Master ACT Reading Comprehension: Proven Strategies

Summary

This video tutorial offers strategies for quickly reading and comprehending ACT passages, aiming to enhance test performance. It emphasizes focusing on main points for a clear understanding, rather than getting lost in details. The instructor advises reading slowly at the start and end to grasp the passage's essence and author's perspective, while skimming through the middle for key declarative sentences. A free two-week study course is also introduced to boost ACT scores. The method is demonstrated through examples, showing how to efficiently summarize and answer questions, even when not fully grasping the text.

Takeaways

• 😀 The goal of reading ACT passages is to quickly grasp the main points while skimming over details to ensure speed and accuracy.
• 🎯 Reading slowly at the beginning and end of passages helps to understand the context and the author's perspective, which is crucial for answering questions.
• ✍️ It's important to jot down answers to four key questions: the passage's subject, the author's viewpoint, other viewpoints (if any), and the tone of the passage.
• 🚀 Skimming through the middle of the passage, using the 'Fine Art of Blah Blah Blah' technique, allows you to ignore examples, descriptions, and jargon that don't contribute to the main points.
• 🔍 Focus on single declarative sentences, especially those that seem like conclusions, as they often reflect the author's main points or conclusions.
• 📈 The 'Fine Art of Blah Blah Blah' involves quickly moving past parts of the text that don't contribute to understanding the main points, such as examples and jargon.
• 📝 Practice is essential for mastering the skill of quickly and accurately reading and understanding passages, which is crucial for performing well on the ACT.
• 📉 Avoid getting bogged down in details, as it can lead to confusion and hesitancy, making it harder to identify the correct answers.
• 💡 The method demonstrated helps to create a succinct summary of the main points, which is beneficial for quickly and accurately answering questions related to the passage.
• 📖 Understanding the author's main point of view and the tone of the passage is key to answering questions about the author's intent and the passage's overall message.

Q & A

What is the main goal when reading an ACT passage quickly?

The main goal is to exit the passage with a very good understanding of the main points and a much less good understanding of the details, as the right answers align closely with the main points.

Why is it not advisable to try to understand every detail in an ACT passage?

Trying to understand every detail can lead to confusion and hesitancy, making it harder to spot the right answers, as the test makers often design passages to bog down readers in unnecessary specifics.

What four questions should you answer at the beginning and end of an ACT passage?

You should answer: 1) What is the passage about? 2) What is the author's point of view or what does the author think about the subject? 3) Are there other points of view? 4) What is the tone of the passage?

What is the 'Fine Art of blah, blah, blying' mentioned in the script?

It refers to the technique of quickly skimming and skipping over examples, descriptions, and jargon in the middle of a passage to focus on the main points and declarative sentences that align with the author's main points.

How does focusing on single declarative sentences help in understanding an ACT passage?

Single declarative sentences, especially those that seem like conclusions, often provide direct insight into the author's thoughts and the main points of the passage, making it easier to understand the author's perspective and the passage's main idea.

What is the significance of reading the beginning and end of an ACT passage more slowly?

Reading the beginning and end more slowly helps in capturing the context and conclusion of the passage, which often contain the main points and the author's viewpoint, crucial for answering questions about the passage's overall content and tone.

Why is it important to note the tone of an ACT passage?

Noting the tone helps in understanding the author's attitude towards the subject, which can be argumentative, persuasive, or neutral, and this can influence the way questions are framed and answers are expected.

How can the technique of reading selectively help in answering questions about an ACT passage?

By focusing on the main points and ignoring less relevant details, this technique allows for a clearer understanding of the passage's core ideas, making it easier to identify the correct answers to questions quickly and accurately.

What is the role of practice in mastering the skill of quickly and effectively reading ACT passages?

Practice is key to internalizing the skill of identifying main points and ignoring non-essential details. It helps in applying the technique smoothly during the actual test, leading to better performance and time management.

How does the script suggest handling technical or difficult-to-understand sections in an ACT passage?

If a section is too technical or difficult to understand, the script advises to simply note the type of information found in that paragraph, often reading only the first sentence or two, to know where to find information if needed for a question.

