The ACT is intended to test college readiness and reflect what you have learned during high school. The ACT sections align roughly to the subject areas you likely had in high school. Let’s break down some of the most commonly asked questions about the ACT sections.
How many ACT sections are there?
There are 4 sections on the ACT + an optional Writing (essay) section.
What are the ACT sections?
English, Math, Reading, Science and an optional Writing test (think free-response essay).
How are the ACT sections scored?
Your score report will provide section scores, each out of 36, as well as a single composite score out of 36. This composite score is calculated by taking the average of all your section scores.
You’ll spend 2 hours and 55 minutes testing without the Writing section and 3 hours and 35 minutes if you opt to do the essay. Let’s look at a breakdown by section:
| ACT Section | Number of Questions | Time Limit |
| English | 75 multiple-choice questions | 45 minutes |
| Math | 60 multiple-choice questions | 60 minutes |
| Reading | 4 passages 40 multiple-choice questions | 35 minutes |
| Science | 40 multiple-choice questions | 35 minutes |
| Writing (Optional) | 1 free-response essay | 40 minutes |
Looking for a little more detail? One of the best ways to begin preparing for the ACT is to understand what is tested. You can think about each ACT section as a separate test, with its own objectives and score. I’ll break each ACT section down for you, starting with ACT English.
Time limit: 45 minutes
Questions: 75 multiple choice
Structure: 5 reading passages, 15 questions each
What it tests: Your ability to use the English language.
The English section is what I would consider the most straightforward, easiest-to-study-for section on the ACT. Most students find meaningful score gains on this section even with a small amount of preparation.
The ACT English test consists of five passages, throughout which you’ll be asked a series of questions. There are no stand-alone grammar questions. All questions will be passage-based. The type of questions break down into two categories:
You’ve likely been learning English grammar your whole life and most high school curriculums involve some intense study in this area. While English might not be the most straightforward language, there are a series of rules, that, if studied, will help you ace these questions.
In short, grammar questions on the ACT English section ask you to fix grammatical errors in sentences.
The key is to feel so confident in your English grammar skills that you can answer the questions with a high degree of accuracy and speed. You only have 36 seconds per question, so speed really does matter on this section.
There are 13 grammar topics that you could see on this ACT section:
The ACT doesn’t just test your grammar knowledge. It also tests your ability to use the English language in a clear, concise, and effective manner. These questions are going to be a little trickier to study for than the grammar questions, but with some practice, you should start to see some improvement.
Top tip: The ACT prefers clear, succinct language. Avoid fancy phrasing and redundancy.
If you know two options are grammatically correct, the shorter one usually wins (99% of the time!).
You’ll likely see questions that fall into one of four common question types:
Time limit: 60 minutes
Questions: 60 multiple choice
Structure: Generally questions get more difficult as you move through this section.
What it tests: Mathematical and reasoning skills students have learned through the end of high school. You’ll see questions that span the following math areas:
One thing you’ll notice is that you only have 1 minute per question. This is really tight. And, it isn’t accidental. The ACT is relying on this tight time constraint to make this section challenging. While you will find questions that would be challenging regardless of the time constraint, for the most part, the ACT math section asks questions in a relatively straightforward way. You will likely find that the style of questions is similar to what you’ve seen in school.
You’ll find the following concepts testing on the ACT math section:
This list might feel overwhelming. Take a step back and remind yourself that most of these concepts you have learned in school; you just might be rusty. One step at a time. Work your way through the list: brush up on each concept and work through real practice questions for each.
Note: You are allowed a calculator on the entire ACT math section.
Time limit: 35 minutes
Questions: 40 multiple choice
Structure: 4 reading passages:
What it tests: Your ability to read critically and reason through evidence:
As with the ACT math section, the ACT reading section relies heavily on a tight time constraint for difficulty (but perhaps even to a greater degree on this section). The good news here is if you can overcome the timing issue, you’ll see a significant score improvement. The bad news is, the timing issue can be really tough to solve.
The ACT reading section is pretty predictable. For one, we know what kinds of passages we’ll see. And, we also know what kind of questions we’ll see. This is great news. Get better at recognizing these question types and you’ll get better at this section.
In order of frequency tested, you’ll find 8 types of questions on this ACT section:
Time limit: 35 minutes
Questions: 40 multiple choice
Structure: 7 passages
What it tests: Your ability to read scientific passages and answer a variety of questions about
them.
One of the biggest misconceptions about the ACT is that it tests science content that you learned in school. This is just wrong. There’s absolutely no reason to pull out your physics, chemistry, or biology textbooks for review. Instead, the ACT is testing your ability to read and understand passages that relate to science as well as your ability to read and interpret various charts and graphs presenting scientific information.
The key: PRACTICE! Lots of it.
You need to become familiar with the type of content on the ACT Science section in order to get better at it. This section is much less about studying a list of rules or concepts and more about practicing with real ACT science passages.
We won’t get into all of the details here, but one of the main strategies for the Science section is working through the types of passages in different ways, optimizing the very little time you have.
There are 4 sections on the ACT: English, Math, Reading, and Science, with an additional optional Essay (Writing) section.
Each section has a distinct time constraint and predictable patterns. One of the best ways to begin your ACT preparation journey is to dive in and understand each ACT section in detail.
