ACT Reading study guide

ACT Reading · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

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. Because the section is required, every ACT candidate takes it; students typically sit for the ACT in the spring of their junior year, though earlier testing is common. The Reading Test is scored as part of the composite ACT score reported to colleges, and all U.S. Topics on this exam: Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas. The ACT Reading study guide has 3 sections and about 1,133 words.

Key Ideas and Details: Finding What the Passage Actually Says

Key Ideas and Details questions ask you to locate explicit information, decide what a paragraph or passage is mostly about, and trace how one event or idea leads to another. The core skills are close reading , main-idea identification , and cause-effect or sequence reasoning . topic : the topic is what the passage is about (a few words); the main idea is the claim the author makes about it (a full sentence). Supporting details : facts, examples, or quotations the author uses to back the main idea.

379 words, about 2 min 02

Craft and Structure: Vocabulary, Purpose, and Text Organization

Craft and Structure questions ask about word meaning in context , author's purpose and tone , and how the passage is organized (structure). These questions reward attention to how something is said, not only what is said. Contextual meaning : a word's meaning is fixed by surrounding sentences. Cover the word, predict a substitute, then check the choices.

371 words, about 2 min 03

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Comparing, Inferring, and Evaluating Evidence

Integration questions ask you to compare and contrast ideas or passages, draw logical inferences , and evaluate how evidence supports a claim . You must connect information rather than merely retrieve it. Valid inference : a conclusion that follows necessarily from the text, not merely one that is plausible in real life. The passage must supply the support.

383 words, about 2 min