Outlines

00:00

📚 Mastering Fast Reading for ACT Passages

This paragraph introduces a method for rapidly reading and comprehending ACT passages. The speaker promises to teach viewers how to read passages in under a minute while accurately answering questions. A free two-week study course is offered to help raise ACT scores by five points, covering lessons and practice tests. The key to this reading strategy is to grasp the main points and overlook minor details, as correct answers are usually aligned with the main ideas. The speaker suggests reading the beginning and end of the passage slowly to understand the main points and author's perspective, while quickly skimming through the middle parts, avoiding getting lost in examples and jargon.

05:02

🚀 Skimming Techniques for ACT Reading

The speaker demonstrates how to apply the fast-reading technique to a passage about the challenges faced by video tech entrepreneurs and game designers due to the high demand for graphic cards driven by cryptocurrency mining. The method involves reading the beginning and end of the passage for key information and quickly skimming over examples and technical descriptions in the middle. The speaker emphasizes focusing on declarative sentences that convey the author's conclusions. By following this approach, one can understand the main points of the passage and answer questions efficiently, even without fully comprehending every detail.

10:03

🌌 Understanding the Big Bang Model Through Reading Strategy

In this paragraph, the speaker applies the reading strategy to a scientific passage about the Big Bang model. The focus is on identifying the main points, such as the model's claim that the universe was created in a fireball and that predictions match current observations. The speaker skips over complex details, highlighting only the sentences that support the main argument. The goal is to extract enough information to answer questions about the author's viewpoint and the passage's tone, which is persuasive in this case. The speaker also shows how to use the information gathered to answer specific questions from the passage effectively.

15:06

🔍 Parsing Scientific Details in Reading Comprehension

The speaker continues with the Big Bang passage, illustrating how to pinpoint specific details when answering questions. The strategy involves identifying the main point of each paragraph and using that information to select the correct answer from multiple-choice questions. The speaker emphasizes the importance of matching the reader's analysis with the options provided, rather than being swayed by the complexity of the text. The paragraph also covers how to handle questions that ask for specific information from the passage, using Roman numerals as a shortcut to eliminate incorrect answer choices.

20:07

💡 Practice Makes Perfect in Reading Comprehension

The final paragraph reiterates the importance of practice in mastering the reading strategy for the GRE. The speaker advises viewers to keep practicing the technique of identifying main points and writing them down succinctly. The goal is to develop the ability to quickly discern key information from passages and apply it to answer questions accurately. The speaker encourages continuous practice to improve reading comprehension skills for the GRE.

Keywords

💡ACT passage

The ACT passage refers to the reading comprehension sections of the ACT test, which is a standardized test for college admissions in the United States. In the video, the focus is on strategies to quickly read and understand these passages to answer questions accurately. The script mentions, 'today you're going to learn how to read, act passages really fast', emphasizing the importance of speed reading for the ACT.

💡Main points

Main points are the central ideas or themes of a passage that are crucial for understanding its overall message. The video script advises focusing on these to answer questions correctly, as indicated by 'you want to exit the passage with a very good understanding of the main points'. This strategy helps in quickly identifying the core message of the passage.

💡Details

Details in the context of the video refer to the specific, often supporting, information within a passage that may not be as critical for answering questions as the main points. The script suggests a 'much less good understanding of the details' to avoid getting lost in unnecessary information, which can hinder the ability to find correct answers quickly.

💡Right answers

Right answers are the correct responses to questions based on the passage. The video emphasizes that these answers 'almost always align very closely with the main points of the passage'. This insight is used to develop a strategy for quickly identifying the correct answers by focusing on the main points rather than getting bogged down in details.

💡Blah, blah, blying

In the script, 'blah, blah, blying' is a term used to describe the strategy of quickly skimming or skipping over parts of the text that do not contribute to understanding the main points. It is exemplified when the speaker says, 'employ the Fine Art of blah, blah blying around stuff', suggesting to ignore examples, descriptions, and jargon that do not align with the main points.

💡Declarative sentences

Declarative sentences are statements that present information in a direct and assertive manner. The video script highlights the importance of focusing on these, especially those that seem like conclusions, as they often encapsulate the author's viewpoint. For instance, the speaker mentions looking for words like 'finally' or 'therefore' to find the author's conclusion.

