ACT MATH Day 1 11 th Grade Day

ACT MATH – Day 1 11 th Grade

Day 1 - How this RTI is set up • This RTI is in preparation for the Senior Re-take of the ACT scheduled for March 31 st. • Each subject is on an 11 -day rotation. • The following teachers are in our rotation – – English – Ballentine (2606) Math – Butler (2716) Reading – Poe (1305) Science Reasoning – Giesel (2308) • These are the rotation dates prior to the March 31 st re-testing date: – – Rotation #1: TBA Rotation #2: TBA Rotation #3: TBA Rotation #4: TBA

Agenda for this rotation • • • Day 1 – Intro and Short Practice Test 1 Day 2 – Review Questions from Practice Test Day 3 – General Math/Test Strategies Day 4 – Pre-algebra Skills Day 5 – Algebra Skills Day 6 – Intermediate Algebra Skills Day 7 – Coordinate Geometry Day 8 – Plane Geometry Day 9 – Trig/Statistics Day 10 – Short Practice Test 2 Day 11 – Wrap Up/Final Thoughts

Begin Your Practice Test • Remember you have 15 minutes. • Make sure you have an answer for every question. • Do your best. This is to establish a baseline of where you are at present in terms of the ACT Math section.

ACT MATH – Day 2 – Review of Practice Test 11 th Grade

2 -minute “Sudden Death” • Each of you will be assigned 1 or 2 questions to do in a 2 minute period. • After the 2 minutes, we will have you share your answer and your approach with the class, as well as take a closer look at the question.

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

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Problem 5

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Problem 10

Problem 11

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Problem 15

ACT MATH Day 3 Test Strategy 11 th Grade

Why this is important • A score of above 19 puts you in a higher math than Bridge or SAILS, and it could mean that you don’t have to take any (non-credit) remedial math courses in college. • A score of 21 on the ACT makes you eligible for $4000 per year on the HOPE scholarship, for a total of $16, 000. • Higher scores (like a 28 or above) make you eligible for more scholarship money, depending on the school you want to go to. • If you decide later in life to go back to school, a better ACT score will be invaluable to you, and at the very least, learning how to prep for it would still be useful to direct your future efforts. • More prestigious schools require higher ACT scores.

How the math section is structured • 60 questions, 60 minutes • This means 1 minute per question, on average. • There is no penalty for guessing and no advantage to leaving an answer blank. • On average, the questions increase in difficulty as you go further in this section.

A brief look at scoring • ACT tests are scored differently from regular tests in school. What you or your teacher may consider a terrible percentage may actually be a decent score on the ACT. The purpose of this page is to help you to adjust your internal narrative of how you are doing as you progress through the test. • For example, if you get 30 -31 questions correct, that’s 50 -52%, which is awful on a “regular” test. • But on the ACT, that’s a 21. This makes you eligible for the HOPE scholarship for state schools in Tennessee (a 21 overall score, that is).

A brief look at scoring (cont’d. ) • What if you get 45 correct? That’s 75%—not awful, but definitely not stellar on a regular test. • But on the ACT, that’s a 28. For many schools that is a benchmark for being eligible for further scholarship money. • What if you got 93% on the ACT? That translates in to 56 correct answers out of 60. • That’s a 33, which is an amazing score. That’s a Harvard level score, and that’s not going to be most people at this school (or at any school, for that matter).

From Test Parameters to Test Strategy • Guessing is not penalized. Therefore… • … make sure you have an answer for every question by the end of the 60 minutes. • Questions generally increase in difficulty as you progress. Therefore… • … don’t go strictly in numerical order, • … do the easiest ones first, • … focus more effort on the first 40 questions if your higher math is weak, • … make quick decisions about which questions are worth devoting more time to, • … (You tell me one).

On a Scale of Best to Worst • Getting the right answer correctly and efficiently • Getting the right answer somewhat less efficiently • Strategic/Educated Guessing • Blind/Random Guessing • Leaving the Answer Blank

Testing Triage • First, do the easiest questions. These should be ones that you can do in less than a minute. • Second, find the “doable” questions. If you’ve bought some time, then it’s ok for some of these to take a little more than a minute. You have bought the right to do that. • Be careful. Make sure you build in time to get something down on ones that you just don’t know. • Last, work on the hard ones. Here, you may have to make some tough choices based on the difficulty and the amount of time that you have remaining. If you’ve already done all you can on the first two steps, then it is okay to punt on some of the harder questions. You have purchased the right to do that. • You don’t get “style points” on how well you approach the hard questions. They’re either right—or not.

Non-Math Skills That the ACT is Testing • • Problem-Solving Working Under Pressure Observational Skills Thinking on Your Feet Efficiency Prioritizing Tasks Resourcefulness Endurance/Persistence

Additional helpful tips • The ACT is an endurance race. An hour on a test is a long time, and you will get tired. Plus, it’s the second section that you will be doing. So you need to be at your best physically so your mind will function as it should. • This does not necessarily mean that you eat a big breakfast on the day of the test. It’s a good idea to eat something, but not so much as to greatly disrupt your normal routine. • Make sure that by about 35 minutes in, you’ve at least seen every question on the math section. You can’t expect to get questions right that you haven’t seen.

ACT MATH – Day 4 – Pre. Algebra Skills 11 th Grade

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

Problem 4

Problem 5

Pre-Algebra

Pre-Algebra

Pre-Algebra

Pre-Algebra

ACT MATH – Day 5 – Algebra Skills 11 th Grade

Problem 1

Problem 2

Problem 3

Problem 4

Problem 5

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Problem 9

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

Algebra

ACT MATH – Day 6 – Intermediate Algebra Skills 11 th Grade

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Problem 9

Using the Calculator’s Matrix Functions •

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

Intermediate Algebra

ACT MATH – Day 7 – Coordinate Geometry 11 th Grade

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Coordinate Geometry

Coordinate Geometry

Coordinate Geometry

Coordinate Geometry

ACT MATH – Day 8 – Plane Geometry 11 th Grade

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Problem 2

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Problem 7

Plane Geometry

Plane Geometry

Plane Geometry

Plane Geometry

Plane Geometry

Plane Geometry

ACT MATH – Day 9 – Trigonometry and Statistics 11 th Grade

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Problem 2

Problem 3

Problem 4

Problem 5

Problem 6

Problem 7

Problem 8

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Problem 10

Problem 11

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

Trig and Stats

ACT MATH – Day 10 11 th Grade

Short Practice Test 2 • Remember you have 15 minutes. • Make sure you have an answer for every question. • Do your best. This is to see if there has been any improvement on your ACT Math testtaking skills, as well as to provide more exposure to ACT-style math problems.

ACT MATH – Day 11 11 th Grade

Day 11 – Final Take-aways • When you re-take the ACT on October 15: – What new testing strategies, if any, do you intend to implement? – What new content knowledge, if any, do you believe could help you improve your ACT math score? – What else from this RTI, if any, will you be able to use on the math section? – What ACT Prep topic(s), if any do you wish were covered in this RTI? • Write your answers on your own paper, and be prepared to exchange them with a friend (or an enemy, if that’s your preference).