Conflicting Viewpoints

• Identify each scientist's or student's main claim and supporting evidence
• Determine where the viewpoints agree and disagree
• Answer questions that ask which evidence would strengthen or weaken a viewpoint
• Evaluate which viewpoint is best supported by given data
• Finish on one ACT-hard question and say what made it hard

The ACT Science section has three passage types only: Data Representation, Research Summaries, and Conflicting Viewpoints. The Conflicting Viewpoints passage is the most reading-heavy of the three: mostly competing written explanations, often with a short introduction, a diagram, or a small table of facts that every viewpoint has to account for, so it tends to take the longest. Because of that, plan your time deliberately: do this passage either first, while you are fresh, or last, depending on your comfort, and do not let it eat the time you need for the faster data passages (see the two-tier pacing plan in the Science speed practice lesson). Conflicting Viewpoints passages present two or more hypotheses about the same phenomenon. Each viewpoint is explained in its own section with reasoning and sometimes evidence. The questions test whether you can track which claim belongs to which scientist, find points of agreement and disagreement, and evaluate new evidence in light of each viewpoint. Read each viewpoint carefully and summarize it in one sentence. The most common question type asks 'Scientist 1 would most likely agree with which statement?'. To answer, find the statement most consistent with that scientist's reasoning. Harder questions ask which viewpoints a new finding is consistent with (it can be one, several, or none, so check each viewpoint separately), what assumption two viewpoints share, and how one scientist would explain another's key evidence. Answer each from that scientist's stated mechanism, not from which view you think is scientifically correct. Routine: first restate the research question the viewpoints are answering, then write each viewpoint's claim (its answer to that question, not just its topic). Work the questions in the same order as paired Reading passages: questions about Viewpoint 1, then Viewpoint 2, then the questions about both. The ACT-hard version: a new finding (often a number to compare with the passage's table) that is consistent with one viewpoint, several, or none, so each viewpoint has to be checked on its own, or a question asking how one student would explain another student's key evidence using only their own mechanism.

• After reading each viewpoint, write a one-sentence summary on your scratch paper (or mentally). This prevents mixing them up.
• Pay close attention to the specific mechanism each viewpoint proposes, not just the conclusion.
• For 'which would weaken Scientist 2's argument?' questions, find a fact that directly contradicts Scientist 2's reasoning.