💡Author's point of view

The author's point of view refers to the perspective or stance the author takes on the subject matter. The video script advises paying attention to this, as it is often a key element in answering questions about the passage. It is exemplified by the question 'what is the author's point of view or what does the author think about the subject'.

💡Tone

Tone in literature refers to the author's attitude towards the subject, which can be argumentative, persuasive, or neutral. The video script includes tone as one of the four questions to answer when reading a passage slowly, as indicated by 'what is the tone'. Understanding the tone can provide insights into the author's intent and help in answering questions.

💡Examples

Examples in a passage are specific instances used to support the main point. The video script suggests quickly moving through or 'blah blah blah'-ing over examples because they do not provide information about the main point of the passage. This strategy helps in maintaining focus on the central ideas rather than getting sidetracked by supporting details.

💡Practice

Practice is emphasized in the video as a key component in mastering the skill of quickly reading and understanding ACT passages. The script mentions 'the key to learning any new skill is practice and the GRE is no exception', suggesting that consistent practice is necessary to improve reading and comprehension skills for the test.

Highlights

Learn to read ACT passages quickly and accurately.

Free two-week study course to raise ACT score by five points.

Read passages with a focus on main points, not details.

Right answers align closely with main points of the passage.

Avoid getting bogged down in details to spot right answers quickly.

Read slowly at the beginning and end of the passage for key information.

Write down answers to four key questions to understand the passage.

Skim the middle of the passage and 'blah blah blah' over unimportant details.

Focus on declarative sentences that seem like conclusions.

Examples, descriptions, and jargon don't provide insight into main points.

Understand the author's conclusion from sentences with words like 'finally' or 'therefore'.

Read selectively to understand the passage and answer questions efficiently.

Only read and pay attention to the highlighted parts of the passage.

Understand the passage's main points by reading selectively.

Use the 'Fine Art of blah blah blah' to ignore irrelevant information.

Practice identifying main points and author's point of view for each passage.

Key takeaway: Focus on main points and practice to improve reading comp skills.

