ACT with writing, you

will be allowed up to 6 hours total to work on all five tests.

General Test-Taking Strategies

for the ACT Writing Test

The ACT writing test lets you show your skill in composing

an essay. It measures writing proficiencies that are taught

in high school and are important for readiness to succeed

in entry-level college composition courses.

The following general strategies will help if you take the

ACT writing test.

Pace yourself.

You will have 40 minutes to write your essay. It is important

to pace yourself in the way that best suits your personal

writing strategy. Many writers do best when they spend

part of their time planning the essay, most of their time

writing the essay, and the last part of their time reviewing

the essay to make corrections and revisions. Budget your

time based on your experience in taking essay tests in

school and in other circumstances when you’ve done

writing within a time limit. Your supervisor will announce

when you have five minutes remaining on the writing test.

Read the directions carefully.

In writing your essay, you will be expected to engage

meaningfully with the issue and perspectives presented by

the prompt. Before you begin to plan and write, read and

consider all prompt material carefully.

Read the writing prompt carefully.

It is important that you understand exactly what the

writing prompt asks you to do. Be sure you have a clear

understanding of the issue in the writing prompt and of the

question you must respond to before you start to plan and

write your essay.

Write (or print) legibly in the answer folder.

If your readers cannot read what you have written, they will

not be able to score your essay. You must write your essay

using a soft lead No. 2 pencil (not a mechanical pencil

or ink pen) on the lined pages in the answer folder. You

may not need all the lined pages, but to ensure you have

enough room to finish, do not skip lines.

Make corrections clear.

If you make corrections, do so thoroughly and legibly. You

may write corrections or additions neatly between the lines

of your essay, but do not write in the margins.

Preparing for Test Day

• Prepare well in advance for the tests.

• Know what to expect on test day. Familiarize yourself

with the information in this booklet, and at

www.actstudent.org.

• Most procedures in this booklet refer to testing on a

National or International test date at an ACT test center.

Procedures may differ slightly if you test at another

location.

• Take the practice tests in order and review your

responses.

• Get plenty of rest the night before the tests.

• Carefully review the “Test Day Checklist” at

www.actstudent.org.

➤ Bring the following items with you to the test center:

1. Your paper ticket (if you test on a National or

International ACT test date). You will not be

admitted to test without it.

2. Acceptable photo identification. See details on

your ticket or at www.actstudent.org. If you do

not present acceptable photo identification with

your ticket at check-in, you will not be admitted to

test.

3. Sharpened soft lead No. 2 pencils and good

erasers (no mechanical pencils or ink pens). Do

not bring any other writing instruments; you will

not be allowed to use them.

4. A watch to pace yourself. Do not bring a watch

with an alarm, because it will disturb other

students. If your alarm sounds during testing, you

will be dismissed and your answer document will

not be scored. Your supervisor will announce when

you have five minutes remaining on each test.

5. A permitted calculator may be used on the

mathematics test only. It is your responsibility

to know whether your calculator is permitted.

For the most current information on the ACT

calculator policy, visit www.actstudent.org or call

800.498.6481 for a recorded message.

Strategies for Taking

the ACT Tests

The ACT measures the knowledge, understanding, and

skills that you have acquired throughout your education.

Although the sum total of what a person has learned cannot

be changed, your performance in a specific area can be

affected by adequate preparation, especially if it has been

some time since you have taken a course in that area.

There are three strategies that can help you to prepare

yourself for the content included in the ACT:

Familiarize yourself with the content of the ACT tests.

Review the information about the tests that is provided on

the following pages. Note which content areas make up a

large proportion of the tests and which do not. The specific

topics included in each content area are examples of

possible topics; they do not include all of the possibilities.

Refresh your knowledge and skills in the content areas.

Review those content areas you have studied but are

not fresh in your mind. Spend your time refreshing your

knowledge and skills in the content areas that make up

large portions of the tests.

Identify the content areas you have not studied.

If unfamiliar content areas make up major portions of

the tests, consider taking coursework to help you gain

knowledge and skills in these areas before you take the

ACT. Because the ACT measures knowledge and skills

acquired over a period of time, it is unlikely that a “cram”

course covering material that is unfamiliar to you will help

you improve your scores. Longer-term survey courses will

be most helpful to you, because they aim to improve your

knowledge through sustained learning and practice.

ACT English Test

The ACT English test is a 75-question, 45-minute test

that measures your understanding of the conventions of

standard written English (punctuation, grammar and usage,

and sentence structure) and of rhetorical skills (strategy,

organization, and style). Spelling, vocabulary, and rote

recall of rules of grammar are not tested. The test consists

of five essays, or passages, each of which is accompanied

by a sequence of multiple-choice test questions. Different

passage types are employed to provide a variety of

rhetorical situations. Passages are chosen not only for

their appro priateness in assessing writing skills but also to

reflect students’ interests and experiences.

Some questions refer to underlined portions of the passage

and offer several alternatives to the underlined portion.

You must decide which choice is most appropriate in

the context of the passage. Some questions ask about

an underlined portion, a section of the passage, or the

passage as a whole. You must decide which choice best

answers the question posed. Many questions offer “NO

CHANGE” to the passage as one of the choices. The

questions are numbered consecutively. Each question

number refers to a correspondingly numbered portion

underlined in the passage or to a corresponding numeral in

a box located at the appropriate point in the passage.

Three scores are reported for the ACT English test: a total

test score based on all 75 questions, a subscore in Usage/

Mechanics based on 40 questions, and a subscore in

Rhetorical Skills based on 35 questions.

Tips for Taking the ACT English Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT English test contains 75 questions to be completed

in 45 minutes. If you spend 1

⁄2 minutes skimming through

each passage before responding to the questions, then you

will have 30 seconds to answer each question. If possible,

spend less time on each question and use the remaining

time allowed for this test to review your work and return to the

questions on this test that were most difficult for you.

Be aware of the writing style used in each passage.

The five passages cover a variety of topics and are written

in a variety of styles. It is important that you take into account

the writing style used in each passage when you respond

to the questions. In responding to a question, be sure to

understand the context of the question. Consider how the

sentence containing an underlined portion fits in with the

surrounding sentences and into the passage as a whole.

Examine the underlined portions of the passage.

Before responding to a question with an underlined portion,

carefully examine what is underlined in the text. Consider

the elements of writing that are included in each underlined

portion. Some questions will ask you to base your decision

on some specific element of writing, such as the tone or

emphasis the text should convey. Some questions will ask

you to choose the alternative to the underlined portion

that is NOT or LEAST acceptable. The answer choices for

each question will contain changes in one or more of those

elements of writing.

Be aware of questions with no underlined portions.

You will be asked some questions about a section of the

passage or about the passage as a whole, in light of a

given rhetorical situation. Questions of this type are often

identified by a question number in a box located at the

appropriate point in the passage. Questions about the

entire passage are placed at the end of the passage and

introduced by a horizontal box enclosing the following

instruction: “Questions ___ and ___ ask about the

preceding passage as a whole.”

Note the differences in the answer choices.

Many of the questions in the test will involve more than one

aspect of writing. Examine each answer choice and how it

differs from the others. Be careful not to select an answer

that corrects one error but causes a different error.

Determine the best answer.

Two approaches can be taken to determine the best answer

to a question in which you are to choose the best alternative

to an underlined portion. In the first approach, you can

reread the sentence or sentences, substituting each of

the possible answer choices for the underlined portion to

determine the best choice. In the second approach, you can

decide how the underlined portion might best be phrased in

standard written English or in terms of the particular question

posed. If you think the underlined portion is the best answer,

you should select “NO CHANGE.” If not, you should check

to see whether your phrasing is one of the other answer

choices. If you do not find your phrasing, you should choose

the best of the answers presented. For questions cued by

a number in a box, you must decide which choice is most

appropriate in terms of the question posed or the stated

rhetorical situation.

Reread the sentence, using your selected answer.

Once you have selected the answer you feel is best, reread

the corresponding sentence(s) of the passage, inserting

your selected answer at the appropriate place in the text

to make sure it is the best answer within the context of the

passage.

Content Covered by the ACT English Test

Six elements of effective writing are included in the

English test: punctuation, grammar and usage, sentence

structure, strategy, organization, and style. The questions

covering punctuation, grammar and usage, and sentence

structure make up the Usage/Mechanics subscore. The

questions covering strat egy, organization, and style make

up the Rhetorical Skills subscore. A brief description and

the approximate percentage of the test devoted to each

element of effective writing are given below.

USAGE/MECHANICS

Punctuation (10–15%). Questions in this category test

your knowledge of the conventions of internal and end-of-

sentence punctuation, with emphasis on the relationship of

punctuation to meaning (for example, avoiding ambiguity,

indicating appositives).

Grammar and Usage (15–20%). Questions in this cate gory

test your understanding of agreement between subject

and verb, between pronoun and antecedent, and between

modifiers and the word modified; verb formation; pronoun

case; formation of comparative and superlative adjectives

and adverbs; and idiomatic usage.

Sentence Structure (20–25%). Questions in this category

testyour understanding of relationships between

andamong clauses, placement of modifiers, and shifts in

construction.

RHETORICAL SKILLS

Strategy (15–20%). Questions in this category test how

well you develop a given topic by choosing expressions

appropriate to an essay’s audience and purpose; judging

the effect of adding, revising, or deleting supporting

material; and judging the relevancy of statements in

context.

Organization (10–15%). Questions in this category test how

well you organize ideas and choose effective opening,

transitional, and closing sentences.

Style (15–20%). Questions in this category test how well

you choose precise and appropriate words and images,

maintain the level of style and tone in an essay, manage

sentence elements for rhetorical effectiveness, and

avoid ambiguous pronoun references, wordiness, and

redundancy.

ACT Mathematics Test

You may use a calculator on the mathematics test.

Seewww.actstudent.org for details about prohibited

models and features.

The ACT mathematics test is a 60-question, 60-minute test

designed to assess the mathematical skills students have

typically acquired in courses taken up to the beginning

of grade 12. The test presents multiple-choice questions

that require you to use reasoning skills to solve practical

problems in mathematics. Most questions are self-

contained. Some questions may belong to a set of several

questions (e.g., several questions about the same graph

or chart). Knowledge of basic formulas and computational

skills are assumed as background for the problems, but

recall of complex formulas and extensive computation is

not required. The material covered on the test emphasizes

the major content areas that are prerequisites to successful

performance in entry-level courses in college mathematics.

Four scores are reported for the ACT mathematics test:

a total test score based on all 60 questions, a subscore

in Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra, a subscore in

Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry, and a

subscore in Plane Geometry/Trigonometry.

Tips for Taking the ACT Mathematics Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT mathematics test contains 60 questions to be

completed in 60 minutes. You have an average of 1 minute

per question. If possible, spend less time on each question

and use the remaining time allowed for this test to review

your work and return to the questions on this test that were

most difficult for you.

If you use a calculator, use it wisely.

All of the mathematics problems can be solved without

using a calculator. Many of the problems are best done

without a calculator. Use good judgment in deciding

when, and when not, to use a calculator. For example, for

some problems you may wish to do scratch work to clarify

your thoughts on the question before you begin using a

calculator to do computations.

Solve the problem.

For working out the solutions to the problems, you will

usually do scratch work in the space provided in the test

booklet. You may wish to glance over the answer choices

after reading the questions. However, working backwards

from the answer choices provided can take a lot of time

and may not be effective.

Locate your solution among the answer choices.

Once you have solved the problem, look for your answer

among the choices. If your answer is not included among

the choices, carefully reread the problem to see whether

you missed important information. Pay careful attention to

the question being asked. If an equation is to be selected,

check to see whether the equation you think is best can be

transformed into one of the answer choices provided.

Make sure you answer the question.

The solutions to many questions on the test will involve

several steps. Make sure your answer accounts for all the

necessary steps. Frequently, questions include answer

choices that are based on incomplete solutions.

Make sure your answer is reasonable.

Sometimes an error in computation will result in an answer

that is not practically possible for the situation described.

Always think about your answer to determine whether it is

reasonable.

Check your work.

You may arrive at an incorrect solution by making common

errors in the problem-solving process. Thus, if there is

time remaining before the end of the mathematics test, it

is important that you reread the questions and check your

answers to make sure they are correct.

Content Covered by the ACT Mathematics Test

Six content areas are included in the mathematics test:

pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra,

coordinate geometry, plane geometry, and trigonometry.

The questions covering pre-algebra and elementary algebra

make up the Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra subscore. The

questions covering intermediate algebra and coordinate

geometry make up the Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate

Geometry subscore. The questions covering plane geometry

and trigonometry make up the Plane Geometry/Trigonometry

subscore. A brief description and the approximate

percentage of the test devoted to each content area are

given below.

PRE-ALGEBRA/ELEMENTARY ALGEBRA

Pre-Algebra (20–25%). Questions in this content area are

basedon basic operations using whole numbers, decimals,

fractions, and integers; place value; square roots and

approximations; the concept of exponents; scientific notation;

factors; ratio, proportion, and percent; linear equations

in one variable; absolute value and ordering numbers by

value; elementary counting techniques and simple proba-

bility; data collection, representation, and interpretation;

andunderstanding simple descriptive statistics.

Elementary Algebra (15–20%). Questions in this content area

are based on properties of exponents and square roots,

evaluation of algebraic expressions through substitution,

using variables to express functional relationships,

understanding algebraic operations, and the solution of

quadratic equations by factoring.

INTERMEDIATE ALGEBRA/COORDINATE GEOMETRY

Intermediate Algebra (15–20%). Questions in this content

area are based on an understanding of the quadratic

formula, rational and radical expressions, absolute value

equations and inequalities, sequences and patterns, systems

of equations, quadratic inequalities, functions, modeling,

matrices, roots of polynomials, and complex numbers.

Coordinate Geometry (15–20%). Questions in this content

area are based on graphing and the relations between

equations and graphs, including points, lines, polynomials,

circles, and other curves; graphing inequalities; slope;

parallel and perpendicular lines; distance; midpoints; and

conics.

PLANE GEOMETRY/TRIGONOMETRY

Plane Geometry (20–25%). Questions in this content area

are based on the properties and relations of plane figures,

including angles and relations among perpendicular and

parallel lines; properties of circles, triangles, rectangles,

parallelograms, and trapezoids; transformations; the

concept ofproof and proof techniques; volume; and

applications of geometry to three dimensions.

Trigonometry (5–10%). Questions in this content area

are based on understanding trigonometric relations in

right triangles; values and properties of trigonometric

functions; graphing trigonometric functions; modeling using

trigonometric functions; use of trigonometric identities; and

solving trigonometric equations.

ACT Reading Test

The ACT reading test is a 40-question, 35-minute test

that measures your reading comprehension. The test

questions ask you to derive meaning from several texts by

(1) referring to what is explicitly stated and (2) reasoning to

determine implicit meanings. Specifically, questions will ask

you to use referring and reasoning skills to determine main

ideas; locate and interpret significant details; understand

sequences of events; make comparisons; comprehend

cause-effect relationships; determine the meaning of

context-dependent words, phrases, and statements; draw

generalizations; and analyze the author’s or narrator’s

voice and method. The test comprises four sections, each

containing one long or two shorter prose passages that

are representative of the level and kinds of text commonly

encountered in first-year college curricula. Each passage is

preceded by a heading that identifies what type of passage

it is (for example, “Literary Narrative”), names the author,

and may include a brief note that helps in understanding

the passage. Each section contains a set of multiple-choice

test questions. These questions do not test the rote recall

of facts from outside the passage, isolated vocabulary

items, or rules of formal logic. In sections that contain two

short passages, some of the questions involve both of the

passages in the section.

Three scores are reported for the ACT reading test: a total

test score based on all 40 questions, a subscore in Social

Studies/Sciences reading skills (based on the 20 questions

on the social studies and natural sciences passages), and

a subscore in Arts/Literature reading skills (based on the 20

questions on the literary narrative and humanities passages).

Tips for Taking the ACT Reading Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT reading test contains 40 questions to be

completed in 35 minutes. If you spend 2–3 minutes reading

the passage(s) in each section, then you will have about

35 seconds to answer each question. If possible, spend

less time on the passages and the questions and use the

remaining time allowed for this test to review your work and

return to the questions on this test that were most difficult

for you.

Read each passage carefully.

Before you begin answering a question, read the entire

passage (or two short passages) carefully. Be conscious

of relationships between or among ideas. You may

make notes in the test booklet about important ideas in the

passages.

Refer to the passages when answering the questions.

Answers to some of the questions will be found by referring

to what is explicitly stated in the text. Other questions will

require you to determine implicit meanings and to draw

conclusions, comparisons, and generalizations. Consider

the text before you answer any question.

Content Covered by the ACT Reading Test

The reading test is based on four types of reading

selections: the social studies, the natural sciences,

literary narrative, and the humanities. A subscore in Social

Studies/Sciences reading skills is based on the questions

on the social studies and the natural sciences passages,

and a subscore in Arts/Literature reading skills is based

on the questions on the literary narrative and humanities

passages. A brief description and the approximate

percentage of the test devoted to each type of reading

selection are given below.

Social Studies (25%). Questions in this category are

based on passages in the content areas of anthropology,

archaeology, biography, business, economics, education,

geography, history, political science, psychology, and

sociology.

Natural Sciences (25%). Questions in this category are

based on passages in the content areas of anatomy,

astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology,

medicine, meteorology, microbiology, natural history,

physiology, physics, technology, and zoology.

Literary Narrative (25%) or Prose Fiction (25%). Questions

in the Literary Narrative category are based on passages

from short stories, novels, memoirs, and personal essays.

Questions in the Prose Fiction category are based on

passages from short stories and novels.

Humanities (25%). Questions in this category are based on

passages in the content areas of architecture, art, dance,

ethics, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy,

radio, television, and theater. Questions may be based on

passages from memoirs and personal essays.

ACT Science Test

The ACT science test is a 40-question, 35-minute test that

measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning,

and problem-solving skills required in the natural sciences.

The test presents several sets of scientific information, each

followed by a number of multiple-choice test questions. The

scientific information is conveyed in one of three different

formats: data representation (graphs, tables, and other

schematic forms), research summaries (descriptions of

several related experiments), or conflicting viewpoints

(expressions of several related hypotheses or views that

are inconsistent with one another). The questions require

you to recognize and understand the basic features of, and

concepts related to, the provided information; to examine

critically the relationship between the information provided

and the conclusions drawn or hypotheses developed;

and to generalize from given information to gain new

information, draw conclusions, or make predictions.

You are not permitted to use a calculator on the ACT

science test.

One score is reported for the ACT science test: a total test

score based on all 40 questions.

