Conflicting viewpoints

For many students, the most difficult passage type on the science test is the conflicting viewpoints passage. There’s always only one conflicting viewpoints passage on each science section of the ACT, so these passages make up about 15-20% of the passages on the science test.

Conflicting viewpoints passages are typically the most challenging and time-consuming passages on the science test. They often cover difficult topics and include long paragraphs of text, which means they usually require more reading than other passage types.

Most questions in conflicting viewpoints passages ask you to compare and contrast different paragraphs in the text. The paragraphs are usually labeled “Student 1,” “Hypothesis 1,” or another title that identifies the sequence of viewpoints. Those labeled sections are what you’ll be comparing and contrasting. Here is an example of what they look like:

Many students get stuck on the large quantity of writing and feel like they need to read everything. Remember: you only need to read the parts of the passage that relate to the question you’re answering.

You are not expected to understand the science behind most conflicting viewpoints passages. Instead, you’re expected to understand what each paragraph claims about the main topic.

In general, these passages test your ability to read and understand viewpoints, not your ability to explain the science behind them. For that reason, students who do well on the reading test often do well on these passages. If you typically struggle with the reading test, plan to spend extra time specifically practicing conflicting viewpoints passages.

One of the best strategies for this passage type is to quickly identify which questions go with which student/hypothesis/scientist. When you flip to a conflicting viewpoints passage, skip immediately to the questions as usual.

Very briefly skim each question looking for the words “Student #,” “Scientist #,” or “Hypothesis #,” and either circle or box those words. Once you’ve found one of those keywords, don’t read the rest of the question yet. It should take you less than 45 seconds to skim through all the questions.

Next, group the questions by viewpoint:

• Notice how many questions pertain to Student 1.
• Read Student 1’s paragraph and answer all of those questions.
• Move on to the questions about Student 2.
• Read Student 2’s paragraph and answer all of those questions.
• Then answer the questions that ask you to compare Student 1 and Student 2.
• Continue this process for the remaining viewpoints.

As you answer the individual student questions, make brief notes. After that, the questions that ask you to compare all of the viewpoints will be much easier because you won’t need to reread the entire passage.

A useful way to organize your notes as you read is to make a table. This helps you answer later comparison questions without rereading all the viewpoints. Here is a sample table created for the passage above: