ACT Reading Format
- 35 min
- four 750 passages
- 10qs/passage
- take section after 15min break
Four diff. passages that are always in same order
- Prose Fiction
- Social Studies
- Humanities
- Natural Sciences
Always read passage first
- most likely can’t remember 10 Qs when you read passage
- better use of time to read passage first
Use line references
if question references line 12, for example, read lines 10-14 to find answer
Find support
always choose answer based on support in the passage
Global questions
ask about the passage as a whole
Inference & Writer’s View questions
ask you to understand something that isn’t directly stated in the passage
Detail questions
ask about specific parts of the passage
Vocab-in-Context questions
ask about a word as it is used in the passage
Function questions
ask about the purpose of a specific part of the passage
Distortion answer
twists details from the passage so they are no longer correct
Misused detail answer
true statement from the passage, but one that doesn’t answer the question
Out-of-scope answer
includes information not included in the passage
Extreme answer
too extreme to reflect the author’s purpose (often includes words like always, never, best, worst, etc.)
Opposite answer
contradicts the information in the passage
