ACT Test Study Guide Practice Flashcards

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers essential strategies and terminology for the ACT Reading, Mathematics, English, and Science sections based on the Study Guide Zone transcript.

Flyover

A reading strategy involving a very quick, high-level overview of a passage to understand its contents without wasting time on details that may be forgotten.

Kitchen Logic

A technique for identifying a main idea by explaining a passage in simple terms, as if talking to friends or family at a kitchen table.

Inference

A logical deduction based on what an author has stated in a passage, rather than something directly mentioned.

Integers

The set of numbers involving $\text{...}, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, \text{...}$

Consecutive Integers

Integers that follow in sequence, such as $22, 23, 24, 25$, generally represented by $n, n + 1, n + 2, n + 3, \text{...}$

Prime Numbers

Numbers such as $2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, \text{...}$ where $1$ is not included and $2$ is the only even prime.

Digits

The specific set of numbers $0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9$.

Arithmetic Mean

An average of a list of $n$ numbers equal to the sum of the numbers divided by $n$.

Median

The middle number in a list when the numbers are ordered from greatest to least or least to greatest; if there is an even number of values, it is the mean of the two middle numbers.

Mode

The number that occurs most often in a list of numbers.

Average Speed

Calculated by taking the $\frac{\text{Total Distance}}{\text{Total Time}}$, rather than simply averaging the separate speeds.

Probability

The chance a specific outcome can occur, defined by the formula $\frac{\text{Number of ways that a specific outcome can occur}}{\text{Total number of possible outcomes}}$.

Pythagorean Theorem

In any right triangle, $a^2 + b^2 = c^2$, where $c$ is the longest side and $a$ and $b$ are the shorter sides.

Similar Polygons

Two polygons where the lengths of their corresponding sides are in the same ratio and their corresponding angles are equal.

Slope of a line

Determined by the formula $\text{rise/run}$ or $\frac{\text{vertical distance}}{\text{horizontal distance}}$.

Conjunctive Adverbs

Transitional words and phrases such as 'however,' 'moreover,' and 'therefore' that signal relationships between sentences but are not coordinating conjunctions.

Referent

A word or phrase that refers to another word or phrase called an antecedent.

Gerund

An 'ing' verb that serves as a noun and takes a possessive pronoun.

Parallelism

A structure where similar ideas are expressed in a similar grammatical form to improve reading ease, clarity, and sentence rhythm.

Subjective Case

The form a pronoun takes when functioning as the subject of a sentence or an understood verb, such as 'I,' 'we,' or 'they.'

Key Component

A critical requirement identify in a question (such as a variable that must affect every compound) used to filter through answer choices systematically.