Tips for Taking the ACT Science Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT science test contains 40 questions to be completed

in 35 minutes. If you spend about 2 minutes reading each

passage, then you will have about 30 seconds to answer

each question. If possible, spend less time on the passages

and the questions and use the remaining time allowed for

this test to review your work and return to the questions on

this test that were most difficult for you.

Read the passage carefully.

Before you begin answering a question, read the scientific

material provided. It is important that you read the entire

text and examine any tables, graphs, or figures. You may

want to make notes about important ideas in the information

provided in the test booklet. Some of the information

sets will describe experiments. You should consider the

experimental design, including the controls and variables,

because questions are likely to address this component of

scientific research.

Note different viewpoints in passages.

Some material will present conflicting points of view,

and the questions will ask you to distinguish among the

various viewpoints. It may be helpful for you to make notes

summarizing each viewpoint next to that section in the test

booklet.

Content Covered by the ACT Science Test

The content of the science test includes biology,

chemistry, physics, and the Earth/space sciences

(for example, geology, astronomy, and meteorology).

Advanced knowledge in these subjects is not required,

but knowledge acquired in general, introductory science

courses is needed to answer some of the questions. The

test emphasizes scientific reasoning skills over recall of

scientific content, skill in mathematics, or reading ability.

The scientific information is conveyed in one of three

different formats.

Data Representation (30–40%). This format presents

graphic and tabular material similar to that found in science

journals and texts. The questions associated with this

format measure skills such as graph reading, interpretation

of scatter plots, and interpretation of information presented

in tables.

Research Summaries (45–55%). This format provides

descriptions of one or more related experiments. The

questions focus upon the design of experiments and the

interpretation of experimental results.

Conflicting Viewpoints (15–20%). This format presents

expressions of several hypotheses or views that, being

based on differing premises or on incomplete data, are

inconsistent with one another. The questions focus upon

the understanding, analysis, and comparison of alternative

viewpoints or hypotheses.

ACT Writing Test (Optional)

If you register for the ACT with writing, you will take the ACT

writing test (which must be completed in English) after you

complete the four multiple-choice tests.

The ACT writing test is a 40-minute essay test that

measures your writing skills—specifically those writing

skills emphasized in high school English classes and in

entry-level college composition courses. The test describes

an issue and provides three different perspectives on

the issue. You are asked to “evaluate and analyze” the

perspectives; to “state and develop” your own perspective;

and to “explain the relationship” between your perspective

and those given. Your score will not be affected by the

perspective you take on the issue.

Taking the writing test will not affect your scores on the

multiple-choice tests or your Composite score. Rather, you

will receive a single subject-level writing score on a scale

of 1–36 and five additional scores: an English Language

Arts score on a scale of 1–36 and scores for four domains

of writing competencies (Ideas and Analysis, Development

and Support, Organization, and Language Use and

Conventions) on a scale of 2–12.

Two trained readers will score your essay from 1-6 in each

of four writing domains. Each domain score represents

the sum of the two readers’ scores. Your Writing Score is

calculated from your domain scores and is reported on a

scale of 1–36. Your domain scores do not necessarily add

up to your reported Writing Score.

Tips for Taking the ACT Writing Test

Pace yourself.

The ACT writing test contains one question to be

completed in 40 minutes. When asked to write a timed

essay, most writers find it useful to do some planning

before they write the essay, and to do a final check of the

essay when it is finished. It is unlikely that you will have time

to draft, revise, and recopy your essay.

Plan.

Before writing, carefully read and consider all prompt

material. Be sure you understand the issue, its

perspectives, and your essay task. The prewriting

questions included with the prompt will help you analyze

the perspectives and develop your own. Use these

questions to think critically about the prompt and generate

effective ideas in response. Ask yourself how your ideas

and analysis can best be supported and organized in a

written argument. Use the prewriting space in your test

booklet to structure or outline your response.

Write.

Establish the focus of your essay by making clear your

argument and its main ideas. Explain and illustrate your

ideas with sound reasoning and meaningful examples.

Discuss the significance of your ideas: what are the

implications of what you have to say, and why is your

argument important to consider? As you write, ask yourself

if your logic is clear, you have supported your claims, and

you have chosen precise words to communicate your

ideas.

Review your essay.

Take a few minutes before time is called to read over your

essay. Correct any mistakes. If you find any words that are

hard to read, recopy them. Make corrections and revisions

neatly, between the lines. Do not write in the margins. Your

readers know you had only 40 minutes to compose and

write your essay. Within that time limit, try to make your

essay as polished as you can.

Practice.

There are many ways to prepare for the ACT writing

test. These include reading newspapers and magazines,

listening to news analyses on television or radio, and

participating in discussions and debates.

One of the best ways to prepare for the ACT writing test

is to practice writing with different purposes for different

audiences. The writing you do in your classes will help you.

So will writing essays, stories, editorials, a personal journal,

or other writing you do on your own.

It is also a good idea to practice writing within a time limit.

Taking the practice ACT writing test will give you a sense

of how much additional practice you may need. You might

want to take the practice ACT writing test even if you do

not plan to take the ACT with writing, because this will help

build skills that are important in college-level learning and

in the world of work.

What to Expect

on Test Day

Reporting Time

For National and International test dates, you must report

to the test center by the time stated on your ticket, normally

8:00 a.m. If you are late, you will not be admitted to test. If

your ticket does not list a specific room, test center staff or

posted signs will direct you.

Requirements for Admission

At check-in, you will be required to show both your

paper ticket and acceptable photo ID or you will not be

admitted to test. See ID requirements on your ticket or

at www.actstudent.org.

In the Test Room

• The supervisor or proctor will direct you to a seat. If

you need a left-handed desk, tell your supervisor as

you enter.

• Do not leave the test room after you have been admitted.

• Only pencils, erasers, a permitted calculator, and your

ticket will be allowed on your desk.

• You will be required to put all other personal belongings

away.

• You may not use tobacco in any form or have food or

drink (including water) in the test room. You may have

snacks and drinks outside the test room during break.

• Testing will begin as soon as all examinees present at

8:00 a.m. are checked in and seated.

• Listen carefully to all directions read by your supervisor.

• It is important that you follow all directions carefully.

• On some test dates, ACT tries out questions to develop

future versions of the tests. You may be asked to take

a fifth test, the results of which will not be reflected in

your reported scores. The fifth test could be multiple-

choice or one for which you will create your own

answers. Please try your best on these questions,

because your participation can help shape the future of

the ACT. If you are in a test room where the fifth test is

administered, you will be dismissed at about 12:35 p.m.

Prohibited Behavior at the Test

Center

The following behaviors are prohibited. You will be

dismissed and your answer document will not be scored if

you are found:

• Filling in or altering responses on a test section on your

answer sheet or continuing to complete the essay after

time has been called on that test section. This means

that you cannot make any changes to a test section

outside of the designated time for that section, even to

fix a stray mark or accidental keystroke.

• Looking back at a test section on which time has

already been called.

• Looking ahead in the test booklet.

• Looking at another person’s test booklet or answer

document.

• Giving or receiving assistance by any means.

• Discussing or sharing of test content, test form

identification numbers, or answers during test

administration, during breaks, or after the test is

prohibited.

• Using a prohibited calculator (www.actstudent.org).

• Using a calculator on any test section other than

Mathematics.

• Sharing a calculator with another person.

• Using a watch with recording, internet, or

communication capabilities.

• Using any electronic device at any time during testing

or during break other than an approved calculator

or watch. All other electronic devices, including cell

phones and wearable devices, must be turned off and

placed out of reach from the time you are admitted to

test until you are dismissed after testing concludes.

• Attempting to memorize test-related information or

otherwise remove test materials, including questions or

answers, from the test room in any way.

• Using highlight pens, colored pens or pencils, notes,

dictionaries, or other aids.

• Using scratch paper (unless an exception applies).

o Specific instructions will be provided on test day if

ACT authorizes you to use scratch paper, including

the section(s) on which ACT has authorized its use.

o If you are permitted to use scratch paper, you may

only use paper that ACT has authorized and/or

provided to you.

• Not following instructions or abiding by the rules of the

test center.

• Exhibiting confrontational, threatening, or unruly

behavior; or violating any laws. If ACT suspects you are

engaging in criminal activities, such activities will be

reported to law enforcement agencies.

• Allowing an alarm to sound in the test room or creating

any other disturbance.

All items brought into the test center, such as hats, purses,

backpacks, cell phones, calculators, and other electronic

devices may be searched at the discretion of ACT and its

testing staff. ACT and its testing staff may confiscate and

retain for a reasonable period of time any item suspected

of having been used, or being capable of being used, in

violation of this list of prohibited behaviors. ACT may also

provide such items to third parties in connection with an

investigation conducted by ACT or others. ACT and its

testing staff shall not be responsible for lost, stolen, or

damaged items.

Voiding Your Answer

Documents on Test Day

If you have to leave the test center before completing all

your tests, you must decide whether or not you want your

answer document scored and inform your supervisor of

your decision. If you do not, your answer document will

be scored.

Once you break the seal on your multiple-choice test

booklet, you cannot request a Test Date Change. If you

do not complete all your tests and want to test again, you

will have to pay the full fee for your test option again. If

you want to take the ACT again, see www.actstudent.org

for your options. Once you begin filling out your answer

document, you cannot change from one test option to

another.

Testing More Than Once

You may not receive scores from more than one test taken

during a scheduled National or International test date. For

example, you may test on Saturday or on an authorized

non-Saturday date or on a rescheduled test date—but

not on more than one of those days. If you are admitted

and allowed to test a second time, we will report only the

scores from the first test. The second set of scores will be

cancelled without refund.

Test Information Release

On certain National test dates, if you test at a National

test center, you may order (for an additional fee) a copy

of the test questions, a copy of your answers, a list of

correct answers, and scoring instructions. This service is

not available for all test dates or for other testing programs

(e.g., International, State and District, Special). If you want to

request and pay for this service, check www.actstudent.org

to see which test dates offer this service.

Taking the Practice Tests

Take the practice tests under conditions as similar as

possible to those you will experience on test day. The

following tips will help you:

• The four multiple-choice tests require 2 hours and

55minutes. Take them in order in one sitting, with a

10- to 15-minute break between Tests 2 and 3.

• You will need only sharpened No. 2 pencils with good

erasers. Remove all other items from your desk. You will

not be allowed to use scratch paper.

• If you plan to use a permitted calculator on the

mathematics test, use the same one you will use on test

day.

• Use a digital timer or clock to time yourself on each

practice test. Set your timer for five minutes less than

the time allowed for each test so you can get used to

the verbal announcement of five minutes remaining.

• Give yourself only the time allowed for each test.

• Detach and use the sample multiple-choice answer

document on pages 63–64.

• Read the test directions on the first page of the practice

multiple-choice tests. These are the same directions

that will appear on your test booklet on test day.

• Start your timer and begin with Test 1. Continue through

Test 4, taking a 10- to 15-minute break between Tests

2 and 3. If you do not plan to take the ACT with writing,

score your multiple-choice tests using the information

beginning on page 56.

• If you plan to take the ACT with writing, read the

directions on the first page of the practice ACT writing

test (page 53). These are the same directions that will

appear on your test booklet on test day. Start your

timer, then read the prompt on page 54. After you

understand what the prompt is asking you to do, plan

your essay and then write it on lined paper. (On test

day, your answer document will have lined pages for

you to write your essay.) Score your essay using the

information on pages 61–62.

Practice Multiple-Choice Tests

Form 1572CPRE

This booklet contains tests in English, mathematics,

reading, and science. These tests measure skills and

abilities highly related to high school course work and

success in college. Calculators may be used on the

mathematics test only.

The questions in each test are numbered, and the

suggested answers for each question are lettered. On the

answer document, the rows of ovals are numbered to

match the questions, and the ovals in each row are lettered

to correspond to the suggested answers.

For each question, first decide which answer is best.

Next, locate on the answer document the row of ovals

numbered the same as the question. Then, locate the oval

in that row lettered the same as your answer. Finally, fill in

the oval completely. Use a soft lead pencil and make your

marks heavy and black. Do not use ink or a mechanical

pencil.

Mark only one answer to each question. If you change

your mind about an answer, erase your first mark thoroughly

before marking your new answer. For each question, make

certain that you mark in the row of ovals with the same

number as the question.

Only responses marked on your answer document will

be scored. Your score on each test will be based only on

the number of questions you answer correctly during the

time allowed for that test. You will not be penalized for

guessing. It is to your advantage to answer every

question even if you must guess.

You may work on each test only when the testing staff

tells you to do so. If you finish a test before time is called

for that test, you should use the time remaining to

reconsider questions you are uncertain about in that test.

You may not look back to a test on which time has already

been called, and you may not go ahead to another test. To

do so will disqualify you from the examination.

Lay your pencil down immediately when time is called at

the end of each test. You may not for any reason fill in or

alter ovals for a test after time is called for that test. To do

so will disqualify you from the examination.

Do not fold or tear the pages of your test booklet.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET

UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

Directions

NOTE: This test material is the confidential copyrighted property of

ACT, Inc., and may not be copied, reproduced, sold, or otherwise

transferred without the prior express written permission of ACT, Inc.

Violators of ACT’s copyrights are subject to civil and criminal penalties.

PO BOX 168

OWA CITY, IA 52243-0168

EXAMINEE STATEMENT, CERTIFICATION, AND SIGNATURE

1. Read the following Statement: By opening this test booklet, I agree to comply with and be bound by the Terms and

Conditions: Testing Rules and Policies for the ACT

provided in the ACT registration materials for this assessment,

including those concerning test security, score cancellation, examinee remedies, arbitration, and consent to the

processing of

my personally identifying information, including the collection, use, transfer and disclosure of

information as described in the ACT Privacy Policy (available at www.act.org/privacy.html).

International Examinees: By my signature I am also providing my consent to ACT to transfer my personally

identifying information to the United States to ACT, or a third party service provider for processing, where it will be

subject to use and disclosure under the laws of the United States. I acknowledge and agree that it may also be

accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities in the United States.

I understand that ACT owns the assessment questions and responses and affirm that I will not share any

assessment questions or responses with anyone by any form of communication before, during

, or after the

assessment administration. I understand that assuming anyone else’s identity to take this assessment is strictly

prohibited and may violate the law and subject me to legal penalties.

2. Copy the Certiﬁcation shown below (only the text in italics) on the lines provided. Write in your normal handwriting.

Certiﬁcation: I agree to the Statement above and certify that I am the person whose nam

e appears on this form.

3. Sign your name as you would any official document and enter today’s date.

Your Signature Today’s Date

PASSAGE I

The Triangular Snowflake

[1]

Snowflakes form from tiny water droplets, following

a specific process of chemical bonding as they freeze,

which results in a six-sided figure. The rare “triangular”

snowflake, similarly, confounded scientists for years

because it apparently defied the basic laws of chemistry.

[A] The seemingly triangular shape of those snowflakes

suggests that forming through a different process of

chemical bonding. [B] By re-creating snowflake formation,

a discovery has revealed to scientists Kenneth Libbrecht

and Hannah Arnold the cause of this apparent variation.

[2]

Snowflakes begin to form when water in the

atmosphere freezes it causes the water molecules

to bond into a hexagonal shape. During the flake’s

descent from Earth’s upper atmosphere, other water

vapor molecules bumps

into the hexagonal structure.

1. A. NO CHANGE

B. form, from tiny, water droplets,

C. form from tiny, water, droplets

D. form, from tiny water droplets

2. F. NO CHANGE

G. for example,

H. additionally,

J. however,

3. A. NO CHANGE

B. the manner in which formation

C. which had formed

D. that they form

4. F. NO CHANGE

G. the discovery of the cause of this apparent variation

has been made by scientists Kenneth Libbrecht and

Hannah Arnold.

H. scientists Kenneth Libbrecht and Hannah Arnold

have discovered the cause of this apparent variation.

J. the cause of this apparent variation has been dis-

covered by scientists Kenneth Libbrecht and

Hannah Arnold.

5. A. NO CHANGE

B. freezes, causing

C. freezes, it causes

D. freezes, this causes

6. F. NO CHANGE

G. has bumped

H. bumped

J. bump

ENGLISH TEST

45 Minutes—75 Questions

DIRECTIONS: In the ﬁve passages that follow, certain

words and phrases are underlined and numbered. In

the right-hand column, you will ﬁnd alternatives for the

underlined part. In most cases, you are to choose the

one that best expresses the idea, makes the statement

appropriate for standard written English, or is worded

most consistently with the style and tone of the passage

as a whole. If you think the original version is best,

choose “NO CHANGE.” In some cases, you will ﬁnd in

the right-hand column a question about the underlined

part. You are to choose the best answer to the question.

You will also ﬁnd questions about a section of the pas-

sage, or about the passage as a whole. These questions

do not refer to an underlined portion of the passage, but

rather are identiﬁed by a number or numbers in a box.

For each question, choose the alternative you consider

best and ﬁll in the corresponding oval on your answer

document. Read each passage through once before you

begin to answer the questions that accompany it. For

many of the questions, you must read several sentences

beyond the question to determine the answer. Be sure

that you have read far enough ahead each time you

choose an alternative.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Bypassing the liquid water phase,

those molecules

condense directly onto the established hexagonal pattern.

As a result, the flake grows outward into bigger and more

complex hexagonal arrangements surrounding the original

hexagonal shape at the center of the flake. [C]

[3]

In 2009, Libbrecht and Arnold’s experiments

revealed that triangular snowflakes begin with the

same process of chemical bonding and forms a hexagonal

shape. The triangular shape is an illusion resulting from

one significant addition to the process dust.

[4]

Triangular snowflakes begin to form when a tiny

dust particle or other such impurity collides with the

flake as it falls, thereby pushing one edge upward. [D]

The downward edge of the snowflake encounters more

wind resistance than the rest of the flake. The greater

the pressure from the wind, causes bonds to form

quick at this edge than in the rest of the snowflake.

[5]

The resulting snowflake has three long sides and

three sides that are so short they are difficult to detect.

Although these snowflakes appear to have a triangular

shape—they actually have a hexagonal pattern. Such

snowflakes offer evidence that even when impurities

interfere, the basic laws of chemistry still apply.

7. If the writer were to delete the underlined portion

(adjusting the capitalization as needed), the sentence

would primarily lose:

A. an explanation of the process water molecules

undergo to change from liquid to vapor to solid.

B. a detail that mentions a step some water molecules

skip in changing from vapor to solid.

C. a visual description of what water vapor molecules

look like.

D. an explanation of how molecules react to various

air temperatures.

8. F. NO CHANGE

G. were they to form

H. if they formed

J. form

9. A. NO CHANGE

B. process is

C. process:

D. process;

10. F. NO CHANGE

G. pressure from the wind, which

H. the pressure, as the wind

J. pressure from the wind

11. A. NO CHANGE

B. more quickly

C. most quickly

D. quickest

12. F. NO CHANGE

G. shape,

H. shape;

J. shape:

13. Which choice most effectively concludes the sentence

and the essay?

