ACT Reading case studies
ACT Reading · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The ACT Reading Test is one of the required multiple-choice sections of the ACT, a college admissions exam taken by more than two million students each year according to ACT. Per ACT, the Reading Test measures your ability to read closely, reason logically, and integrate information from multiple sources, and it consists of 36 questions to be answered in 40 minutes. The ACT Reading case studies are 5 cases and about 2,002 words.
1The Night-Shift Bakery and the Vanishing Ovens
A neighborhood bakery runs two ovens. The large oven produces 240 loaves per night; the small oven produces 90.
466 words, about 2 min2Two Reviews of a Debut Novel
A literary magazine prints two reviews of the same debut novel. Review A calls the book "a triumph of restraint," praising its "deliberate withholding of backstory" and its "refusal to explain its narrator." Review B calls the same book "frustratingly opaque," complaining that the author "never lets us understand the narrator" and that the withholding "reads as evasion rather than craft." Both reviews cite the identical passage - a chapter in which the narrator describes a childhood house without ever naming who lived there.
416 words, about 2 min3The Clinic Waiting-Room Study
A hospital pilot tested a new waiting-room design. In the old design, patients waited an average of 34 minutes and 22% reported dissatisfaction.
350 words, about 2 min4The Senator's Two Speeches
A senator gives two speeches in one month. In the first, she says: "We cannot afford to expand this program while the deficit is rising; fiscal discipline must come first." In the second, she says: "This program is a lifeline for working families, and I will fight to protect every dollar of it." A columnist writes that the senator "has flip-flopped, opposing the program one week and championing it the next." A reader defends her: "She never said she opposed the program - she said timing mattered." The columnist responds that the reader is "cherry-picking.".
357 words, about 2 min5Interpreting a Sparse Data Table
A student reads a report on urban tree cover. The report includes this sentence: "Cities that planted more street trees saw larger drops in summer surface temperature." The student also finds a small table: City A planted 400 trees and recorded a 1.2°C drop; City B planted 900 trees and recorded a 2.1°C drop; City C planted 150 trees and recorded a 1.9°C drop.
413 words, about 2 min