Process of Elimination on the ACT

ACT Math · Axiom Academy

LESSON Process of Elimination on the ACT There's no wrong-answer penalty — so every choice you rule out is pure profit. Learn to spot the traps and turn a guess into an educated one. 1. Why Elimination Is Free Money on the ACT Every ACT Math question offers 4 answer choices , lettered A–D. With no penalty for a wrong guess, a totally random guess already gives you a real shot — and every choice you can rule out as clearly wrong raises that shot further, with no downside. Odds of a correct guess with n choices still standing Watch two "obviously wrong" choices get crossed off below, one at a time, and the live odds readout climb as each one goes: 2. Wrong Answers Are Built From Real Mistakes The ACT doesn't pick wrong answers at random — each "distractor" is reverse-engineered from a specific error a student is likely to make along the way. Once you know the usual suspects, you can catch them in someone else's work (your own scratch work) before you ever commit to an answer. Watch one problem worked correctly on the left while the three common error paths branch off on the right, each landing on the exact wrong choice it would produce: 3. Round First — Estimation Kills the Extremes You don't need an exact computation to eliminate a choice — you need to know it's in the right neighborhood. Round the numbers in the problem to something easy, estimate the answer, and throw out every choice that isn't close. A) 2.00 B) 3.50 C) 5.00 D) 25.00 E) 100.00

This is the written version of the interactive lesson above. See the full ACT Math course.