A. NO CHANGE

B. scientists can be certain that a solution to even the

most confusing event will be found.

C. snowflakes will still fall if atmospheric conditions

are favorable.

D. snowflakes come in many different shapes and

sizes.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

14. The writer is considering adding the following sen-

tence to the essay:

This growth can take the form of either

branching (which forms stable, symmetrical

shapes) or faceting (which forms unstable,

complex shapes).

If the writer were to add this sentence, it would most

logically be placed at Point:

F. A in Paragraph 1.

G. B in Paragraph 1.

H. C in Paragraph 2.

J. D in Paragraph 4.

PASSAGE II

Climbing Mt. Fuji

[1]

Bundled up in wool sweaters and thick

coats, and we watched the sun setting on Mt. Fuji

in Japan. It was August and our clothes were stifling,

but we would have needed the warmth from our bodies

sealed around us as we hiked into the high altitudes.

Three friends and I stepped away from the crowd of

other hikers and spoke our intention: “Sunset at the

base, sunrise at the top.” [A]

[2]

As we hiked, a patchwork of clouds swept across

the darkening sky, hiding all traces of our surroundings

outside our flashlights’ beams. The trail gradually changed

from compact dirt to a jumble of volcanic rocks. [B]

15. Suppose the writer’s primary purpose had been to offer

an example of a discovery that changed the way scien-

tists viewed the basic laws of chemistry. Would this

essay accomplish that purpose?

A. Yes, because it describes how the observation of

triangular snowflakes has led scientists to discover

that their understanding of the basic laws of chem-

istry is flawed.

B. Yes, because it describes how scientists have

applied the knowledge they’ve gained through

studying snowflakes to other areas of chemistry.

C. No, because it focuses on how scientists are strug-

gling to determine how triangular snowflakes are

formed.

D. No, because it explains that triangular snowflakes

appeared to, but don’t actually, violate the basic

laws of chemistry.

16. F. NO CHANGE

G. coats while watching

H. coats, we watched

J. coats watching

17. A. NO CHANGE

B. would need

C. will need

D. need

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Questions 14 and 15 ask about the preceding passage as a whole.

We tried to steady ourselves with our

walking sticks but slipped and stumbled

because of the jumbled rocks we were slipping on.

[3]

Every thousand feet, we came to a small station

constructed of tin and cement, barely able to block

the wind. At each one, we noted the roof piled high on

fallen rocks and felt both unsettled and reassured by this

evidence of the station’s protective ability. We rested

uneasily for a moment as a clerk burned the station brand

into our walking sticks which it was proof of our progress

through the darkness.

[4]

As we neared the summit, the whole group of

hikers—thinly spread across the mountain for most of

the route—condensed, forming an illuminated line along

the trail. [C] Our pace slowed. Progressing along the trail,

we reached the summit just five minutes before dawn. [D]

In the half-light of the rising sun: we began to make

out the dark lines of the cliffs’ at the crater’s edge.

18. F. NO CHANGE

G. even though we used our walking sticks.

H. despite any efforts to remain steady.

J. with each step.

19. A. NO CHANGE

B. piling high with

C. piled high with

D. piling high on

20. F. NO CHANGE

G. sticks, it was proof of

H. sticks, proof of

J. sticks proved

21. A. NO CHANGE

B. the most part

C. majority

D. more

22. F. NO CHANGE

G. they formed

H. there was

J. we saw

23. Which choice emphasizes the slowness of the ascent

and supports the idea that the narrator’s group of

friends did not set their own pace?

A. NO CHANGE

B. Able to advance only a few steps at a time,

C. Moving forward with each step,

D. Climbing higher in altitude,

24. F. NO CHANGE

G. sun—

H. sun,

J. sun;

25. A. NO CHANGE

B. cliff’s at the craters’

C. cliffs at the crater’s

D. cliffs at the craters

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

26. If the writer were to delete the preceding sentence, the

paragraph would primarily lose:

F. a restatement of an idea that emphasizes the

hikers’ anticipation when they reached the summit.

G. a statement that introduces the idea of waiting,

which is the focus of the following paragraph.

H. an unnecessary detail that contradicts information

presented earlier in the paragraph.

J. a clear image that conveys what the hikers saw

when they reached the summit.

27. A. NO CHANGE

B. Furthermore,

C. Once again,

D. Finally,

28. Which choice most dramatically emphasizes the

ruggedness of the landscape?

F. NO CHANGE

G. shattered over

H. smothered

J. went over

30. Suppose the writer’s primary purpose had been to

describe the experience of doing something difficult.

Would this essay accomplish that purpose?

F. Yes, because it tells about a variety of challenges

the hikers faced along their journey.

G. Yes, because it focuses primarily on the hikers’

need for walking sticks and other tools to make it

up the trail.

H. No, because it focuses on the rewarding nature of

the experience but does not describe the hike as

challenging.

J. No, because it focuses mainly on the beauty of the

surrounding landscape.

31. A. NO CHANGE

B. boy named Juan Quezada

C. boy, named Juan Quezada

D. boy named Juan Quezada,

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

We crouched down on jutting pieces of rock and waited for

the shifting clouds to clear. We waited for the sun. :

[5]

Generally, a sudden gap in the clouds left us blinking

as the sunlight squelched out the severe landscape of

gray volcanic rock. We leaned against each other, spent.

Perhaps there is truth in the old Japanese saying: A wise

man climbs Mt. Fuji, but only a fool climbs it twice.

29. The writer wants to add the following sentence to the

essay:

We clipped small flashlights onto our coats,

picked up our walking sticks, and started up

the trail with the other hikers as the sun

dipped below the trees.

The sentence would most logically be placed at Point:

A. A in Paragraph 1.

B. B in Paragraph 2.

C. C in Paragraph 4.

D. D in Paragraph 4.

PASSAGE III

The Pottery of Mata Ortiz

In the early 1950s, a twelve-year-old

boy named, Juan Quezada, gathered firewood

in the mountains near the village of Mata Ortiz

in Chihuahua, Mexico. Though he dreamed of

becoming an artist, Quezada spent all of his free

time selling firewood to help support his family.

Questions 29 and 30 ask about the preceding passage as a whole.

In the mountains, Quezada found shards of

pots, and an occasional complete pot,

painted with

intricate red and black designs. These were artifacts

from his ancestors, the Paquimé (or Casas Grandes)

Indians, who lived in the area from about AD 1000

to AD 1400. Fascinated by the geometric designs,

Quezada wondered, if he could make pots like these?

B He dug the clay, soaked it, and tried to shape it

into a pot. In time, he figured out how his ancestors had

mixed the clay with volcanic ash to keep it from cracking

and had used minerals found nearby to create paints. When

it was time to paint his pots, Quezada designed his own

complex geometric patterns.

As an adult, Quezada found a job with the

railroad, but he always made time for his art. By 1976

he was selling pots to travelers and had taught several

members of his family how to make pots. Three of

Quezada’s pots were discovered in a junk shop in

New Mexico by anthropologist Spencer MacCallum,

who at first thought they were prehistoric. D

His search for their creator led him to Mata

Ortiz and an eventual partnership with Quezada.

32. Which of the following alternatives to the underlined

portion would NOT be acceptable?

F. pots—along with an occasional complete pot—

G. pots, along with an occasional complete pot,

H. pots, (and an occasional complete pot)

J. pots (and an occasional complete pot)

33. A. NO CHANGE

B. wondered if he could make pots like these.

C. wondered, if he could make pots like these.

D. wondered if he could make pots like these?

34. Which of the following true statements would provide

the best transition from the preceding paragraph to this

paragraph?

F. The village of Mata Ortiz is only three streets wide

but stretches for a mile between the Casas Grandes

River and the railroad tracks.

G. The patterns on Mata Ortiz pottery that Quezada

admired are based on the techniques of the ancient

Paquimé.

H. Quezada began working with clay from the

mountains.

J. Quezada’s painted designs became increasingly

complex.

35. A. NO CHANGE

B. a dedication to teaching

C. a teacher of

D. has taught

36. In the preceding sentence, the clause “who at first

thought they were prehistoric” primarily serves to

indicate:

F. how closely Quezada had created his pots within

the Paquimé tradition.

G. that Quezada’s technique as a potter wasn’t very

well developed yet.

H. how strikingly simple Quezada’s pots were in

shape and design.

J. that the style of Quezada’s pots was outmoded.

37. A. NO CHANGE

B. lead himself

C. led himself

D. lead him

38. Which choice most strongly suggests that Quezada’s

partnership with MacCallum was not formed right

away upon MacCallum’s arrival in Mata Ortiz?

F. NO CHANGE

G. a circumstantial

H. a momentary

J. a timely

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

MacCallum showed Quezada’s pots to art dealers in the

United States, the places in which art galleries were soon

offering Quezada thousands of dollars for them.

[1] Quezada helped his village with the money he

earned selling pottery, but he wanted to do more so. [2] So

he taught people from Mata Ortiz to make pots. [3] Today

there are more than four hundred potters around, all of

which make their pots by hand, following the traditions

of the Paquimé Indians. [4] The village is thriving, and

many museums proudly display the pottery of Mata Ortiz.

[5] Each artist brought something unique to they’re

creations. L

39. A. NO CHANGE

B. and it would happen there that

C. where

D. DELETE the underlined portion.

40. F. NO CHANGE

G. more then that.

H. more of them.

J. more.

41. A. NO CHANGE

B. people creating art now,

C. potters in Mata Ortiz,

D. DELETE the underlined portion and place a

comma after the word hundred.

42. F. NO CHANGE

G. whom

H. them

J. who

43. A. NO CHANGE

B. his or herselves

C. hers or his

D. his or her

44. For the sake of the logic and coherence of this para-

graph, Sentence 5 should be placed:

F. where it is now.

G. before Sentence 1.

H. after Sentence 1.

J. after Sentence 2.

45. Suppose the writer’s primary purpose had been to write

an essay summarizing the history of pottery making in

Mexico. Would this essay accomplish that purpose?

A. Yes, because it discusses ancient pottery shards

and complete pots from the Paquimé Indians and

compares that pottery to modern designs.

B. Yes, because it demonstrates the quality of the

ancient pottery of the Mata Ortiz area.

C. No, because it focuses instead on how one artist

based his creations on ancient pottery techniques

and shared those techniques with other artists.

D. No, because it focuses instead on describing the

Casas Grandes culture in ancient Mexico.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Question 45 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

46. F. NO CHANGE

G. they’re

H. their

J. its

47. A. NO CHANGE

B. alike, regularly filling

C. alike, regularly fill

D. alike regularly fill

48. F. NO CHANGE

G. consequently,

H. however,

J. in fact,

49. A. NO CHANGE

B. there to

C. whom

D. they

50. F. NO CHANGE

G. frieze; into which are carved

H. frieze. Into which are carved

J. frieze, carved into it are

51. The writer is considering adding the following

sentence:

Masks figured prominently in classical Greek

theater performances, in part due to the fact

that one actor would usually play several

characters.

Should the writer make this addition here?

A. Yes, because it connects the paragraph’s point

about theatrical masks to the larger subject of clas-

sical Greek theater.

B. Yes, because it explains the masks’ significance to

classical Greek theater and architecture.

C. No, because it only addresses classical Greek

theater and doesn’t include information about

Roman theater.

D. No, because it deviates from the paragraph’s focus

on the Lyceum Theatre’s architecture.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

PASSAGE IV

Beaux Arts Architecture in the Spotlight

On West 45th Street in New York City, wedged

between buildings more than twice it’s height, stands

the Lyceum Theatre. Tourists and New Yorkers

alike regularly filling this theater to its 900-seat

capacity. Most are there to attend a performance;

a few, for example, are likely to be architecture buffs

they come to admire the stunning building itself. Built in

1903, the theater exemplifies the Beaux Arts architectural

style, which fuses elements of classical Greek and Roman

design with Renaissance and Baroque details.

The Beaux Arts revival of classical Greek and Roman

architecture is apparent on first view of the theater. The

Lyceum’s facade—the exterior front, or “face,” of the

building—features half a dozen Corinthian columns.

Above the columns extends a horizontal stone band

called a frieze; carved into it are the classical theatrical

masks that represent comedy and tragedy. S

Demonstrating the Beaux Arts infusion of

Renaissance and Baroque details, tall, arched French

windows, symmetrically placed between the columns,

lighten the imposing gray limestone structure. [A]

Above the windows and frieze, an exterior balcony spans

the width of the gray building. [B] The balcony is fenced

with a balustrade, a stone railing supported by a row

of waist-high, vase-shaped pillars. [C] The ornate

interior of the building is consistent with its elaborate

exterior. [D] Not just one but two marble-finished

grand staircases lead from the foyer to the midlevel

seating area, called the mezzanine. Inside the theater

itself, elegant chandeliers illuminate rose-colored walls

that have gold accents. In keeping with sumptuous

Beaux Arts style, curved rows of plush purple chairs

embrace the stage. XY

52. F. NO CHANGE

G. gray limestone

H. limestone

J. DELETE the underlined portion.

53. A. NO CHANGE

B. balustrade. Which is

C. balustrade. It being

D. balustrade, this is

54. F. NO CHANGE

G. elegantly chandelier illuminates

H. elegantly chandelier illuminate

J. elegant chandeliers illuminates

55. Which choice maintains the essay’s positive tone and

most strongly mimics the elaborate style of decor

being described at this point in the essay?

A. NO CHANGE

B. embellished with myriad gold accents.

C. marred with gaudy accents of gold.

D. accented with gold.

56. If the writer were to delete the preceding sentence, the

essay would primarily lose details that:

F. illustrate one of the Lyceum Theatre’s features that

deviates from Beaux Arts architecture.

G. contribute to the description of the Lyceum

Theatre’s elaborate interior.

H. support the essay’s claim that Beaux Arts architec-

ture was most popular in the twentieth century.

J. clarify an unfamiliar architectural term used in the

essay.

57. The writer wants to divide this paragraph into two in

order to separate details about the building’s outdoor

features from details about its indoor features. The best

place to begin the new paragraph would be at Point:

A. A.

B. B.

C. C.

D. D.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

58. F. NO CHANGE

G. In the same manner, patrons

H. On one hand, patrons

J. For instance, patrons

59. A. NO CHANGE

B. adding enhancement to the experience of

C. adding to the experience of

D. enhancing

60. Suppose the writer’s primary purpose had been to

explain how a building illustrates a particular architec-

tural style. Would this essay accomplish that purpose?

F. Yes, because it describes the architectural styles of

several New York theater buildings.

G. Yes, because it enumerates a number of the

Lyceum Theatre’s Beaux Arts features.

H. No, because it focuses more specifically on the set

design for the Lyceum Theatre’s productions.

J. No, because it focuses on more than one architec-

tural style.

61. A. NO CHANGE

B. factually inaccuracies.

C. factual inaccuracies.

D. factually inaccurate.

62. F. NO CHANGE

G. birth: she falsely lists

H. birth; falsely listing

J. birth, falsely listing:

63. A. NO CHANGE

B. has mattered

C. had mattered

D. matter

64. F. NO CHANGE

G. little. For

H. little; for

J. little,

65. Given that all the choices are true, which one provides

the best transition into the rest of the essay?

A. NO CHANGE

B. Born in Cork, Ireland, in 1837, Jones immigrated

to the United States in the mid-1800s.

C. Rather, it’s the story of her public persona, the rad-

ical labor activist “Mother Jones.”

D. Instead, this essay will show you why Jones’s role

in history is so important.

Question 60 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

Patrons credit the handsome Beaux Arts aesthetic

with adding enhancement to their theatergoing experience.

Though smaller and more cramped than many newer

theaters—audience members often note that legroom is

limited—the Lyceum’s distinctive atmosphere continues

to delight theater fans as well as architecture enthusiasts.

PASSAGE V

Mother Jones: True to the Spirit of Her Cause

The autobiography by Mary Harris Jones is riddled

with factual inaccurate. Jones even fudges her date of

birth, she falsely lists May 1, International Workers’

Day, and ages herself by nearly a decade. These

untruths—whether deliberate exaggerations or

slips of the memory—ultimately matters very

little, for the autobiography isn’t about the life of

Mary Harris Jones. Jones became famous for her work.

When Mary Harris Jones got involved

in labor politics in the 1860s, it was rare for

a woman to attend, let alone address, union

meetings. Jones, however, became one of the

movement’s most powerful and controversial advocate’s.

She traveled the United States, from the coal mines of

Appalachia to the railroad yards of the West, rallying

workers to join unions and fight for better working

conditions. Specifically, Jones helped organize efforts

to ensure that employers complied with laws governing

workday hours and child labor.

The moniker “Mother Jones” was conferred on Jones

by members of the American Railway Union. She herself,

adopted the name and, subsequently, a corresponding

public persona. Her audiences came to expect “Mother

Jones.” d By 1900, the white-haired, calico-frocked

figure was no longer known as Mary Harris Jones,

the media, union leaders and workers, and even U.S.

presidents referred to her as Mother Jones.

Embracing the very role used to confine

women to the domestic sphere, Jones subversively

redefined the boundaries of home and family.

66. F. NO CHANGE

G. movement’s most powerful and controversial

advocates’.

H. movement’s most powerful and controversial

advocates.

J. movements most powerful and controversial

advocates.

67. A. NO CHANGE

B. She, herself,

C. She, herself

D. She herself

68. At this point, the writer is considering adding the fol-

lowing true statement:

To meet their expectations, Jones crafted her

speech, dress, and mannerisms based on cul-

tural notions of motherhood.

Should the writer make this addition here?

F. Yes, because it highlights the contrast between

Jones’s personal style and her audiences’.

G. Yes, because it adds details about what types of

changes Jones made to create her public persona.

H. No, because it detracts from the focus of the para-

graph by introducing unrelated details.

J. No, because it doesn’t indicate the effect Jones’s

public persona had on audiences.

69. A. NO CHANGE

B. Jones, in fact,

C. Jones in fact

D. Jones;

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

70. If the writer were to delete the underlined portion, the

paragraph would primarily lose a quotation that:

F. questions the distinction between Mary Harris

Jones and her public persona, Mother Jones.

G. reinforces the essay’s characterization of Mother

Jones as a happy-go-lucky vagabond.

H. reiterates the point that Jones enjoyed the travel

opportunities her work provided.

J. provides support for the claim that Jones redefined

the boundaries of home.

71. In the preceding sentence, the writer is considering

replacing “workers” with “her family of workers.”

Should the writer make this revision?

A. Yes, because it completes the metaphor comparing

Jones to the head of a family.

B. Yes, because it makes clear that Jones cared most

about workers who were family relatives.