Transcripts

today you're going to learn how to read

act passages really fast like you're

going to be able to read any act passage

in about a minute and this is the best

part still get all the questions right

so I'm going to show you how it works

and then we'll do a few examples I also

have a free gift for you it's a two week

study course designed to raise your ACT

score Five Points it's got lessons

practice tests everything you need so if

you're looking to raise your ACT score

fast this is for you again you can sign

up for free right down in the

description

so as you read the passage you have two

goals you want to exit the passage with

a very good understanding of the main

points and a much less good

understanding of the details and the

reason is the right answers almost

always align very closely with the main

points of the passage of the paragraph

so understanding the main points tends

to make the right answers jump out at

you very quickly trying to read and

understand everything in the passage is

what they're hoping you'll do what

happens is you get bogged down in all

the details and that leads to confusion

and hesitancy and that makes it a lot

harder to spot the right answers so how

can you make sure that you're picking

out all the important stuff you need to

get the answers right and leaving all

the junk behind that's a great question

and I'm going to show you how to do it

at the beginning and the end of the

passage I want you to read more slowly

and I want you to read for very specific

information I want you to write down in

just a few words the answers to these

four questions what is the passage about

what is the author's point of view or

what does the author think about the

subject are there other points of view

now there aren't always but it's

important to catch this because you know

for sure the test will try and get you

to confuse the author's point of view

with any other points of view and

finally what is the tone how

argumentative is the passage or is it

just neutrally explaining stuff for

example if the passage is about huge

amounts of plastic garbage in the

Pacific is the author saying that that's

a terrible thing or is the author simply

explaining how the garbage ended up in

the ocean so that's what you do with the

beginning and the end read more slowly

and jot down your answers to the four

questions

in the middle of the passage we want you

to read very very quickly just skim

actually and employ the Fine Art of blah

blah blying around stuff which stuff

well you want to quickly scammer blah

blah blah over examples because examples

they don't give us any information about

the main point of the passage all that

examples ever do is support whatever the

main point of the paragraph is also

quickly move through or blah blah blah

you're way past description and jargon

again that stuff's not providing any

insight into the main points of the

paragraph what you want to pay attention

to are single declarative sentences

especially ones that seem like

conclusions we're looking for words like

finally or thus or therefore or so now

we know we're looking for any sentence

that gives us some understanding of what

the author thinks and frankly lots of

times especially in science passages

they tend to be about the only sentences

you can actually understand now all this

stuff is frankly harder to talk about

and describe than it is to actually do

so let's just jump in with an example

okay what I'd like you to do is pause

the video and just take a minute and

read this passage and when you're done

restart the video and I'll show you how

I go through it if it were a passage on

the test okay go ahead and pause take a

sec and read the passage

okay so this is how I would read it for

aspiring video tech entrepreneurs and

game designers great start I understand

all those words the unprecedented

demand-driven pressures of the current

micro record no not reading any of that

I don't understand it the worst Market

in history for buying graphic cards that

I understand my guess is what's coming

next is going to be a lot of description

and a lot of examples on why this Market

is so bad for graphic cards but let's

read as the cryptocurrency case is

escalated has driven a proliferation of

blockchain products oh my gosh New York

inventing their cryptocurrencies classic

demand models of marginal no we are not

reading any of that we are blah blah

blind through that and we are looking

for some words some sentence that is

going to give us some idea of what the

author's conclusion actually is and we

get two great words the result that is

awesome what is the result the result is

that game designers are increasingly

competing with cryptocurrency miners for

the latest and most advanced chance

graphic software great terrific that I

understood that was really helpful my

guess is the next stuff that's coming is

going to be examples of how they're

competing with the miners for the

software and the underlying micro

academic factors are you kidding me

there's no way we're reading this again

we are reading for a single declarative

sentence some conclusiony kind of

sentence that's going to tell us what

the author thinks and we get one

predictably it's a great word

predictably there is a GPU shortage

which is driving up prices for graphic

cards a lot of Crisis levels and prices

that are Beyond absurd great I

understand that my guess is the next

sentence is going to be an example of

how expensive graphic cards are and it's

right we don't care about examples and

then we always slow down at the end as

well the escalation and prices for CPUs

is unacceptable and Incredibly damaging

to the gaming and video industry which

relies on Creative people using the best

software to drive Innovation boy that's

a great sentence in fact that sounds

like the conclusion that sounds like the

author's point of view okay let's just

read this without all of the confusing

red stuff and let's see what we've got

so we have for aspiring video tech

entrepreneurs and game designers this is

the worst Market in history for buying

graphic cards okay the result is that

game designers are increasingly

competing with cryptocurrency miners for

the latest most advanced graphic

software so there's a GPU shortage which

is driving up prices to crisis levels

and this escalation in prices is

unacceptable and damaging to the gaming

and video industry which relies on

Creative people using the best software

to drive Innovation wow that tells a

very very clean and understandable story

in fact you understand what the passage

is about much much much more clearly

