ACT - The Official ACT Reading Guide

ACT

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The ACT tests measure your understanding of what youve been taught in core high school courses. This guide will help you succeed on the ACT reading test. Reading is a skill you have been practicing throughout your academic career. You read in different ways for different purposes. For example, you read a novel for your English literature course differently than you read a history textbook, and you read a novel for pleasure differently from you read one for your English course.

The following chapters contain questions taken from actual ACT reading tests that are aimed at enhancing your understanding of the knowledge and skills needed to succeed on the exam. Each question is followed by a detailed explanation of the answer. Chapters are organized by question type and passage type, which should help you see the patterns among the questions. Using this guide will help you become familiar with the content of the ACT reading test and the procedures youll follow when youre actually taking the test. It also provides strategies for approaching the questions and content-specific test-taking tips.

This guide will help remind you of what you have already learned about reading and will likely teach you new skills and concepts as well. We hope this guide helps you identify your strengths and improve areas of weakness so you can show all that you know on your ACT reading test.

Passages fall into four main types: literary narrative, humanities, social science, and natural science. These passage types each have conventions for form and content. Each section is followed by 10 questions that generally follow the order of the passage. You have 8 minutes and 45 seconds for each of the four sections. The test comprises four sections, three of which contain one long prose passage. The fourth section presents two shorter passages with some questions that require you to compare and contrast them. These two texts will belong to one of the four passage types. For example, this section may contain two literary narrative excerpts on the topic of travel. Every test will have one paired passage, and it can occur anywhere in the test. The following table shows the percentage of each type of passage on the test. There are 40 questions to answer in 35 minutes.

The literary narrative passages are excerpts from novels or short stories. Literary narrative does not include poems or scripts from plays. The excerpts typically include two to three characters. These passages focus primarily on characterization developed through the dialogue, actions, and thoughts relayed through the narrator. Though a conflict may be established at some point in the narrative, there is rarely a full story arc with a climax or resolution. Typically, a passage introduces only the characters. Most passages end with what might be considered a cliff hanger. Some insights are revealed about the dynamics between the characters but very little action takes place. Though many literary narrative passages begin at a point of change in a characters life, the characters tend to remain static without underdoing dramatic changes over the course of the passage.

Humanities and social science passages tend to address human beings and their relationships with one another, the world around them, and their shared history. Humanities passages range from excerpts of memoirs to articles about the Indian film industry. Social science passages cover topics such as politics, architecture, and sustainability. Both humanities and social science passages tend to be structured in a traditional thesis-driven essay format with a clear thesis at the end of the introduction and topic sentences that begin each body paragraph by reviewing the content of those paragraphs and how that content supports the thesis.