C. No, because it unnecessarily repeats information

established earlier in the essay.

D. No, because it introduces an unrelated comparison

between workers and family.

72. F. NO CHANGE

G. protections, to name a few, included:

H. she defined protection as:

J. she did this by:

73. A. NO CHANGE

B. Because of

C. Without

D. Despite

74. F. NO CHANGE

G. they’re behalves,

H. their behalf,

J. their behalve’s,

75. Suppose the writer’s goal had been to summarize

women’s contributions to early-twentieth-century labor

law reform. Would this essay accomplish that goal?

A. Yes, because it shows that Mother Jones was a

well-known and respected labor agitator.

B. Yes, because it introduces a prominent figure in

labor history.

C. No, because it focuses more specifically on labor

law reform in the nineteenth century.

D. No, because it focuses more specifically on one

figure in the labor movement.

ACT-1572CPRE

“My address is like my shoes,” she said. “It travels with

me wherever I go.” She was the matriarch who staunchly

protected workers. g

And protect them she did: When workers

went on strike, Jones secured food donations and

temporary living arrangements. Where companies

prevented the formation of unions, she fought for

workers’ right to organize. Instead of these tireless

efforts on there behalf, workers trusted Mother Jones

and, by extension, the labor unions she represented.

Question 75 asks about the preceding passage

as a whole.

END OF TEST 1

STOP! DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

1. The blood types of 150 people were determined for a

study as shown in the figure below.

If 1person from this study is randomly selected, what

is the probability that this person has either TypeA or

TypeAB blood?

2. The monthly fees for single rooms at 5 colleges are

$370, $310, $380, $340, and $310, respectively. What

is the mean of these monthly fees?

F. $310

G. $340

H. $342

J. $350

K. $380

____

150

____

150

____

150

____

150

____

150

O B AB

number of people

blood type

3. On a particular road map, inchrepresents 18 miles.

About how many miles apart are 2 towns that are

2 inches apart on this map?

A. 18

B. 22

C. 36

D. 45

E. 90

4. Given f = cd

, f = 450, and d = 10, what is c ?

000.45

G. 004.5

H. 015

J. 045

K. 150

5. If f (x)= (3x + 7)

, then f (1)= ?

A. 010

B. 016

C. 058

D. 079

E. 100

6. Jorge’s current hourly wage for working at

Denti Smiles is $12.00. Jorge was told that at the

beginning of next month, his new hourly wage will be

an increase of 6% of his current hourly wage. What

will be Jorge’s new hourly wage?

F. $12.06

G. $12.60

H. $12.72

J. $18.00

K. $19.20

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

MATHEMATICS TEST

60 Minutes—60 Questions

ACT-1572CPRE

DIRECTIONS: Solve each problem, choose the correct

answer, and then ll in the corresponding oval on your

answer document.

Do not linger over problems that take too much time.

Solve as many as you can; then return to the others in

the time you have left for this test.

You are permitted to use a calculator on this test. You

may use your calculator for any problems you choose,

but some of the problems may best be done without

using a calculator.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, all of the following should

be assumed.

1. Illustrative gures are NOT necessarily drawn to scale.

2. Geometric gures lie in a plane.

3. The word line indicates a straight line.

4. The word average indicates arithmetic mean.

7. The first term is 1 in the geometric sequence

1, −3, 9, −27,

…

. What is the SEVENTH term of the

geometric sequence?

A. −243

0−30

C. 081

D. 189

E. 729

8. The shipping rate for customers of Ship Quick consists

of a fee per box and a price per pound for each box.

The table below gives the fee and the price per pound

for customers shipping boxes of various weights.

Gregg wants Ship Quick to ship 1 box that weighs

15pounds. What is the shipping rate for this box?

F. $09.75

G. $16.50

H. $19.75

J. $20.00

K. $24.50

9. A computer chip 0.32 cm thick is made up of layers of

silicon. If the top and bottom layers are each 0.03 cm

thick and the inner layers are each 0.02 cm thick, how

many inner layers are there?

A. 13

B. 15

C. 16

D. 52

E. 64

10. The table below shows the number of cars Jing sold

each month last year. What is the median of the data in

the table?

F. 13

G. 16

H. 19

J. 20.5

K. 23.5

Weight of box

(pounds) Fee Price per pound

Less than 10

10−25

More than 25

$05.00

$10.00

$20.00

$1.00

$0.65

$0.30

0.32 cm

}

Month Number of cars sold

January 25

February 15

March 22

April 19

May 16

June 13

July 19

August 25

September 26

October 27

November 28

December 29

11. Students studying motion observed a cart rolling at a

constant rate along a straight line. The table below

gives the distance, d feet, the cart was from a reference

point at 1-second intervals from t = 0 seconds to

t = 5seconds.

Which of the following equations represents this

relationship between d and t ?

A. d= 00t + 14

B. d= 06t + 08

C. d= 06t + 14

D. d= 14t + 06

E. d= 34t

12. The length of a rectangle with area 54 square

centimeters is 9 centimeters. What is the perimeter of

the rectangle, in centimeters?

F. 06

G. 12

H. 15

J. 24

K. 30

13. In the figure below, C is the intersection of AD

___

and

___

. If it can be determined, what is the measure of

∠BAC ?

A. 080°

B. 100°

C. 110°

D. 115°

E. Cannot be determined from the given information

14. Antwan drew the circle graph below describing his

time spent at school in 1day. His teacher said that the

numbers of hours listed were correct, but that the

central angle measures for the sectors were not correct.

What should be the central angle measure for the Core

subjects sector?

072°

G. 080°

H. 160°

J. 200°

K. 288°

00 01 02 03 04 05

d 14 20 26 32 38 44

35°

35°45°

Core

subjects

4 hours

Electives

3 hours

Lunch

and

passing time

1 hour

Choir

1 hour

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

20. For trapezoid ABCD shown below, AB

___

____

, the

measures of the interior angles are distinct, and the

measure of ∠D is x°. What is the degree measure of

∠A in terms of x ?

F. (180− x)°

G. (180− 0.5x)°

H. (180+ 0.5x)°

J. (180+ x)°

K. x°

21. To get a driver’s license, an applicant must pass a

written test and a driving test. Past records show that

80% of the applicants pass the written test and 60% of

those who have passed the written test pass the driving

test. Based on these figures, how many applicants in a

random group of 1,000applicants would you expect to

get driver’s licenses?

A. 200

B. 480

C. 600

D. 750

E. 800

22. If a, b, and c are positive integers such that a

= x and

= y, then xy = ?

F. ac

G. ac

H. (ac)

J. (ac)

K. (ac)

23. Which of the following expressions is equivalent to

(6x + 2y + 12x − 2y)?

09xy

B. 18xy

C. 03xy

+ 12x

D. 09xy

− 2y

E. 03xy

+ 12x − y

− 2y

24. An artist makes a profit of (500p − p

) dollars from

selling p paintings. What is the fewest number of

paintings the artist can sell to make a profit of at least

$60,000?

F. 100

G. 150

H. 200

J. 300

K. 600

x°

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

15. This month, Kami sold 70 figurines in 2 sizes. The

large figurines sold for $12 each, and the small

figurines sold for $8 each. The amount of money he

received from the sales of the large figurines was equal

to the amount of money he received from the sales of

the small figurines. How many large figurines did

Kami sell this month?

A. 20

B. 28

C. 35

D. 42

E. 50

16. A car accelerated from 88 feet per second (fps) to

220 fps in exactly 3 seconds. Assuming the acceleration

was constant, what was the car’s acceleration, in feet

per second per second, from 88fps to 220fps?

F. 00

G. 029

H. 044

J. 075

K. 102

17. In a plane, the distinct lines AB

↔

and CD

↔

intersect at A,

where A is between C and D. The measure of ∠BAC is

47°. What is the measure of ∠BAD ?

A. 043°

B. 047°

C. 094°

D. 133°

E. 137°

18. In which of the following are , , and arranged in

ascending order?

F. <<

G. <<

H. <<

J. <<

K. <<

19. In scientific notation, 670,000,000+ 700,000,000= ?

A. 1.37

−9

B. 1.37

C. 1.37

D. 1.37

E. 137

___

29. What is the product of the complex numbers (−3i + 4)

and (3i + 4)?

B. 07

C. 25

D. −7+ 24i

E. 07+ 24i

30. The radius of the base of the right circular cone shown

below is 5 inches, and the height of the cone is

7 inches. Solving which of the following equations

gives the measure, , of the angle formed by a slant

height of the cone and a radius?

F. tan, =

G. tan, =

H. sin, =

J. sin, =

K. cos,=

31. To make a 750-piece jigsaw puzzle more challenging, a

puzzle company includes 5 extra pieces in the box

along with the 750pieces, and those 5extra pieces do

not fit anywhere in the puzzle. If you buy such a puzzle

box, break the seal on the box, and immediately select

1 piece at random, what is the probability that it will

be 1of the extra pieces?

32. What fraction lies exactly halfway between and ?

____

755

____

750

____

755

____

750

___

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

25. Last month, Lucie had total expenditures of $900. The

pie chart below breaks down these expenditures by

category. The category in which Lucie’s expenditures

were greatest is what percent of her total expenditures,

to the nearest 1%?

A. 24%

B. 28%

C. 32%

D. 34%

E. 39%

26. In the figure shown below, the measure of BAC is

(x + 20)° and the measure of BAD is 90°. What is the

measure of CAD ?

F. 0(x − 70)°

G. 0(70− x)°

H. 0(70+ x)°

J. (160− x)°

K. (160+ x)°

27. What is the perimeter, in inches, of the isosceles right

triangle shown below, whose hypotenuse is 8

√•

2 inches

long?

A. 08

B. 08+ 08

√•

C. 08+ 16

√•

D. 16

E. 16+ 08

√•

28. The equation y = ax

+ bx + c is graphed in the

standard (x,y) coordinate plane below for real values of

a, b, and c. When y = 0, which of the following best

describes the solutions for x ?

F. 2distinct positive real solutions

G. 2distinct negative real solutions

H. 1positive real solution and 1negative real solution

J. 2real solutions that are not distinct

K. 2distinct solutions that are not real

entertainment

$125

$219

food

$254

clothes

$120

gas

$182

nsurance

36. Which of the following is the graph of the region

1<x + y <2 in the standard (x,y) coordinate plane?

37. What is the difference between the mean and the

median of the set {3, 8, 10, 15}?

A. 00

B. 01

C. 04

D. 09

E. 12

38. Which of the following describes a true relationship

between the functions f (x) = (x − 3)

+ 2 and

g(x) = x + 1 graphed below in the standard (x,y)

coordinate plane?

F. f(x) = g(x) for exactly 2values of x

G. f(x) = g(x) for exactly 1 value of x

H. f(x) < g(x) for all x

J. f (x) > g(x) for all x

K. f(x) is the inverse of g(x)

−1

−2

−1

−2

−1

1−2

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Gianna is converting a 12-foot-by-15-foot room in her

house to a craft room. Gianna will install tile herself but

will have CC Installations build and install the cabinets.

The scale drawing shown below displays the location of the

cabinets in the craft room (0.25inch represents 2feet).

Cabinets will be installed along one of the 12-foot walls

from floor to ceiling, and 4cabinets that are each 3feet tall

will be installed in the middle of the room. These are the

only cabinets that will be installed, and each of them will

be 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. CC Installations has given

Gianna an estimate of $2,150.00 for building and installing

the cabinets.

33. A 15-foot wall is how many inches long in the scale

drawing?

A. 1.5

B. 1.875

C. 3

D. 3.375

E. 3.75

34. Gianna will install tile on the portion of the floor that

will NOT be covered by cabinets. What is the area, in

square feet, of the portion of the floor that will NOT be

covered by cabinets?

F. 072

G. 090

H. 140

J. 156

K. 164

35. CCInstallations’ estimate consists of a $650.00charge

for labor, plus a fixed charge per cabinet. The labor

charge and the charge per cabinet remain the same

for any number of cabinets built and installed.

CC Installations would give Gianna what estimate if

the craft room were to have twice as many cabinets as

Gianna is planning to have?

A. $2,800.00

B. $3,000.00

C. $3,450.00

D. $3,650.00

E. $4,300.00

window

cabinets

door

2 ft deep

15 ft wall

12 ft wal

cabinets

Use the following information to answer

questions 33–35.

43. A formula to estimate the monthly payment, p dollars,

on a short-term loan is

p =

where a dollars is the amount of the loan, r is the

annual interest rate expressed as a decimal, and y years

is the length of the loan. When a is multiplied by 2,

what is the effect on p ?

A. p is divided by 6

B. p is divided by 2

C. p does not change

D. p is multiplied by 2

E. p is multiplied by 4

44. The pointsE(6,4) and F(14,12) lie in the standard (x,y)

coordinate plane shown below. Point D lies on EF

___

between E and F such that the length of EF

___

is 4times

the length of DE

___

. What are the coordinates of D ?

F. (

07,05)

G. (08,06)

H. (08,08)

J. (10,08)

K. (12,10)

45. Given that a

for some real number a,

what is x + z ?

C. 26

D. 27

E. 48

46. A container is full of water. After 10 cups of water

are added, the container is full. What is the volume

of the container, in cups?

F. 13

G. 13

H. 15

J. 16

K. 40

ary + a

_________

12y

E(6,4)

F(14,12

)

___

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Trapezoid ABCD is graphed in the standard (x,y) coordinate

plane below.

39. What is the slope of CD

___

A. −3

B. −1

C. 1

40. When ABCD is reflected over the y-axis to ABCD,

what are the coordinates of D ?

F. (−12,0 1)

G. (−12,0−1)

H. ( 12,0−1)

J. ( 01, 12)

K. ( 01,−12)

41. Which of the following vertical lines cuts ABCD into

2trapezoids with equal areas?

A. x= 2.5

B. x= 3.5

C. x= 4.5

D. x= 5.5

E. x= 6.5

42. Given f (x)= x − and g(x)= ,what is f

F. −3

G. −

H. −

J. 0

B(3,4) C(9,4)

A(2,1)

D(12,1)

___

Use the following information to answer

questions 39–41.

50. You can find the volume of an irregularly shaped solid

object by completely submerging it in water and

calculating the volume of water the object displaces.

You completely submerge a solid object in a

rectangular tank that has a base 40 centimeters by

30 centimeters and is filled with water to a depth of

20 centimeters. The object sinks to the bottom, and the

water level goes up 0.25 centimeters. What is the

volume, in cubic centimeters, of the object?

F. 300

G. 240

H. 200

J. 150

K. 075

51. If x:y = 5:2 and y:z = 3:2, what is the ratio of x:z ?

A. 03:1

B. 03:5

C. 05:3

D. 08:4

E. 15:4

52. Which of the following is the solution statement for

the inequality shown below?

−5< 1− 3x < 10

F. −5< x < 10

G. −3< x

H. −3< x < 2

J. −2< x < 3

K. x <−3orx > 2

53. A formula for the surface area (A) of the rectangular

solid shown below is A = 2lw + 2lh + 2wh where l

represents length; w,width; and h,height. By doubling

each of the dimensions (l, w, and h), the surface area

will be multiplied by what factor?

A. 02

B. 04

C. 06

D. 08

E. 12

54. A dog eats 7 cans of food in 3 days. At this rate, how

many cans of food does the dog eat in 3+ d days?

F. + d

G. +

H. +

J. 7 +

K. 7 +

_ __

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

47. Only tenth-, eleventh-, and twelfth-grade students

attend Washington High School. The ratio of tenth

graders to the school’s total student population is

86:255, and the ratio of eleventh graders to the

school’s total student population is 18:51. If 1 student

is chosen at random from the entire school, which

grade is that student most likely to be in?

A. Tenth

B. Eleventh

C. Twelfth

D. All grades are equally likely.

E. Cannot be determined from the given information

48. +=?

49. The shaded region in the graph below represents the

solution set to which of the following systems of

inequalities?

y <−x + 2

(x − 1)

+ (y − 2)

< 9

y >−x + 2

(x − 1)

+ (y − 2)

< 9

y >−x + 2

(x − 1)

+ (y − 2)

> 9

y <−x + 2

(x − 1)

+ (y − 2)

> 9

(y − 2) < 3

(x − 1) > 3

(x − 1 )

+ (y − 2)

y = −x + 2

√•

3 + 2

√•

____________

√•

3 + 2

√•

____________

√•

_________

√•

2 +

√•

____

√•

____

√•

____

√•

____

√•

55. Kelly asked 120 students questions about skiing. The

results of the poll are shown in the table below.

After completing the poll, Kelly wondered how many

of the students polled had skied both cross-country and

downhill. How many of the students polled indicated

that they had skied both cross-country and downhill?

A. 73

B. 65

C. 47

D. 18

56. The square below is divided into 3 rows of equal area.

In the top row, the region labeled A has the same area

as the region labeled B. In the middle row, the 3 regions

have equal areas. In the bottom row, the 4 regions have

equal areas. What fraction of the square’s area is in a

region labeled A?

57. The functions y = sin,x and y = sin(x + a) + b, for

constants a and b, are graphed in the standard (x,y)

coordinate plane below. The functions have the same

maximum value. One of the following statements

about the values of a and b is true. Which statement is

it?

A. a< 0 and b= 0

B. a< 0 and b> 0

C. a= 0 and b> 0

D. a> 0 and b< 0

E. a> 0 and b> 0

Question Yes No

1. Have you skied either cross-country

or downhill?

65 55

2. If you answered Yes to Question1,

did you ski downhill?

28 37

3. If you answered Yes to Question1,

did you ski cross-country?

45 20

___

58. Which of the following number line graphs shows the

solution set to the inequality



x − 5



<−1?

59. As part of a probability experiment, Elliott is to answer

4 multiple-choice questions. For each question, there

are 3 possible answers, only 1 of which is correct. If

Elliott randomly and independently answers each

question, what is the probability that he will answer

the 4questions correctly?

60. The sides of an acute triangle measure 14 cm, 18 cm,

and 20 cm, respectively. Which of the following

equations, when solved for , gives the measure of the

smallest angle of the triangle?

(Note: For any triangle with sides of length a, b, and c

that are opposite angles A, B, and C, respectively,

==and c

= a

+ b

− 2ab cos

,C.)

F. =

G. =

H. =

J. 14

= 18

+ 20

− 2(18)(20)cos,

K. 20

= 14

+ 18

− 2(14)(18)cos,

(empty set)

___

sin

_____

sin,B

_____

sin,A

_____

___

sin

,

_____

___

sin

,

_____

___

sin

,

_____

ACT-1572CPRE

END OF TEST 2

STOP! DO NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

DO NOT RETURN TO THE PREVIOUS TEST.

Passage I

PROSE FICTION: Th pa age adap ed from the novel The

Salman Rushdie).