than if you would have tried to read the

entire passage and get bogged down in

all of these details

so we only read and paid attention to

the stuff highlighted in yellow which

means we only read maybe 30 or 40

percent of the passage which made us

very fast through the passage and we got

a much clearer understanding of what the

passage was actually about so we're

going to be able to easily pull out the

answers to the first four questions and

write down the main points of the middle

section so what is this about it's about

bad market for gpus they're really

expensive the author's point of view wow

expensive gpus that's bad it hurts

innovation in the video industry are

there other points of use is there

anyone thinks that high prices are good

now what is the tone the tones actually

argumentative he uses really strong

language the escalation of prices it's

unacceptable and Incredibly damaging

okay and what do we pull out of the

middle the middle we have competition

with crypto miners that's driving demand

up and that's driving price up and just

by following this you know kind of

method what you're left with is a very

very succinct summary of the main points

of the paragraph okay this is very very

nice work what I want to do next is take

another example and after we do that

we're actually going to answer some

questions so you can see how this

technique sets you up to answering

questions really really fast and really

easily

okay so let's try this one and you're

going to do the same thing you're going

to stop the video and you're going to

take a minute to read the passage and

then what I want you to do is try your

hand writing down the answers to the

four questions and then pick out the

main points of the middle paragraphs now

if the middle paragraphs get super

technical and you're not really sure

what the main point is don't worry about

it just jot down what type of

information we'd find in the paragraph

oftentimes I just read the first

sentence or two the idea is that you

want to know where to find information

if you're asked about it now you don't

need to try and Wade through those

middle paragraphs and try to understand

everything in fact trying to understand

an entire passage is a slow sure

standardized death okay so stop the

video do best and when you come back

I'll show you how I read it

I know right I didn't understand any of

that passage either but remember not

understanding the passage is no excuse

for not getting all the questions right

and I'll show you how that works

okay so this is how I read it and what

you're going to see is mostly I just

stuck to the stuff that I could actually

understand which is it turns out isn't

very much but it's more than enough to

understand what the main points of the

passage are and importantly to get all

of the questions right all right so the

Big Bang model possibly is the universe

was created in a fireball between 20 10

and 20 billion years ago okay I actually

understand that sentence the model

attempts to reconstruct the behavior

related to use a general relatively

Elementary okay I don't understand any

of that uh and then we get matching

these claims with observations of the

universe today shows its validity okay I

understand that uh next paragraph the

Big Bang produced universe made almost

entirely of hydrogen and helium wow

surprising they understood that full

sentence for the first few few seconds

of the universe's existence its

temperature was so high about 10 billion

degrees of energetic electron uh oh

neutrinos and project I don't understand

any of that so they lost me after 10

billion trees and that's okay I am not

reading the rest of that paragraph I'm

just going to skim over it blah blah

blah over it all right next paragraph

after a few minutes the temperature of

the universe fell I understand that to

about a billion degrees cool enough okay

for these protons and neutrons to bomb

and form a new Cloud deuterons are far

okay not understanding any of that I

understand most of the first half of the

first sentence okay got it this universe

starts to cool down all right what about

the fourth paragraph because only one

neutronous form Sorry Seven protons

seven six of all protons remains oh my

gosh so many protons hydronuclei one

protonies nope nope nope nope nope nope

uh this simple prediction matches

observations very well that sentence I

understand and I also see that that's

very very similar to the sentence in the

first paragraph we're matching these

claims with observations of the universe

today shows its validity so I'm guessing

that's a pretty important point all

right

okay so the stuff is yellow is the stuff

we actually read and it's not very much

we may have read maybe 20 of this thing

but as you're going to find it is more

than enough to answer the four questions

and get all of the questions right that

they ask you all right well what is this

about what's about the Big Bang model

what's the author's point of view what

does the author think about the Big Bang

model well the Big Bang model he thinks

is true because observations match

claims other other points of view are

there people out there who don't think

the Big Bang model is true no there's

not and what is the tone well I call the

tone like persuasive it's not nearly as

argumentative as the as the last passage

but I think the author would like to

persuade you that the Big Bang model is

true all right well what about those

middle paragraphs well paragraph two we

know is about the first few seconds of

the universe uh something about hydrogen

and helium and we know it's really hot

what about paragraph three paragraph

three is about the first few minutes of

the universe and we know that things get

cooler and what about paragraph four

paragraph four again reiterates this

idea that predictions match observations

and with this outline of the passage we

can get all the questions right

okay let's try this question the author

is primarily concerned with any time you

get a question like the author is

primarily concerned with or what is the

main point of the entire passage the

correct answer will be the answer choice

that most closely matches what you wrote

down in your answers to the first four

questions so we're looking for something

about a Big Bang model and something

about observations matching claims all

right well let's go through each one a

uh explaining how the evolution of the

universe is incompatible with the Big

Bang model no we know that's not true

the author actually believes in the Big

Bang model B chronicling the events that

followed the creation of matter by The

Big Bang B is a classic distractor it's

