Master ACT Reading Comprehension: Proven Strategies
Summary
TLDRThis 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
📚 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.
🚀 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.
🌌 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.
🔍 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.
💡 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.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡ACT passage
💡Main points
💡Details
💡Right answers
💡Blah, blah, blying
💡Declarative sentences
💡Author's point of view
💡Tone
💡Examples
💡Practice
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
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