Art Deco is an architectural and decorative style that was popu-

lar in the first half of the twentieth century.

When you grow up, as I did, in a great city, during

what just happens to be its golden age, you think of it

as eternal. Always was there, always will be. The

grandeur of the metropolis creates the illusion of per-

manence. The peninsular Bombay into which I was

born certainly seemed perennial to me. Malabar and

Cumballa hills were our Capitol and Palatine, the

Brabourne Stadium was our Colosseum, and as for the

glittering Art Deco sweep of Marine Drive, well, that

was something not even Rome could boast. I actually

grew up believing Art Deco to be the “Bombay style,” a

local invention, its name derived, in all probability,

from the imperative of the verb “to see.” Art dekho. Lo

and behold art. (When I began to be familiar with

images of New York, I at first felt a sort of anger. The

Americans had so much; did they have to possess our

“style” as well? But in another, more secret part of my

heart, the Art Deco of Manhattan, built on a scale so

much grander than our own, only increased America’s

allure, made it both familiar and awe-inspiring, our

little Bombay writ large.)

In reality that Bombay was almost brand-new

when I knew it; what’s more, my parents’ construction

firm of Merchant & Merchant had been prominent in its

making. In the ten years before my own coming into the

world, the city had been a gigantic building site; as if it

were in a hurry to become, as if it knew it had to pro-

vide itself in finished condition by the time I was able

to start paying attention to it ... No, no, I don’t really

think along such solipsistic lines. I’m not over-attached

to history, or Bombay. Me, I’m the under-attached type.

But let me confess that, even as a child, I was

insanely jealous of the city in which I was raised,

because it was my parents’ other love. They loved each

other (good), they loved me (very good), and they

loved her (not so good). Bombay was my rival. It was

on account of their romance with the city that they

drew up that weekly rota (list) of shared parental

responsibilities. When my mother wasn’t with me—

when I was riding on my father’s shoulders, or staring,

with him, at the fish in the Taraporewala Aquarium—

she was out there with her, with Bombay; out there

bringing her into being. (For of course construction

work never stops completely, and supervising such

work was Ameer’s particular genius. My mother the

master builder. Like her father before her.) And when

my father handed me over to her, he went off, wearing

his local-history hat and a khaki jacket full of pockets,

to dig in the foundations of building sites for the secrets

of the city’s past, or else sat hatless and coatless at a

designing board and dreamed his lo-and-behold dreams.

Maps of the early town afforded my father great

joy, and his collection of old photographs of the edi-

fices and objets of the vanished city was second to

none. In these faded images were resurrected the

demolished Fort, the “breakfast bazaar” market outside

the Teen Darvaza or Bazaargate, and the humble mutton

shops and umbrella hospitals of the poor, as well as the

fallen palaces of the great. The early city’s relics filled

his imagination as well as his photo albums. It was

from my father that I learned of Bombay’s first great

photographers, Raja Deen Dayal and A. R. Haseler,

whose portraits of the city became my first artistic

influences, if only by showing me what I did not want

to do. Dayal climbed the Rajabai tower to create his

sweeping panoramas of the birth of the city; Haseler

went one better and took to the air. Their images were

awe-inspiring, unforgettable, but they also inspired in

me a desperate need to get back down to ground level.

From the heights you see only pinnacles. I yearned for

the city streets, the knife grinders, the water carriers,

the pavement moneylenders, the peremptory soldiers,

the railway hordes, the chess players in the Irani restau-

rants, the snake-buckled schoolchildren, the beggars,

the fishermen, the moviemakers, the dockers, the book

sewers, the loom operators, the priests. I yearned for

life.

When I said this to my father he showed me

photos, still lives of storefronts and piers, and told me I

was too young to understand. “See where people lived

and worked and shopped,” he clarified, with a rare flash

of irritation, “and it becomes plain what they were

like.” For all his digging, Vivvy Merchant was content

with the surfaces of his world. I, his photographer son,

set out to prove him wrong, to show that a camera can

see beyond the surface, beyond the trappings of the

actual, and penetrate to its flesh and heart.

READING TEST

35 Minutes—40 Questions

DIRECTIONS: There are several passages in this test.

Each passage is accompanied by several questions.

After reading a passage, choose the best answer to each

question and ﬁll in the corresponding oval on your

answer document. You may refer to the passages as

often as necessary.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

1. The passage as a whole can primarily be characterized

as the narrator’s:

A. explanation of the relationship the narrator and his

parents had with the city of Bombay.

B. description of important buildings and locations in

Bombay.

C. argument for Bombay’s prominence in the world

of architecture.

D. concerns about the emotional environment in

which the narrator was raised.

2. The narrator describes the photos by Bombay’s first

great photographers as primarily inspiring the narrator

to:

F. turn away from a career in photography.

G. create grand panoramas of the new Bombay.

H. produce images that his father would add to his

collection.

J. photograph subjects that depict everyday life on

Bombay’s streets.

3. In lines 25–31, the narrator muses over, then rejects,

the notion that:

A. Merchant & Merchant played an important role in

the building of Bombay.

B. he started paying attention to Bombay at a young

age.

C. his anticipated birth was one of the causes of the

rush to finish the building of Bombay.

D. Bombay had been a gigantic building site in the

years before he was born.

4. In lines 32–43, the narrator uses which of the follow-

ing literary devices to describe Bombay?

F. Alliteration

G. Allusion

H. Personification

J. Simile

5. Which of the following statements best captures how

the narrator’s parents balanced their parental duties

with their work at the construction company?

A. The narrator’s mother did the majority of the work

at the construction company, while the narrator’s

father took care of the narrator.

B. The narrator’s parents traded off responsibility for

taking care of the narrator and working at the con-

struction company.

C. The narrator’s father worked at his designing

board, while the narrator’s mother took the narra-

tor along to building sites.

D. The narrator’s parents both worked at the con-

struction company, while the narrator stayed home

with a babysitter.

6. As it is used in line 9, the word sweep most nearly

means:

F. overwhelming victory.

G. wide-ranging search.

H. complete removal.

J. broad area.

7. In the context of the passage, the primary function of

lines 6–10 is to:

A. compare architectural landmarks in Bombay to

those elsewhere.

B. help illustrate how the term “art deco” was

derived.

C. contradict the idea that Bombay was in its golden

age when the narrator was a child.

D. provide examples of “Bombay style” architecture

in Rome.

8. The narrator as a child viewed the work his parents did

for Merchant & Merchant with a strong sense of:

F. joy; the work provided the family with enough

money to live extravagant lives.

G. fear; the narrator knew his parents were often so

exhausted they were careless about safety.

H. jealousy; the work pulled the narrator’s parents

away from him and directed their attention to the

city.

J. respect; his parents were known for their quality

workmanship throughout the city.

9. As it is used in line 38, the phrase drew up most nearly

means:

A. extended.

B. prepared.

C. approached.

D. straightened.

10. In the last paragraph, the narrator’s father shows the

narrator the photos of storefronts and piers in order to:

F. teach the narrator about the commercial progress

the people who work in Bombay have made.

G. convince the narrator that Dayal and Haseler were

Bombay’s first great photographers.

H. clarify his claim that his photo collection was not

about modern-day Bombay but rather about the

early twentieth century.

J. illustrate that photos of places can reveal as much

about the people who spent time there as photos of

the people themselves.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage II

SOCIAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from Great

Deborah Cramer).

The Sargasso Sea is a part of the northern Atlantic Ocean.

As the Cramer idles through the Sargasso Sea,

waiting for the wind to rise, the sea is flat and empty.

Nothing demarcates or divides the smooth expanse of

water dissolving into the horizon. This vast, unrough-

ened surface, this breadth of uniform sea, deceives. But

for a few lonely oceanic islands, the unperturbed sur-

face offers no hint of the grand and sweeping energies

hidden below.

Only one thousand miles offshore, the Cramer has

already sailed through some of Atlantic’s deepest

waters. Contrary to what one might guess, Atlantic’s

deepest waters, like those in other oceans, are along her

edges. As we continue east, toward the middle of the

sea, the bottom rises. The unmarked plains of the abyss,

here flattened by layers of sediment, give way to rising

foothills and then to mountains. The first maps of

Atlantic seafloor noted, albeit crudely, this rise. Early

efforts to plumb Atlantic’s depths proved outrageously

inaccurate: one naval officer paid out eight miles (thir-

teen kilometers) of hemp rope from a drifting ship and

concluded the sea had no bottom. Eventually, sailors

more or less successfully calculated depth by heaving

overboard cannonballs tied to bailing twine. When they

hit bottom, the sailors measured and snipped the twine

and then moved on, leaving a trail of lead strung out

across the seafloor. These crude soundings, forming the

basis of the first map of Atlantic’s basin, published in

1854, identified a prominent rise halfway between

Europe and America.

For many years no one could explain why the

basin of Atlantic, unlike a bowl, deepened at its edges

and shoaled in its center. People assumed that this

“Middle Ground,” “Telegraph Plateau,” or “Dolphin

Rise,” as it was variously called, was an ancient and

drowned land bridge, or a lost continent, but sailors

repairing transatlantic telegraph cable unknowingly

produced evidence to prove otherwise. Wrestling with

the broken cable, they accidentally twisted off a piece

of the “plateau” and dredged up a twenty-one-pound

(ten-kilogram) chunk of dense black volcanic rock. It

was some of the youngest, freshest rock on earth, and it

was torn not from a piece of continent sunk beneath the

waves, but from the very foundation of the sea.

Today, highly sophisticated sound waves bring the

hazy images of those early soundings into sharp focus,

revealing that one of the largest and most salient geo-

graphic features on the planet lies on the floor of the

ocean. Hidden beneath the waves is an immense sub-

merged mountain range, the backbone of the sea. More

extensive, rugged, and imposing than the Andes, Rock-

ies, or Himalayas, it covers almost as much of earth’s

surface as the dry land of continents. Winding like the

seam of a baseball, it circles the planet in a long, sinu-

ous path, running the entire length of Atlantic, slashing

the basin neatly in two. Its mountains are stark and

black, as black as the sea itself, lit only at their peaks

by a thin, patchy covering of white, the skeletal remains

of tiny microscopic animals that once lived at the sur-

face. Peaks as high as Mount St. Helens sit in a watery

world of blackness, more than a mile below the surface,

beyond the reach of light, beyond the sight of sailors.

A great valley, eclipsing any comparable feature

on dry land, runs through these mountains. Arizona’s

Grand Canyon, one of earth’s most spectacular places,

extends for about 280 miles (450 kilometers). A lesser-

known canyon of similar depth but considerably greater

length lies hidden in the mountains of the ridge.

Although offset in many places by breaks in the moun-

tains, the rift valley, as the canyon is called, extends the

length of Atlantic for 11,000 miles (17,700 kilometers).

Here in this bleak and forbidding place, where the

water is almost freezing, subterranean fires have lifted

mounds of fresh lava onto the seafloor. Scientists visit-

ing the rift valley for the first time named the volcanic

hills in this otherworldly setting after distant, lifeless

planets.

Yet, what had seemed so foreign to scientists is an

integral part of earth’s very being, for at the ridge our

own planet gives birth. The floor of the rift valley is

torn; from the gashes has sprung the seafloor underly-

ing all of Atlantic. Here the youngest, newest pieces are

made. Earth is still cooling from her tumultuous birth

four and a half billion years ago. Heat, leaking from the

molten core and from radioactive decay deep inside the

planet, rises toward earth’s surface, powering the volca-

noes that deliver the ridge to the sea.

11. The author’s attitude toward the main subject of the

passage can best be described as:

A. awe and fascination.

B. disbelief and cynicism.

C. amusement and nostalgia.

D. boredom and indifference.

12. The passage makes clear that “Middle Ground,” “Tele-

graph Plateau,” and “Dolphin Rise” were names that

people gave to what was actually:

F. an island in Atlantic.

G. a transatlantic telegraph cable.

H. an ancient and drowned land bridge.

J. the immense mountain range in Atlantic’s basin.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

13. In the first paragraph, the author describes the stillness

of the Sargasso Sea as the Cramer passes through it

primarily to emphasize that the stillness:

A. won’t last long, for the sea will become rough

when the wind rises.

B. makes it easy for a passenger on the Cramer to

spot oceanic islands that break the water’s surface.

C. is in dramatic contrast to the power of what exists

on and under the seafloor far below.

D. makes it seem as if the Cramer’s wake is dividing

the unbroken expanse of water into two.

14. The passage states that compared to Arizona’s Grand

Canyon, the canyon that lies within the mountains in

Atlantic’s basin is considerably:

F. deeper.

G. older.

H. wider.

J. longer.

15. The main purpose of the information in lines 71–76 is

to:

A. describe in detail scientists’ expectations for their

first trip to the rift valley.

B. characterize the rift valley as an alien, seemingly

barren place.

C. provide statistics about several geographic proper-

ties of the rift valley.

D. list the names that scientists gave to the volcanic

hills in the rift valley.

16. One of the main purposes of the last paragraph is to

state that the:

F. gashes in the rift valley continue to increase in

width.

G. seafloor of Atlantic has cooled.

H. entire Atlantic seafloor has issued from the gashes

in the rift valley.

J. volcanoes on Earth’s dry land have created the

newest, youngest pieces of Atlantic seafloor.

17. The author most strongly implies that people com-

monly assume the deepest waters of an ocean are:

A. about one thousand miles offshore.

B. at the middle of the ocean.

C. dotted with islands.

D. located in trenches.

18. As it is used in line 19, the phrase paid out most nearly

means:

F. dispensed.

G. ascertained.

H. suggested.

J. compensated.

19. According to the passage, the mountain range in

Atlantic’s basin covers nearly the same amount of

Earth’s surface as does:

A. Mount St. Helens.

B. the Himalayas.

C. the Pacific Ocean.

D. the dry land of continents.

20. According to the passage, the white cover on the peaks

of the mountains in Atlantic’s basin is:

F. skeletal remains of microscopic animals.

G. thin layers of sedimentary volcanic ash.

H. patches of ice.

J. salt deposits.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage III

HUMANITIES: Passage A is adapted from the essay “Just This

which is the introduction to a later edition of Bradbury’s 1957

novel Dandelion Wine. Passage B is adapted from Dandelion

Passage A by Ray Bradbury

I began to learn the nature of surprises, thankfully,

when I was fairly young as a writer. Before that, like

every beginner, I thought you could beat, pummel, and

thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of

course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its

back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies.

It was with great relief, then, that in my early

twenties I floundered into a word-association process in

which I simply got out of bed each morning, walked to

my desk, and put down any word or series of words that

happened along in my head.

I would then take arms against the word, or for it,

and bring on an assortment of characters to weigh the

word and show me its meaning in my own life. An hour

or two hours later, to my amazement, a new story

would be finished and done. The surprise was total and

lovely. I soon found that I would have to work this way

for the rest of my life.

First I rummaged my mind for words that could

describe my personal nightmares, fears of night and

time from my childhood, and shaped stories from these.

Then I took a long look at the green apple trees

and the old house I was born in and the house next door

where lived my grandparents, and all the lawns of the

summers I grew up in, and I began to try words for all

that.

I had to send myself back, with words as catalysts,

to open the memories out and see what they had to

offer.

So from the age of twenty-four to thirty-six hardly

a day passed when I didn’t stroll myself across a recol-

lection of my grandparents’ northern Illinois grass,

hoping to come across some old half-burnt firecracker,

a rusted toy, or a fragment of letter written to myself in

some young year hoping to contact the older person I

became to remind him of his past, his life, his people,

his joys, and his drenching sorrows.

Along the way I came upon and collided, through

word-association, with old and true friendships. I bor-

rowed my friend John Huff from my childhood in Ari-

zona and shipped him East to Green Town so that I

could say good-bye to him properly.

Along the way, I sat me down to breakfasts,

lunches, and dinners with the long dead and much

loved.

Thus I fell into surprise. I came on the old and best

ways of writing through ignorance and experiment and

was startled when truths leaped out of bushes like quail

before gunshot. I blundered into creativity as any child

learning to walk and see. I learned to let my senses and

my Past tell me all that was somehow true.

Passage B by Ray Bradbury

The facts about John Huff, aged twelve, are simple

and soon stated. He could pathfind more trails than

anyone since time began, could leap from the sky like a

chimpanzee from a vine, could live underwater two

minutes and slide fifty yards downstream from where

you last saw him. The baseballs you pitched him he hit

in the apple trees, knocking down harvests. He ran

laughing. He sat easy. He was not a bully. He was kind.

He knew the names of all the wild flowers and when

the moon would rise and set. He was, in fact, the only

god living in the whole of Green Town, Illinois, during

the twentieth century that Douglas Spaulding knew of.

And right now he and Douglas were hiking out

beyond town on another warm and marble-round day,

the sky blue blown-glass reaching high, the creeks

bright with mirror waters fanning over white stones. It

was a day as perfect as the flame of a candle.

Douglas walked through it thinking it would go on

this way forever. The sound of a good friend whistling

like an oriole, pegging the softball, as you horse-

danced, key-jingled the dusty paths; things were at

hand and would remain.

It was such a fine day and then suddenly a cloud

crossed the sky, covered the sun, and did not move

again.

John Huff had been speaking quietly for several

minutes. Now Douglas stopped on the path and looked

over at him.

“John, say that again.”

“You heard me the first time, Doug.”

“Did you say you were—going away?”

John took a yellow and green train ticket solemnly

from his pocket and they both looked at it.

“Tonight!” said Douglas. “My gosh! Tonight we

were going to play Red Light, Green Light and Statues!

How come, all of a sudden? You been here in Green

Town all my life. You just don’t pick up and leave!”

“It’s my father,” said John. “He’s got a job in Mil-

waukee. We weren’t sure until today ... ”

They sat under an old oak tree on the side of the

hill looking back at town. Out beyond, in sunlight, the

town was painted with heat, the windows all gaping.

Douglas wanted to run back in there where the town, by

its very weight, its houses, their bulk, might enclose

and prevent John’s ever getting up and running off.

21. When Bradbury claims, “Thus I fell into surprise”

(line 46), he’s most nearly referring to the:

A. discovery that for him the secret to a creative out-

pouring was to use a word-association method to

write fiction.

B. long-forgotten experiences he would remember

when he would talk with his childhood friends in

person.

C. realization that he wrote more effectively about his

current experiences than about his past.

D. several methods other writers taught him to help

him write honest, authentic stories.

22. Passage A indicates that Bradbury believes all begin-

ning writers think that they can:

F. learn the nature of surprises.

G. force an idea into creation.

H. use one word as a catalyst for a story.

J. become a good writer through experiment.

23. Bradbury’s claim “I would then take arms against the

word, or for it” (line 12) most strongly suggests that

during his writing sessions, Bradbury would:

A. attempt to find the one word that for him was the

key to understanding John Huff.