wrong yes the passage does talk some

about what happened in the first few

seconds and few minutes of the Big Bang

but did we write any of that out when we

answered our first four questions now

the main point that we wrote down was

with the is that the author believes

that the Big Bang is correct because

predictions match observations stick to

that do not let the test answers push

you around or make you change your mind

you've already done the analysis you've

already figured out what the main point

is and you have written it down you know

the author's main point of view is about

observations matching predictions the

test needs to adhere to your analysis

not the other way around so B is wrong C

explaining how helium was formed in that

no we never wrote down anything about

helium uh D illustrating propositions of

a model and showing how they have been

supported by observation oh that's

interesting are we talking about a model

yeah we wrote down Big Bang model and

are we talking about things supported by

observations yeah observations match

claims D is pretty close to what we

wrote down it's a maybe uh what about it

showing how the ratios of protons and

neutrons no no no no we never wrote down

protons and neutrons the one that is

closest to what we wrote now is answer

Choice D good job let's try another

question

in the fourth paragraph the author

introduces information about the Big

Bang model's prediction for the

molecular composition of the universe in

order to okay so we know for sure that

evidence and data always supports the

main point of the paragraph So if the

question is really asking you is what is

the main point of that fourth paragraph

what is the this data supporting what

main point is the author supporting with

this data okay well what we're going to

do is we're going to pick out what the

main point of the fourth paragraph is

and we actually already wrote it down

and it's highlighted in yellow hat here

we have the simple prediction matches

observations very well and what does it

mean when the predictions match

observations well it means that the Big

Bang is valid all right so we need

something about predictions matching

observations and the Big Bang being a

valid Theory let's see if we get it uh a

obviate which means I think of it as to

obliviate uh the claim that 6 7 of all

protons remain at no it's just not not

about that something about predictions

matching observations and the big Banks

correct uh showing that the remaining

one quarter of the total mass no provide

evidence for the validity of the Big

Bang model Ah that's pretty much right

on top of what we said uh paragraph four

is about describe the means by which

remaining protons form hydronuclei no

predict the results of the Big Bang

tempting but no the whole idea of the of

predictions matching observations is

that shows that the Big Bang is valid

it's not trying to predict the results

of the big bag so our answer choice is C

good job let's try another one

according to the passage which of the

following was true during the first few

seconds of the universe's existence we

actually liked this question quite a bit

because it points us to a very specific

spot in the reading we know for sure

it's paragraph two because it says that

in paragraph two but even more

importantly we wrote down that the

second paragraph was about the first few

seconds so we know for sure the answer

is going to be in that second paragraph

okay we have that second paragraph kind

of blown up there over to the right and

I'm noticing that this is a Roman

numeral type question and we love Roman

numeral type questions because it gives

us a shortcut what I want you to do is

take a look at the answer choices and

then ask yourself which Roman numeral

appears most often in the answer choices

and the answer is Roman numeral number

three Roman numeral number three is is

an answer Choice c d and e so that's the

one we're going to go after first and

we're going to hope that it's wrong

because if it is then we get to cross

out c d and e okay so Roman numeral

number Roman numeral number three says

vast numbers of subatomic particles

rapidly transmuted into other types of

particles and what does that mean in our

own words it means particles are

changing into other particles okay let's

see if we get anything like that in now

in the paragraph and I'm reading and I'm

reading oh shoot

subatomic particles constantly

transformed into one another okay yep so

that means that answer Choice 3 is an in

fact correct but we do get to cross off

answer Choice a and answer Choice B okay

so now we look at C D and E and we ask

ourselves which Roman numeral appears

most often and it's Roman numeral number

two so we'll go after that one next the

temperature was not high enough to allow

for the formation of deuterons okay

reading you know what I don't think

that's correct for two reasons first of

all it says that it was really really

hot and the second thing is I don't see

the word deuterons anywhere in this In

this passage at all and we know for sure

that the answer to the question must be

in paragraph two because we know for

sure we're talking about the first few

seconds that's what they said the first

few seconds so it must be in paragraph

two deuterons aren't even mentioned in

paragraph two that means Roman numeral

number two cannot be right so that

knocks out DNE that means our answer is

C okay very nicely done

okay so the key takeaways your goal

after you're done reading a reading comp

passage is to have a very good

understanding of the main points and a

much less good understanding of the

details

okay and how do we do that we read a

little bit more slowly at the beginning

and the end and we jot down our answer

to the four questions what is it about

what's the author's point of view are

there other points of view and what's

the tone and remember you want to

capture that information really

succinctly and about a maximum of about

five words the more succinctly you

capture it the more clearly you'll

understand what the passage is about

and in the middle parts of the passage

you want to read fast and employ the

Fine Art of blah blah blah in around all

the stuff we don't care about ignore

examples ignore description and jargon

what you're trying to hone in and focus

in on are declarative sentences or

conclusiony kind of sentences

great job and remember the key to

learning any new skill is practice and

the GRE is no exception so keep

practicing keep practicing identifying

the answers to those first four

questions and writing them down super

succinctly alright see you next time