B. often reject a word as not being a catalyst for

meaningful writing.

C. deliberately choose to write only about a word that

inspired his fears.

D. feel as though he were struggling to find a word’s

significance to him.

24. In the seventh paragraph of Passage A (lines 30–37),

Bradbury explains his habit, over many years as a

writer, of almost daily:

F. looking at and writing about objects from his

childhood that he had saved.

G. wishing he had kept more letters from his child-

hood to trigger his memories.

H. driving past his grandparents’ property, hoping to

notice something that would remind him of his

past.

J. thinking about his grandparents’ property, hoping

to remember something that would bring his past

into focus.

25. Passage A explains that when writing about the charac-

ter John Huff, Bradbury had:

A. placed John in a town in Arizona, where Bradbury

himself had grown up.

B. included John in stories about a town in Arizona

and in stories about Green Town.

C. “moved” John to a town other than the town in

which the real-life John Huff had grown up.

D. “borrowed” John to use as a minor character in

many of his stories.

26. In the first paragraph of Passage B (lines 52–63), the

narrator describes John Huff in a manner that:

F. emphasizes John’s physical strength and intelli-

gence, to indicate John’s view of himself.

G. exaggerates John’s characteristics and actions, to

reflect Douglas’s idolization of John.

H. highlights John’s reckless behavior, to show that

Douglas was most fond of John’s rebelliousness.

J. showcases John’s talents, to make clear why both

children and adults admired John.

27. Within Passage B, the image in lines 74–76 functions

figuratively to suggest that:

A. John’s leaving on a stormy night was fitting, given

Douglas’s sadness.

B. John’s disappointment about moving was reflected

in his mood all day.

C. the mood of the day changed dramatically and

irreversibly once John shared his news.

D. the sky in Green Town became cloudy at the

moment John told Douglas he was moving.

28. Both Passage A and Passage B highlight Bradbury’s

use of:

F. a first person omniscient narrator to tell a story.

G. satire and irony to develop characters.

H. allegory to present a complex philosophical

question.

J. sensory details and imaginative description to

convey ideas.

29. Based on Bradbury’s description in Passage A of his

writing process, which of the following methods hypo-

thetically depicts a way Bradbury might have begun to

write the story in Passage B?

A. Taking notes while interviewing old friends after

first deciding to write a story about two boys

B. Forming two characters, determining that he

would like to tell a story about loss, and then

beginning to write a scene

C. Writing down the words train ticket and then

spending an hour writing whatever those words

brought to his mind

D. Outlining the plot of a story about two boys that

would end with one boy leaving on a train

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Questions 21–25 ask about Passage A. Questions 26 and 27 ask about Passage B.

Questions 28–30 ask about both passages.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

30. Elsewhere in the essay from which Passage A is

adapted, Bradbury writes:

Was there a real boy named John Huff?

There was. And that was truly his name. But

he didn’t go away from me, I went away from

him.

How do these statements apply to both the information

about Bradbury’s approach as a storyteller provided in

Passage A and the story of John Huff provided in Pas-

sage B?

F. They reveal that Bradbury believed that to surprise

readers is a fiction writer’s most important task.

G. They reinforce that Bradbury used his life experi-

ences to create fiction but also altered those expe-

riences as he pleased.

H. They prove that Bradbury felt such pain over leav-

ing John that he had to reverse events to be able to

write the story.

J. They indicate that Bradbury rarely used his life

experiences to create fiction.

Passage IV

NATURAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from the article

History Magazine, Inc.).

Recently I was reminded of just how powerful ants

can be when inflicting damage on intruders. A team of

biomechanists has studied the incredibly speedy bite of

a group of Central and South American ants. The team

clocked the bite as the fastest on the planet—and dis-

covered that it also gives the ants the unique ability to

jump with their jaws, adding to an impressive array of

already known defenses.

Trap-jaw ants nest in leaf litter, rather than under-

ground or in mounds. There they often feed on well-

armored and elusive prey, including other species of

ants. As they stalk their dinner, the trap-jaws hold their

mandibles wide apart, often cocked open at 180 degrees

or more by a latch mechanism. When minute trigger

hairs on the inner edge of the mandible come in contact

with something, the jaws snap shut at speeds now

known to reach 145 miles per hour. No passerby could

outrace that. The astoundingly high speed gives the

jaws, despite their light weight, enough force to crack

open the armor of most prey and get at the tasty meat

inside.

The key to the jaws’ speed (and their even more

amazing acceleration) is that the release comes from

stored energy produced by the strong but slow muscles

of the jaw. Think how an archer slowly draws an arrow

in a bowstring against the flex of a bow: nearly all the

energy from the archer’s muscles pours into the flexing

of the bow. When released, the energy stored in the bow

wings the arrow toward its target much faster than the

archer could by throwing the arrow like a javelin. The

biomechanics of energy storage is the domain of Sheila

N. Patek and Joseph E. Baio, both biomechanists at the

University of California, Berkeley. They teamed up

with two ant experts, Brian L. Fisher of the California

Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and Andrew V.

Suarez of the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign, to look at the trap-jaw ant Odontomachus

bauri.

Fisher, Suarez, and other field biologists had

already noted that catching O. bauri was like grabbing

for popping popcorn—and very hot popcorn at that,

because a painful sting goes with an ant’s trap-jaw bite.

The insects bounced around in a dizzying frenzy and

propelled themselves many times their body length

when biologists or smaller intruders approached them.

Patek and Baio made high-speed video images of their

movements, and discovered that the secret of their self-

propulsion was the well-executed “firing” of their

mandibles. They also observed that mandibles started to

decelerate before they meet—possibly to avoid self-

inflicted damage. Most important, the ants had two dis-

tinct modes of aerial locomotion.

In the so-called escape jump, an ant orients its

head and jaws perpendicular to the ground, then slams

its face straight down. That triggers the cocked

mandibles to release with a force 400 times the ant’s

body weight, launching the insect ten or more body

lengths nearly straight into the air. The ant doesn’t

seem to go in any particular direction, but the jump is

presumably fast and unpredictable enough to help the

insect evade, say, the probing tongue of a lizard. Not

only can the jumping ant gain height and sow confu-

sion, but it may also get to a new vantage point from

which to relaunch an attack.

The second kind of jaw-propelled locomotion is

even more common than escape jumping. If an intruder

enters the ants’ nest, one of the ants bangs its jaws

against the intruder, which triggers the trap-jaw and

propels the interloper (if small enough) in one direc-

tion, out of the nest, and the ant in the other. Often the

force sends the ant skimming an inch off the ground for

nearly a foot. The attack, for obvious reasons, is known

as the “bouncer defense.” In the wild, gangs of defend-

ing ants team up to attack hostile strangers, sending

them head over heels out of the nest.

From an evolutionary point of view, the trap-jaws

are an intriguing story. The ants clearly evolved an

entirely new function, propulsion, for a system that was

already useful—chewing up prey. Several lineages of

trap-jaw ants have independently hit on the tactic of

storing energy in their jaws to penetrate well-defended

prey. In Odontomachus, the horizontal, bouncer-

defense jump could have arisen out of attempts to bite

intruders, but the high, escape jump—with jaws aimed

directly at the ground—must have arisen from a differ-

ent, perhaps accidental kind of behavior. Such a

serendipitous event would have been a rare instance in

which banging one’s head against the ground got good

results.

ACT-1572CPRE

31. The primary purpose of the passage is to:

A. provide an overview of the mechanics and key

operations of the jaws of trap-jaw ants.

B. analyze Patek and Baio’s techniques for filming

two defensive maneuvers of trap-jaw ants.

C. compare the jaws of Odontomachus bauri to the

jaws of other species of ants.

D. describe the evolution of the ability of trap-jaw

ants to perform an escape jump.

32. The sentence in lines 73–75 and the last sentence of

the passage are examples of the author’s rhetorical

technique of:

F. weaving sarcasm into a mostly casual and playful

article.

G. interjecting a lighthearted tone into a primarily

technical article.

H. integrating a slightly combative tone into an arti-

cle that mostly praises two scientists’ work.

J. incorporating personal anecdotes into an article

that mostly reports data.

33. As it is used in lines 81–82, the phrase well-defended

prey most nearly refers to prey that:

A. have a hard outer shell.

B. attack with a lethal bite.

C. travel and attack in groups.

D. move quickly.

34. The passage makes clear that the main source of the

speed of the jaws of the trap-jaw ant is the:

F. ease of movement of the hinge of the jaw.

G. continuous, steady firing of the jaw’s mandibles.

H. light weight of the jaw in relation to the ant’s body

weight.

J. release of energy stored by muscles of the jaw.

35. The author uses the analogy of trying to grab popcorn

as it pops in order to describe the trap-jaw ants’ ability

to:

A. generate heat with their jaw movements.

B. move to high ground in order to attack prey.

C. attack intruders by tossing them out of the nest.

D. bounce around frantically when intruders approach.

36. One main purpose of the last paragraph is to suggest

that unlike their bouncer-defense jump, the trap-jaw

ants’ escape jump may have arisen through:

F. the ants’ trying and failing to bite intruders.

G. a change in the structure of the mandibles of sev-

eral lineages of ants.

H. an accidental behavior of the ants.

J. the ants’ experiencing a positive outcome when

they would attack in a large group.

37. As it is used in line 31, the word domain most nearly

means:

A. living space.

B. area of expertise.

C. taxonomic category.

D. local jurisdiction.

38. The passage points to which of the following as a char-

acteristic of trap-jaw ants’ mandibles that prevents the

ants from harming themselves with their powerful

bite?

F. A hinge prevents the mandibles from snapping

together forcefully.

G. Mandibles with cushioned inner edges provide a

buffer when the mandibles snap shut.

H. A latch mechanism prevents the mandibles from

closing completely.

J. The mandibles begin to decelerate before they

meet.

39. As described in the passage, one benefit of the trap-

jaw ant’s escape jump is that it allows an ant to:

A. land in position to launch a new attack on a

predator.

B. confuse a predator with a quick, sudden sting.

C. signal to other ants using a predictable movement.

D. point itself in whichever direction it chooses to

escape.

40. When a trap-jaw ant uses the bouncer-defense jump

effectively on an intruder, which creature(s), if any,

will be propelled either out of the nest or in another

direction?

F. The intruder only

G. The attacking ant only

H. The attacking ant and the intruder

J. Neither the attacking ant nor the intruder

END OF TEST 3

STOP! DO

NOT TURN THE PAGE UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

DO NOT RETURN TO A PREVIOUS TEST.

Passage I

Researchers studied how diet and the ability to smell

food can affect the life span of normal fruit flies (StrainN)

and fruit flies unable to detect many odors (StrainX).

Study 1

Three tubes (Tubes 1−3), each with 15% sugar yeast

(SY) medium (a diet with 15%sugar and 15%killed yeast),

were prepared. Then, 200virgin female StrainN fruit flies

less than 24 hr old were added to each tube. No additional

substance was added to Tube 1. Additional odors from live

yeast were added to Tube 2, and live yeast was added to

Tube 3. The percent of fruit flies alive was determined

every 5days for 75days (see Figure1).

Figure 1

Study 2

Three tubes (Tubes4−6), each with 5% SYmedium (a

diet with 5% sugar and 5% killed yeast), were prepared.

Then, 200 virgin female Strain N fruit flies less than 24 hr

old were added to each tube. No additional substance was

added to Tube 4. Additional odors from live yeast were

added to Tube 5, and live yeast was added to Tube 6. The

percent of fruit flies alive was determined every 5 days for

75days (see Figure2).

Figure 2

days

percent alive

100

65605550454035302520151050 70 7

15% SY medium

15% SY medium + additional odors from live yeast

15% SY medium + live yeast

Key

days

percent alive

100

65605550454035302520151050 70 7

Key

5% SY medium

5% SY medium + additional odors from live yeast

5% SY medium + live yeast

SCIENCE TEST

35 Minutes—40 Questions

DIRECTIONS: There are several passages in this test.

Each passage is followed by several questions. After

reading a passage, choose the best answer to each

question and ﬁll in the corresponding oval on your

answer document. You may refer to the passages as

often as necessary.

You are NOT permitted to use a calculator on this test.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Study 3

Strain N fruit flies were modified to produce Strain X

fruit flies. Strain X fruit flies lack O

83b (a protein

required to detect a wide range of odors); therefore, they

cannot detect many odors. The average life span was deter-

mined for virgin female Strain N and virgin female

Strain X fruit flies fed with various SY media (see

Table1).

Table and gures adapted from Sergiy Libert et al., “Regulation of

by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

1. In which of Studies1 and2 did some of the fruit flies

live for more than 75 days, and what diet were those

fruit flies fed?

A. Study 1; 05% SY medium

B. Study 1; 15% SY medium

C. Study 2; 05% SY medium

D. Study 2; 15% SY medium

2. During Studies1 and2, why did the size of the fruit fly

population in each tube decrease rather than increase?

F. The birthrate was 0, because the initial population

contained only males.

G. The birthrate was 0, because the initial population

contained only virgin females.

H. The death rate was 0, because the initial popula-

tion contained only males.

J. The death rate was 0, because the initial popula-

tion contained only virgin females.

3. Study1 differed from Study 2 in which of the follow-

ing ways?

A. Female fruit flies were tested in Study 1, whereas

male fruit flies were tested in Study2.

B. Male fruit flies were tested in Study 1, whereas

female fruit flies were tested in Study2.

C. The SY medium tested in Study 1 contained a

lower percent of sugar than did the SY medium

tested in Study2.

D. The SY medium tested in Study 1 contained a

higher percent of sugar than did the SY medium

tested in Study2.

4. Suppose that an additional trial in Study 3 had been

performed using a 12% SY medium (a diet with

12% sugar and 12% killed yeast). The average life

span of the Strain X fruit flies in this trial would most

likely have been:

F. less than 55.6 days.

G. between 55.6 days and 58.6 days.

H. between 58.6 days and 61.6 days.

J. greater than 61.6 days.

5. The researchers had predicted that decreasing a fruit

fly’s ability to detect odors would increase its life

span. Are the results of Study 3 consistent with this

prediction?

A. No; for each SY medium tested, the average life

span of Strain X fruit flies was longer than the

average life span of StrainN fruit flies.

B. No; for each SY medium tested, the average life

span of Strain N fruit flies was longer than the

average life span of StrainX fruit flies.

C. Yes; for each SY medium tested, the average life

span of Strain X fruit flies was longer than the

average life span of StrainN fruit flies.

D. Yes; for each SY medium tested, the average life

span of Strain N fruit flies was longer than the

average life span of StrainX fruit flies.

6. Suppose the researchers wanted to determine whether a

defect in the ability to detect odors would change the

life span of fruit flies fed 15% SY medium when live

yeast is added to the diet or when additional odors

from live yeast are added to the diet. Which of the fol-

lowing experiments should be performed?

F. Repeat Study1 except with StrainX fruit flies

G. Repeat Study1 except with StrainN fruit flies

H. Repeat Study2 except with StrainX fruit flies

J. Repeat Study2 except with StrainN fruit flies

7. The results for which 2 tubes should be compared to

determine how a reduced calorie diet affects life span

in the absence of live yeast and additional odors from

live yeast?

A. Tube 1 and Tube 4

B. Tube 1 and Tube 2

C. Tube 2 and Tube 5

D. Tube 5 and Tube 6

Table 1

Strain

SY medium

Average

life span

(days)% sugar

% killed

yeast

Strain N

030, 030, 50.1

050, 050, 50.1

07.5 07.5 43.9

100, 100, 44.8

150, 150, 41.6

Strain X

030, 030, 61.6

050, 050, 62.5

07.5 07.5 58.9

100, 100, 58.6

150, 150, 55.6

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage II

In the fall, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) in

eastern North America migrate to Mexico, where they

overwinter in high-altitude forests of oyamel fir (an ever-

green conifer). The butterflies store (accumulate) body

lipids to use as a source of energy at a later time. Consider

the following 3 hypotheses pertaining to when the butter-

flies store lipids and when the energy from the stored lipids

is used, with respect to migration and overwintering.

Hypothesis 1

Monarch butterflies require energy from stored lipids

for migration and during the overwintering period. The

butterflies first store lipids before they begin their migra-

tion. During migration, as stored lipids are converted to

energy, lipid mass continuously decreases. When the but-

terflies reach the overwintering sites, ending their migra-

tion, they must store lipids again before beginning the

overwintering period.

Hypothesis 2

Monarch butterflies require energy from stored lipids

for migration but not during the overwintering period. The

butterflies store lipids before they begin their migration.

During migration, as stored lipids are converted to energy,

lipid mass continuously decreases. Because energy from

stored lipids is not required during the overwintering

period, the butterflies do not store lipids while at the over-

wintering sites.

Hypothesis 3

Monarch butterflies require energy from stored lipids

during the overwintering period but not for migration. The

butterflies do not store lipids before they begin their migra-

tion. Instead, lipids are stored during migration; therefore,

lipid mass continuously increases from the beginning of

migration until the end of migration. The butterflies arrive

at the overwintering sites with enough lipids to provide

themselves with energy during the overwintering period, so

they do not store lipids while at the overwintering sites.

8. Which hypothesis, if any, asserts that monarch butter-

flies store lipids during 2 distinct periods?

F. Hypothesis 1

G. Hypothesis 2

H. Hypothesis 3

J. None of the hypotheses

9. Which hypothesis, if any, asserts that monarch butter-

flies require energy from stored lipids neither for

migration nor during the overwintering period?

A. Hypothesis 1

B. Hypothesis 2

C. Hypothesis 3

D. None of the hypotheses

10. Based on Hypothesis3, which of the following figures

best depicts the change in the lipid mass of a monarch

butterfly from the beginning of migration to the end of

migration?

(Note: In each figure, B represents the beginning of

migration and Erepresents the end of migration.)

lipid mass

time

lipid mass

time

lipid mass

time

lipid mass

time

B E

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

11. Assume that changes in the body mass of a monarch

butterfly are caused only by changes in the mass of the

butterfly’s stored lipids. The statement “The percent of

a monarch butterfly’s body mass that is made up of

lipids is greater at the beginning of migration than at

the end of migration” is supported by which of the

hypotheses?

A. Hypothesis 1 only

B. Hypothesis 2 only

C. Hypotheses 1 and 2 only

D. Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3

12. To store lipids, monarch butterflies convert sugar from

nectar they have consumed into lipids. A supporter of

which hypothesis, if any, would be likely to claim that

to ensure the butterflies can store lipids for the over-

wintering period, nectar must be present at the butter-

flies’ overwintering sites?

F. Hypothesis 1

G. Hypothesis 2

H. Hypothesis 3

J. None of the hypotheses

13. Which of the following statements about lipids in

monarch butterflies is consistent with all 3hypotheses?

A. The butterflies’ lipid masses do not change during

the overwintering period.

B. The butterflies’ lipid masses change during

migration.

C. The butterflies use energy from stored lipids

during the overwintering period.

D. The butterflies use energy from stored lipids for

migration.

14. When the monarch butterflies use their stored lipids,

the lipids must be broken down to produce energy-rich

molecules that can be readily used by cells. Which of

the following molecules is produced as a direct result

of the breakdown of the lipids?

F. ATP

G. Starch

H. DNA

J. Amino acids

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage III

Greenhouse gases such as methane (CH

) warm

Earth’s climate. Figure 1 shows the concentration of CH

in Earth’s atmosphere and the solar radiation intensity at

Earth’s surface for tropical Europe and Asia over the past

250,000 years. As the figure shows, the CH

concentration

and the solar radiation intensity have increased and

decreased at the same times over most of this period.

Figure2 shows the same types of data for the same region

over the past 11,000 years. This figure is consistent with

the hypothesis that the greenhouse gases from human

activities may have begun warming Earth’s climate thou-

sands of years earlier than once thought.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Figure 1

solar radiation intensity

(watts/m

)

concentration of CH

Earth’s atmosphere (ppb*)

540

520

500

480

460

440

900

800

700

600

500

400

300

200

thousands of years ago

250 200 150 100 50 0

(present)

solar radiation

concentration

Key

*ppb

parts per billion

Figure 2

Figures adapted from William Ruddiman, Plows, Plagues & Petro-

15. According to Figure 2, the solar radiation intensity

8,000years ago was closest to which of the following?

A. 490watts/m

B. 495watts/m

C. 500watts/m

D. 505watts/m

16. According to Figure 2, if the trend in the CH

concen-

tration had continued to match the trend in the solar

radiation intensity, the CH

concentration at present

would most likely be:

F. less than 550ppb.

G. between 550ppb and 600ppb.

H. between 600ppb and 650ppb.

J. greater than 650ppb.

17. Suppose that whenever the CH

concentration

increases, a corresponding, immediate increase in

average global temperature occurs, and that whenever

the CH

concentration decreases, a corresponding,

immediate decrease in average global temperature

occurs. Based on Figure 2, which of the following

graphs best represents a plot of average global temper-

ature over the past 11,000years?

18. Based on Figure1, the average solar radiation intensity

over the past 250,000years was closest to which of the

following?

F. 400watts/m

G. 440watts/m

H. 480watts/m

J. 520watts/m

19. Onesolar radiation cycle is the time between a maxi-

mum in the solar radiation intensity and the next maxi-

mum in the solar radiation intensity. According to

Figure 1, the average length of a solar radiation cycle

during the past 250,000years was:

A. less than 15,000years.

B. between 15,000years and 35,000years.

C. between 35,000years and 55,000years.

D. greater than 55,000years.

20. Which of the following statements best describes the

primary effect of CH

on Earth’s climate?

F. CH

gives off visible light to space, cooling

Earth’s climate.

G. CH

gives off ultraviolet radiation to space, warm-

ing Earth’s climate.

H. CH

absorbs heat as it enters Earth’s atmosphere

from space, cooling Earth’s climate.

J. CH

absorbs heat that comes up from Earth’s sur-

face, warming Earth’s climate.

solar radiation intensity (watts/m

)

concentration of CH

in Earth’s atmosphere (ppb)

thousands of years ago

solar radiation

concentration

Key

505

500

495

490

485

480

475

10 5

(present)

750

700

650

600

550

500

450

average global

temperature

thousands of

years ago

average global

temperature

thousands of

years ago

average global

temperature

thousands of

years ago

average global

temperature

thousands of

years ago

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage IV

In 2 experiments, a student pulled each of 3 blocks in

a straight line across a flat, horizontal surface.

In Experiment 1, the student measured the pulling

force (the force required to move each block at a constant

speed) and plotted the pulling force, in newtons (N), versus

block mass, in kilograms (kg). The results are shown in

Figure1.

Figure 1

In Experiment 2, the student measured the speed

versus time of a 2.00 kg block, a 2.50 kg block, and a

3.00 kg block as each block was pulled across the surface

with a constant 30 N force. The results are shown in

Figure2.

Figure 2

21. If a block was pulled toward the east, the frictional

force exerted on the block by the surface was directed

toward the:

A. north.

B. south.

C. east.

D. west.

22. Based on Figure 2, what is the order of the 3 blocks,

from the block that required the shortest time to reach

15 m/sec to the block that required the longest time to

reach 15m/sec?

F. 2.00kg block, 2.50kg block, 3.00kg block

G . 2.00kg block, 3.00kg block, 2.50kg block

H . 3.00kg block, 2.00kg block, 2.50kg block

J. 3.00kg block, 2.50kg block, 2.00kg block

23. Based on Figure 2, what was the approximate value of

the acceleration of the 3.00kg block?

A. 00.0m/sec

05.0m/sec

C. 15.0m/sec

D. 20.0m/sec

24. Based on Figure 1, the results of Experiment 1 are best

modeled by which of the following equations?

F. Block speed(m/sec)= 0.2

time(sec)

G. Block speed(m/sec)= 5.0

time(sec)

H. Pulling force(N)= 0.2

block mass(kg)

J. Pulling force(N)= 5.0

block mass(kg)

0.00

10.00

5.00

20.00

25.00

15.00

0.00

block mass (kg)

1.00

1.50

2.50

3.50

0.50

2.00

3.00

4.5

4.00

pulling force (N)

0.00

10.00

5.00

35.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

15.00

0.00

time (sec)

1.00 2.00 3.00

2.50 kg

4.00

speed (m/sec)

3.00 kg

2.00 kg

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

25. At each of the times plotted in Figure 2 (except

0.00sec), as block mass increased, block speed:

A. increased only.

B. decreased only.

C. varied, but with no general trend.

D. remained the same.

26. Based on Figure 1, an applied force of 30.00 N would

most likely have been required to maintain the constant

speed of a block having a mass of:

F. 4.00kg.

G. 5.00kg.

H. 6.00kg.

J. 7.00kg.

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage V

A typical acid-base indicator is a compound that will

be one color over a certain lower pH range but will be a

different color over a certain higher pH range. In the small

range between these pH ranges—the transition range—the

indicator’s color will be an intermediate of its other

2 colors.

Students studied 5 acid-base indicators using colorless

aqueous solutions of different pH and a well plate (a plate

containing a matrix of round depressions—wells—that can

hold small volumes of liquid).

Experiment1

The students added a pH = 0 solution to 5 wells in the

first column of the well plate, then added a pH = 1 solution

to the 5 wells in the next column, and so on, up to pH = 7.

Next, they added a drop of a given indicator (in solution) to

each of the wells in a row, and then repeated this process,

adding a different indicator to each row. The color of the

resulting solution in each well was then recorded in Table 1

(B = blue, G = green, O = orange, P = purple, R = red,

Y= yellow).

Experiment2

Experiment 1 was repeated with solutions that had a

pH of 8 or greater (see Table2).

Experiment3

Students were given 4 solutions (Solutions I−IV) of

unknown pH. The well plate was used to test samples of

each solution with 4 of the 5 indicators (see Table3).

Tables adapted from David R. Lide, ed., CRC Handbook of Chem-

Table 3

Indicator

Color in Solution:

I II III IV

Metanil yellow YYYO

Resorcin blue BBRR

Curcumin RRYY

Indigo carmine BYBB

Table 1

Indicator

Color in solution with a pH of:

01234567

Metanil yellow RROYYYYY

Resorcin blue RRRRRP PB

Curcumin YYYYYYYY

Hessian bordeaux BBBBBBBB

Indigo carmine BBBBBBBB

Table 2

Indicator

Color in solution with a pH of:

8910 11 12 13 14

Metanil yellow YYYYYYY

Resorcin blue BBBBBBB

Curcumin ORRRRRR

Hessian bordeaux BRRRRRR

Indigo carmine BBBBGYY

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

27. One way Experiment 2 differed from Experiment 3

was that in Experiment2:

A. the solutions to which indicators were added were

of known pH.

B. the solutions to which indicators were added were

of unknown pH.

C. metanil yellow was used.

D. metanil yellow was not used.

28. Based on the description of the well plate and how it

was used, the empty well plate would most likely have

been which of the following colors?

F. Black

G. Blue

H. Red

J. White

29. Based on the results of Experiments1 and2, which of

the following is a possible transition range for

curcumin?

A. pH = 3.9 to pH = 7.3

B. pH = 4.2 to pH = 6.6

C. pH = 7.4 to pH = 8.6

D. pH = 8.4 to pH = 9.5

30. A chemist has 2 solutions, one of pH = 1 and one of

pH = 6. Based on the results of Experiments 1 and 2,

could indigo carmine be used to distinguish between

these solutions?

F. No; indigo carmine is blue at both pH = 1 and

pH= 6.

G. No; indigo carmine is blue at pH = 1 and is yellow

at pH= 6.

H. Yes; indigo carmine is blue at both pH = 1 and

pH= 6.

J. Yes; indigo carmine is blue at pH = 1 and is yellow

at pH= 6.

31. The indicator propyl red has a transition range of

pH = 4.6 to pH = 6.8. If propyl red had been included

in Experiments1 and2, it would have produced results

most similar to those produced by which of the

5 indicators?

A. Metanil yellow

B. Resorcin blue

C. Curcumin

D. Indigo carmine

32. A student claimed that Solution III has a pH of 7.3.

Are the results of Experiments 1−3 consistent with this

claim?

F. No, because in Solution III metanil yellow was

yellow.

G. No, because in Solution III resorcin blue was red.

H. Yes, because in Solution III metanil yellow was

yellow.

J. Yes, because in Solution III resorcin blue was red.

33. Based on the results of Experiments 1−3, which of

SolutionsI−IV has the lowest pH?

A. Solution I

B. Solution II

C. Solution III

D. Solution IV

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

Passage VI

Drilling mud (DM) is a suspension of clay particles in

water. When a well is drilled, DM is injected into the hole

to lubricate the drill. After this use, the DM is brought back

up to the surface and then disposed of by spraying it on

adjacent land areas.

A cover of DM on plants and soil can affect the

albedo (proportion of the total incoming solar radiation

that is reflected from a surface), which in turn can affect

the soil temperature. The effect of a cover of DM on the

albedo and the soil temperature of an unsloped, semiarid

grassland area was studied from July 1 to August 9 of a

particular year.

On June 30, 3 plots (Plots 1−3), each 10 m by 40 m,

were established in the grassland area. For all the plots, the

types of vegetation present were the same, as was the den-

sity of the vegetation cover. At the center of each plot, a

soil temperature sensor was buried in the soil at a depth of

2.5 cm. An instrument that measures incoming and

reflected solar radiation was suspended 60 cm above the

center of each plot.

An amount of DM equivalent to 40 cubic meters

per hectare (m

/ha) was then sprayed evenly on Plot 2.

(One hectare equals 10,000 m

.) An amount equivalent to

80 m

/ha was sprayed evenly on Plot 3. No DM was

sprayed on Plot1.

For each plot, the albedo was calculated for each

cloudless day during the study period using measurements

of incoming and reflected solar radiation taken at noon on

those days (see Figure1).

Figure 1

For each plot, the sensor recorded the soil temperature

every 5 sec over the study period. From these data, the

average soil temperature of each plot was determined for

each day (see Figure2).

Figure 2

Figures adapted from Franc

s Zvomuya et al., “Surface Albedo and

Soil Heat Flux Changes Following Drilling Mud Application to a

of America.

34. Albedo was measured at noon because that time of day

is when solar radiation reaching the ground is:

F. 100% reflected.

G. 100% absorbed.

H. least intense.

J. most intense.

35. Why was the study designed so that the 3 plots had the

same types of vegetation present and the same density

of vegetation cover? These conditions ensured that any

variations in albedo and soil temperature would most

likely be attributable only to variations among the

plots in the:

A. amount of DM sprayed.

B. type of soil present.

C. plot area.

D. plot slope.

albedo

0.26

0.24

0.22

0.20

0.18

0.16

0.14

June

July

Aug.

Key

Plot 1

Plot 2

Plot 3

dai l y average soil

t e m pe r ature (°C)

June

July

Aug.

Key

Plot 1

Plot 2

Plot 3

GO ON TO THE NEXT PAGE.

ACT-1572CPRE

36. On one day of the study period, a measurable rainfall

occurred in the study area. The albedo calculated for

the cloudless day just after the rainy day was lower

than the albedo calculated for the cloudless day just

before the rainy day. On which day did a measurable

rainfall most likely occur in the study area?

F. July10

G. July12

H. July26

J. July28

37. For each plot, the number of temperature readings

recorded by the soil temperature sensor every minute

was closest to which of the following?

A. 05

B. 12

C. 50

D. 60

38. According to Figure 1 and the description of the study,

was July20 a cloudless day?

F. No, because albedo data were not collected on that

day.

G. No, because albedo data were collected on that

day.

H. Yes, because albedo data were not collected on

that day.

J. Yes, because albedo data were collected on that

day.

39. According to the results of the study, did the presence

of a cover of DM increase or decrease the albedo, and

did the presence of a cover of DM increase or decrease

the soil temperature?

albedo soil temperature

A. increase increase

B. increase decrease

C. decrease decrease

D. decrease increase

40. Based on Figure 1, on August 3, what percent of

incoming solar radiation was NOT reflected from

Plot2?

F. 20%

G. 40%

H. 60%

J. 80%

END OF TEST 4

STOP! DO NOT RETURN TO ANY OTHER TEST.

[See Note on page 52.]

If you plan to take the ACT with writing, sharpen your pencils and

continue with the writing test on page 53.

If you do not plan to take the ACT with writing, skip to page 56 for

instructions on scoring your multiple-choice tests.

Directions

This is a test of your writing skills. You will have forty (40) minutes to read the prompt, plan your response,

and write an essay in English. Before you begin working, read all material in this test booklet carefully to

understand exactly what you are being asked to do.

You will write your essay on the lined pages in the answer document provided. Your writing on those pages

will be scored. You may use the unlined pages in this test booklet to plan your essay. Your work on these

pages will not be scored.

Your essay will be evaluated based on the evidence it provides of your ability to:

• analyze and evaluate multiple perspectives on a complex issue

• state and develop your own perspective on the issue

• explain and support your ideas with logical reasoning and detailed examples

• clearly and logically organize your ideas in an essay

• effectively communicate your ideas in standard written English

Lay your pencil down immediately when time is called.

DO NOT OPEN THIS BOOKLET UNTIL TOLD TO DO SO.

WRITING TEST

BOOKLET

NOTE: This test material is the condential copyrighted property of

ACT, Inc., and may not be copied, reproduced, sold, or otherwise

transferred without the prior express written permission of ACT, Inc.

Violators of ACT’s copyrights are subject to civil and criminal penalties.

PO Box 168

Iowa City, IA 52243-0168

Y o u r S i g n a t u r e : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

( D o n o t p r i n t . )

P r i n t Y o u r N a m e H e r e : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Y o u r D a t e o f B i r t h :

– –

M o n t h D a y Y e a r

Form 15AA51

You must take the multiple-choice tests before you take the writing test.

Practice Writing Test

Form 15AA51

Public Health and Individual Freedom

Most people want to be healthy, and most people want as much freedom as possible to do the things they

icts

Read and carefully consider these perspectives. Each suggests a particular way of thinking about the

conflict between public health and individual freedom.

Perspective One Perspective Two Perspective Three

to achieve the greatest

good for the greatest

Nothing in society is

more valuable than

freedom. Perhaps

The right to avoid health

risks is a freedom,

Essay Task

Write a uni ed, coherent essay in which you evaluate multiple perspectives on the

con ict between public health and individual freedom. In your essay, be sure to:

• analyze and evaluate the perspectives given

• state and develop your own perspective on the issue

• explain the relationship between your perspective and those given

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of the others, in partial

agreement, or wholly different. Whatever the case, support your ideas with logical

reasoning and detailed, persuasive examples.

Planning Your Essay

Your work on these prewriting pages will not be scored.

Use the space below and on the back cover to generate ideas and plan your essay. You may wish to

consider the following as you think critically about the task:

Strengths and weaknesses of the three given perspectives

• What insights do they offer, and what do they fail to consider?

• Why might they be persuasive to others, or why might they fail to persuade?

Your own knowledge, experience, and values

• What is your perspective on this issue, and what are its strengths and weaknesses?

• How will you support your perspective in your essay?

Note

• For your practice essay, you will need scratch paper to plan your essay and four lined sheets

of paper for your response.

• On test day, you will receive a test booklet with space to plan your essay and four lined

pages on which to write your response.

• Read pages 61–62 for information and instructions on scoring your practice writing test.

Scoring Your Tests

How to Score the

Multiple-Choice Tests

Follow the instructions below and on the following pages to

score your practice multiple-choice tests and review your

performance.

Raw Scores

The number of questions you answered correctly on each

test and in each subscore area is your raw score. Because

there are many forms of the ACT, each with different

questions, some forms will be slightly easier (and some

slightly harder) than others. A raw score of 67 on one form

of the English test, for example, may be about as difficult to

earn as a raw score of 70 on another form of that test.

To compute your raw scores, check your answers with the

scoring keys on pages 57–58. Count the number of correct

answers for each of the four tests and seven subscore

areas, and enter the number in the blanks provided on

those pages. These numbers are your raw scores on the

tests and subscore areas.

Scale Scores

To adjust for the small differences that occur among

different forms of the ACT, the raw scores for tests and

subscore areas are converted into scale scores. Scale

scores are printed on the reports sent to you and your

college and scholarship choices.

When your raw scores are converted into scale scores, it

becomes possible to compare your scores with those of

examinees who took different test forms. For example, a

scale score of 26 on the English test has the same meaning

regardless of the form of the ACT on which it is based.

To determine the scale scores corresponding to your

raw scores on the practice test, use the tables explaining

procedures used to obtain scale scores from raw scores on

pages 59–60. Table 1 on page 59 shows the raw-to-scale

score conversions for each test, and Table 2 on page 60

shows the raw-to-scale score conversions for the subscore

areas. Because each form of the ACT is unique, each form

has somewhat different conversion tables. Consequently,

these tables provide only approximations of the raw-to-scale

score conversions that would apply if a different form of the

ACT were taken. Therefore, the scale scores obtained from

the practice tests don’t match precisely the scale scores

received from an actual administration of the ACT.

Computing the Composite Score

The Composite score is the average of the four scale scores

in English, mathematics, reading, and science. If you left any

of these tests blank, do not calculate a Composite score.

If you take the ACT with writing, your writing results do not

affect your Composite score.

Comparing Your Scores

Information about comparing your scores on the practice

multiple-choice tests with the scores of recent high school

graduates who took the ACT can be found at

www.actstudent.org.

Your scores and percent at or below are only estimates of the

scores that you will receive during an actual administration

of the ACT. Test scores are only one indicator of your level

of learning. Consider your scores in connection with your

grades, your performance in outside activities, and your

career interests.

ACT College and Career Readiness Standards

The ACT College and Career Readiness Standards

describe the types of skills, strategies, and understandings

you will need to make a successful transition from high

school to college. For English, mathematics, reading,

and science, standards are provided for six score ranges

that reflect the progression andcomplexity of the skills in

each of the academic areas measured by the ACT tests.

Forwriting, standards are provided for five score ranges.

The ACT College and Career Readiness Standards and

benchmark scores for each test can be found at

www.act.org.

Reviewing Your

Performance on the Practice

Multiple-Choice Tests

Consider the following as you review your scores.

• Did you run out of time? Reread the information in this

booklet on pacing yourself. You may need to adjust the

way you use your time in responding to the questions.

• Did you spend too much time trying to understand the

directions for the tests? The directions for the practice

tests are the same directions that will appear in your test

booklet on test day. Make sure you understand them

before test day.

•

Review the questions that you missed. Did you select a

response that was an incomplete answer or that did not

directly respond to the question being asked? Try to figure

out what you overlooked in answering the questions.

• Did a particular type of question confuse you? Did the

questions you missed come from a particular subscore

area? In reviewing your responses, check to see whether

a particular type of question or a particular subscore

area was more difficult for you.

ubscore

Area*

Key EA AG GT

1. D ___

2. H ___

3. E ___

4. F ___

5. E ___

6. H ___

7. E ___

8. H ___

9. A ___

10. K ___

11. C ___

12. K ___

13. B ___

14. H ___

15. B ___

16. H ___

17. D ___

18. F ___

19. D ___

20. F ___

21. B ___

22. H ___

23. A ___

24. H ___

25. B ___

26. G ___

27. E ___

28. H ___

29. C ___

30. G ___

Subscore

Area*

Key EA AG GT

31. D ___

32. K ___

33. B ___

34. H ___

35. D ___

36. J ___

37. A ___

38. F ___

39. B ___

40. F ___

41. E ___

42. K ___

43. D ___

44. G ___

45. D ___

46. J ___

47. B ___

48. G ___

49. A ___

50. F ___

51. E ___

52. H ___

53. B ___

54. K ___

55. E ___

56. K ___

57. A ___

58. K ___

59. E ___

60. J ___

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Pre-Alg./Elem. Alg. (EA) Subscore Area _______

(27)

Inter. Alg./Coord. Geo. (AG) Subscore Area _______

(19)

Plane Geo./Trig. (GT) Subscore Area _______

(14)

Total Number Correct for Math Test _______

(EA + AG + GT) (60)

*EA = Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra

AG = Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry

GT = Plane Geometry/Trigonometry 1572CPRE

Scoring Keys for the ACT Practice Tests

Use the scoring key for each test to score your answer document for the multiple-choice tests. Mark a “1” in the

blank for each question you answered correctly. Add up the numbers in each subscore area and enter the total

number correct for each subscore area in the blanks provided. Also enter the total number correct for each test in

the blanks provided. The total number correct for each test is the su

m of the number correct in each subscore area.

Test 1: English—Scoring Key Test 2: Mathematics—Scoring Key

Subscore

Area*

Key UM RH

1. A ___

2. J ___

3. D ___

4. H ___

5. B ___

6. J ___

7. B ___

8. J ___

9. C ___

10. J ___

11. B ___

12. G ___

13. A ___

14. H ___

15. D ___

16. H ___

17. B ___

18. J ___

19. C ___

20. H ___

21. A ___

22. F ___

23. B ___

24. H ___

25. C ___

26. F ___

27. D ___

28. G ___

29. A ___

30. F ___

31. B ___

32. H ___

33. B ___

34. H ___

35. A ___

36. F ___

37. A ___

38. F ___

Subscore

Area*

Key UM RH

39. C ___

40. J ___

41. C ___

42. G ___

43. D ___

44. J ___

45. C ___

46. J ___

47. D ___

48. H ___

49. B ___

50. F ___

51. D ___

52. J ___

53. A ___

54. F ___

55. B ___

56. G ___

57. C ___

58. F ___

59. D ___

60. G ___

61. C ___

62. G ___

63. D ___

64. F ___

65. C ___

66. H ___

67. D ___

68. G ___

69. D ___

70. J ___

71. A ___

72. F ___

73. B ___

74. H ___

75. D ___

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Usage/Mechanics (UM) Subscore Area _______

(40)

Rhetorical Skills (RH) Subscore Area _______

(35)

Total Number Correct for English Test _______

(UM + RH) (75)

*UM = Usage/Mechanics

RH = Rhetorical Skills 1572CPRE

5858

est 3: Reading—Scoring Key

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Social Studies/Sciences (SS) _______

Subscore Area (20)

Arts/Literature (AL) Subscore Area _______

(20)

Total Number Correct for Reading Test _______

(SS + AL) (40)

Test 4: Science—Scoring Key

Number Correct (Raw Score) for:

Total Number Correct for Science Test _______

(40)

Subscore

Area*

Key SS AL

1. A ___

2. J ___

3. C ___

4. H ___

5. B ___

6. J ___

7. A ___

8. H ___

9. B ___

10. J ___

11. A ___

12. J ___

13. C ___

14. J ___

15. B ___

16. H ___

17. B ___

18. F ___

19. D ___

20. F ___

Subscore

Area*

Key SS AL

21. A ___

22. G ___

23. D ___

24. J ___

25. C ___

26. G ___

27. C ___

28. J ___

29. C ___

30. G ___

31. A ___

32. G ___

33. A ___

34. J ___

35. D ___

36. H ___

37. B ___

38. J ___

39. A ___

40. H ___

*SS = Social Studies/Sciences

AL = Arts/Literature 1572CPRE

Key

1. C ___

2. G ___

3. D ___

4. G ___

5. C ___

6. F ___

7. A ___

8. F ___

9. D ___

10. J ___

11. C ___

12. F ___

13. B ___

14. F ___

15. C ___

16. F ___

17. B ___

18. H ___

19. B ___

20. J ___

Key

21. D ___

22. F ___

23. B ___

24. J ___

25. B ___

26. H ___

27. A ___

28. J ___

29. C ___

30. F ___

31. B ___

32. G ___

33. D ___

34. J ___

35. A ___

36. H ___

37. B ___

38. F ___

39. D ___

40. J ___

1572CPRE

TABLE 1

Expl anation of Procedures Used to Obtain Scale Scores from Raw Scores

On each of the four multiple-choice tests on which you

marked any responses, the total number of correct

responses yields a raw score. Use the table below to convert

your raw scores to scale scores. For each test, locate and

circle your raw score or the range of raw scores that includes

it in the table below. Then, read across

to either outside

column of the table and circle the scale score that

corresponds to that raw score. As you determine your scale

scores, enter them in the blanks provided on the right. The

highest possible scale score for each test is 36. The lowest

possible scale score for any test on which you marked any

responses is 1.

Next, compute the Composite score by averaging the four

scale scores. To do this, ad

d your four scale scores and

divide the sum by 4. If the resulting number ends in a

fraction, round it to the nearest whole number. (Round down

any fraction less than one-half; round up any fraction that is

one-half or more.) Enter this number in the blank. This is your

Composite score. The highest possible Composite score is

36. The lowest possible Composite score is 1.

ACT Test 1572CPRE Your Scale Score

English ________

Mathematics ________

Reading ________

Science ________

Sum of scores ________

Composite score (sum ÷ 4) ________

Writing ________

NOTE: If you left a test completely blank and marked no

items, do not list a scale score for that test. If any test was

completely blank, do not calculate a Composite score.

To calculate your writing score, use the rubric on

pages 61–62.

1572CPRE

Scale

Score

Raw Scores

Scale

Score

Test 1

English

Test 2

Mathematics

Test 3

Reading

est 4

Science Writing

72-74

68-69

63-64

60-61

58-59

56-57

53-55

51-52

48-50

45-47

43-44

41-42

39-40

36-38

32-35

29-31

27-28

25-26

23-24

20-22

18-19

15-17

12-14

10-11

8-9

6-7

4-5

2-3

0-1

58-59

55-56

52-53

50-51

48-49

45-47

43-44

40-42

38-39

36-37

34-35

32-33

30-31

27-28

24-26

21-23

17-20

13-16

11-12

08-10

5-6

—

35-36

25-26

22-23

19-2

15-16

12-13

09-10

6-7

—

30-31

28-29

26-27

24-25

22-23

19-20

17-18

14-15

5-6

—

47-48

44-45

42-43

38-39

35-36

29-30

26-27

21-22

—

18-19

—

14-15

—

10-11

—

Explanation of Procedures Used to Obtain

Scale Subscores from Raw Scores

For each of the seven subscore areas, the total number of correct

responses yields a raw score. Use the table below to convert your raw

scores to scale subscores. For each of the seven subscore areas,

locate and circle either the raw score or the range of raw scores that

includes it in the table below. Then, read across to either

outside

column of the table and circle the scale subscore that corresponds to

that raw score. As you determine your scale subscores, enter them in

the blanks provided on the right. The highest possible scale subscore

is 18. The lowest possible scale subscore is 1.

If you left a test completely blank and marked no responses, do not list

any scale subscores for that test.

ACT Test 1572CPRE Your Scale Subscore

English

Usage/Mechanics ________

Rhetorical Skills ________

Mathematics

Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra ________

Algebra/Coord. Geometry ________

Plane Geometry/Trigonometry ________

Reading

Social Studies/Sciences ________

Arts/Literature ________

TABLE 2

1572CPRE

cale

Subscore

Raw Scores

Scale

Subscore

Test 1 English

est 2 Mathematics Test 3 Reading

Usage/

Mechanics

Rhetorical

Skil

Pre-Algebra/

Elem. Algebra

Algebra/

Coord. Geometry

Plane Geometry/

Trigonometry

Social Studies/

Sciences

Arts/

Literature

38-40

36-37

33-34

29-30

27-28

25-26

23-24

20-22

18-19

16-17

13-15

10-12

8-9

5-7

0-4

32-33

29-30

27-28

25-26

22-24

20-21

17-19

15-16

13-14

11-12

09-10

7-8

5-6

2-4

0-1

26-27

24-25

22-23

18-19

15-16

11-12

08-10

6-7

3-4

15-16

12-13

10-11

7-8

4-5

—

12-13

—

17-18

13-14

09-10

5-6

—

19-20

6-7

3-4

How to Score the Writing Test

It is difficult to be objective about one’s own work. However,

it is to your advantage to read your own writing critically, as

doing so can help you grow as a writer and as a reader. It may

also be helpful for you to give your practice essay to another

reader, such as a classmate, parent, or teacher. To rate your

essay, you and your reader(s) should review the guidelines

d sample essays at w w w

act student.org and then use the

scoring rubric below to assign your practice essay a score of

1 (low) through 6 (high) in each of the four writing domains

(Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization,

Language Use).

Scoring Rubric (below)

The rubric presents the standards by which your essay will be

evaluated. Readers will use this rubric to assign your essay

four uni

que scores, one per writing domain. To score your

essay, determine which scorepoint, in each domain, best

describes the features of your writing. Because each domain

receives its own score, the four scores you assign need not be

identical. For example, you may find that your essay exhibits

stronger skill in organization than in the development of ideas.

In this case, you may determine that your essay sh

ould

receive a higher score in Organization than in Development

and Support.

The ACT Writing Test Scoring Rubric

Ideas and Analysis Development and Support Organization Language Use

Score 6:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

effective skill

in writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer generates an

argument that critically

engages with multiple

perspectives on the given

issue. The argument’s

thesis reflects nuance and

precision in thought and

purpose. The argument

establishes and employs an

insightful context for

analysis of the issue and its

perspectives. The analysis

examines implications,

complexities and tensions,

and/or underlying values

and assumptions.

Development of ideas and

support for claims deepen

insight and broaden

context. An integrated line

of skillful reasoning and

illustration effectively

conveys the significance of

the argument. Qualifications

and complications enrich

and bolster ideas and

analysis.

The response exhibits a

skillful organizational

strategy. The response is

unified by a controlling idea

or purpose, and a logical

progression of ideas

increases the effectiveness

of the writer’s argument.

Transitions between and

within paragraphs

strengthen the relationships

among ideas.

The use of language

enhances the argument.

Word choice is skillful and

precise. Sentence

structures are consistently

varied and clear. Stylistic

and register choices,

including voice and tone,

are strategic and effective.

While a few minor errors in

grammar, usage, and

mechanics may be present,

they do not impede

understanding.

Score 5:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

well-developed

skill in

writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer generates an

argument that productively

engages with multiple

perspectives on the given

issue. The argument’s

thesis reflects precision in

thought and purpose. The

argument establishes and

employs a thoughtful

context for analysis of the

issue and its perspectives.

The analysis addresses

implications, complexities

and tensions, and/or

underlying values and

assumptions.

Development of ideas and

support for claims deepen

understanding. A mostly

integrated line of purposeful

reasoning and illustration

capably conveys the

significance of the

argument. Qualifications

and complications enrich

ideas and analysis.

The response exhibits a

productive organizational

strategy. The response is

mostly unified by a

controlling idea or purpose,

and a logical sequencing of

ideas contributes to the

effectiveness of the

argument. Transitions

between and within

paragraphs consistently

clarify the relationships

among ideas.

The use of language works

in service of the argument.

Word choice is precise.

Sentence structures are

clear and varied often.

Stylistic and register

choices, including voice

and tone, are purposeful

and productive. While minor

errors in grammar, usage,

and mechanics may be

present, they do not impede

understanding.

Score 4:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

adequate skill

in writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer generates an

argument that engages with

multiple perspectives on the

given issue. The argument’s

thesis reflects clarity in

thought and purpose. The

argument establishes and

employs a relevant context

for analysis of the issue and

its perspectives. The

analysis recognizes

implications, complexities

and tensions, and/or

underlying values and

assumptions.

Development of ideas and

support for claims clarify

meaning and purpose.

Lines of clear reasoning

and illustration adequately

convey the significance of

the argument. Qualifications

and complications extend

ideas and analysis.

The response exhibits a

clear organizational

strategy. The overall shape

of the response reflects an

emergent controlling idea or

purpose. Ideas are logically

grouped and sequenced.

Transitions between and

within paragraphs clarify

the relationships among

ideas.

The use of language

conveys the argument with

clarity. Word choice is

adequate and sometimes

precise. Sentence

structures are clear and

demonstrate some variety.

Stylistic and register

choices, including voice

and tone, are appropriate

for the rhetorical purpose.

While errors in grammar,

usage, and mechanics are

present, they rarely impede

understanding.

The ACT Writing Test Scoring Rubric

Ideas and Analysis Development and Support Organization Language Use

Score 3:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

some

developing skill

in writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer generates an

argument that responds to

multiple perspectives on the

given issue. The argument’s

thesis reflects some clarity

in thought and purpose.

The argument establishes a

limited or tangential context

for analysis of the issue and

its perspectives. Analysis is

simplistic or somewhat

unclear.

Development of ideas and

support for claims are

mostly relevant but are

overly general or simplistic.

Reasoning and illustration

largely clarify the argument

but may be somewhat

repetitious or imprecise.

The response exhibits a

basic organizational

structure. The response

largely coheres, with most

ideas logically grouped.

Transitions between and

within paragraphs

sometimes clarify the

relationships among ideas.

The use of language is

basic and only somewhat

clear. Word choice is

general and occasionally

imprecise. Sentence

structures are usually clear

but show little variety.

Stylistic and register

choices, including voice

and tone, are not always

appropriate for the

rhetorical purpose.

Distracting errors in

grammar, usage, and

mechanics may be present,

but they generally do not

impede understanding.

Score 2:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

weak or

inconsistent

skill in

writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer generates an

argument that weakly

responds to multiple

perspectives on the given

issue. The argument’s

thesis, if evident, reflects

little clarity in thought and

purpose. Attempts at

analysis are incomplete,

largely irrelevant, or consist

primarily of restatement of

the issue and its

perspectives.

Development of ideas and

support for claims are

weak, confused, or

disjointed. Reasoning and

illustration are inadequate,

illogical, or circular, and fail

to fully clarify the argument.

The response exhibits a

rudimentary organizational

structure. Grouping of ideas

is inconsistent and often

unclear. Transitions

between and within

paragraphs are misleading

or poorly formed.

The use of language is

inconsistent and often

unclear. Word choice is

rudimentary and frequently

imprecise. Sentence

structures are sometimes

unclear. Stylistic and

voice and tone, are

inconsistent and are not

always appropriate for the

rhetorical purpose.

Distracting errors in

grammar, usage, and

mechanics are present, and

they sometimes impede

understanding.

Score 1:

Responses at

this scorepoint

demonstrate

little or no skill

in writing an

argumentative

essay.

The writer fails to generate

an argument that responds

intelligibly to the task. The

writer’s intentions are

difficult to discern. Attempts

at analysis are unclear or

irrelevant.

Ideas lack development,

and claims lack support.

Reasoning and illustration

are unclear, incoherent, or

largely absent.

The response does not

exhibit an organizational

structure. There is little

grouping of ideas. When

present, transitional devices

fail to connect ideas.

The use of language fails

to demonstrate skill in

responding to the task.

Word choice is imprecise

and often difficult to

comprehend. Sentence

structures are often unclear.

Stylistic and register

choices are difficult to

identify. Errors in grammar,

usage, and mechanics are

pervasive and often impede

understanding.

Calculating Your Writing Subject Score

Complete these steps to calculate your Writing Subject Score (1–36 scale).

1. Locate the four domain scores (1–6) and enter them in the first column below. Double each score and enter in the Domain

Score column to the right.

2. Enter the sum of the second-column scores here ______. This is your raw score (value between 8 and 48).

3. Use Table 1 on page 59to find the

scaled Writing Subject Score that corresponds to your raw score.

Domain

Score

Ideas and Analysis ____ x 2 = ____

Development and Support ____ x 2 = ____

Organization ____ x 2 = ____

Language Use and Conventions ____ x 2 = ____

You may wish to remove this sample answer document from the booklet to use in a practice test session for the four multiple-choice tests.

BA C D

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The ACT

2015–2016 Answer Sheet (No Writing)

MATCH NUMBER

PAGE 1

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the M ATCHING I NF ORMATI ON on your t icket. E nter it E XAC TLY

the s ame way, even if any of the infor mat ion i s mi ss ing or

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73H

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TEST 1

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Test Form i n

the boxes

above and

fi ll in the

corres ponding

oval at the

r ight .

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each question. Fill in response completely.

Erase errors cleanly without smudging.

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