The ACT Reading section has 36 questions total, 27 of which are scored, and you have 40 minutes to complete it. Passages come from four subject areas, and questions test your ability to find information, make inferences, and analyze how authors write and argue.

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ACT Reading Section Passages

The section is divided into four parts. Each part contains either one long passage or two shorter paired passages, followed by questions. When you get paired passages, some questions will ask about each passage individually, and a few will ask you to compare or connect the two.

ACT Reading Passage Types

Every question is based on a passage provided to you. These passages come from four subject areas:

Social Studies: Passages drawn from fields like anthropology, archaeology, economics, education, history, and political science.
Natural Sciences: Passages covering topics in astronomy, biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, medicine, zoology, and related fields.
Literary Narrative or Prose Fiction: Excerpts from short stories, novels, memoirs, and personal essays.
Humanities: Passages from sources including architecture, art, dance, film, language, literary criticism, music, philosophy, and television.

You do not need to study any of these subjects beforehand. Every answer can be found within the passages themselves.

ACT Reading Question Types

ACT Reading questions fall into two categories:

Referring questions ask about information explicitly stated in the passage. You can point to a specific line or sentence that contains the answer.
Reasoning questions require you to draw conclusions, make inferences, or interpret meaning based on what the passage implies rather than directly states.

Referring questions tend to be faster to answer since the information is right there in the text. Reasoning questions take more thought because you need to piece together what the author is suggesting.

ACT Reading Skills Tested

Here is an overview of the core skills the ACT tests, based on the Official ACT Preparing for the ACT Guide:

Determine main ideas
Locate and interpret significant details
Understand sequences of events
Make comparisons
Comprehend cause-effect relationships
Determine the meaning of context-dependent words, phrases, and statements
Draw generalizations
Analyze the author's or narrator's voice and method
Analyze claims and evidence in arguments
Integrate information from multiple texts

Use this list as a self-assessment checklist. Focus your practice time on the skills that feel weakest.

Content Covered on the ACT Reading by Reporting Category

The ACT Reading section tests three reporting categories, each weighted differently.

Key Ideas and Details (52–60%)

This is the largest portion of the test. These questions ask you to identify central themes, summarize information accurately, and understand relationships within the text. You will need to make logical inferences and recognize sequential, comparative, and cause-effect connections.

Craft and Structure (25–30%)

These questions focus on how the author writes, not just what they say. You will need to:

Determine word and phrase meanings from context
Analyze the author's rhetorical choices and use of language
Examine how the text is structured and organized
Identify the author's purpose and perspective
Analyze characters' viewpoints
Differentiate between various perspectives and sources of information

Integration of Knowledge and Ideas (13–23%)

This category asks you to evaluate arguments and evidence. You will need to distinguish between facts and opinions, assess how authors support their claims, and make connections between related texts. Some questions will ask you to compare reasoning and evidence across different sources.

Visual and Quantitative Information

Some passages include graphs, figures, or tables alongside the text. When they appear, expect questions that ask you to identify or interpret data from the graphic, and sometimes to combine information from both the passage and the visual. Practice reading axis labels, units, and data trends so these do not slow you down on test day.

ACT Reading Section Tips

Practice regularly. Read a variety of texts and work through practice tests so you get comfortable with the passage types and question formats.
Skim the passage first. Before tackling questions, do a quick read-through to get the overall idea. Pay attention to topic sentences and the first and last sentences of paragraphs.
Annotate as you read. Underline key points and jot brief notes in the margin. This makes it faster to find specific details when answering questions.
Manage your time. With 40 minutes for 36 questions across four passage sets, you have roughly 8–9 minutes per set. Practice pacing so you do not run out of time.
Focus on keywords in questions. Words like "primarily," "most likely," or "according to the passage" tell you exactly what kind of answer the question wants.
Answer referring questions first. These have explicit answers in the passage and are usually quicker. Secure those points before spending time on trickier reasoning questions.
Stick to the passage. If you are bringing in outside knowledge or reading between lines that are not there, you are likely headed toward a wrong answer.
Practice with graphs and tables. Get comfortable reading axes, labels, and units so visual questions do not take extra time.
Move on when stuck. If a passage is giving you trouble, skip it and come back. Do not let one difficult set cost you points elsewhere.
Use process of elimination. Every question has exactly one answer fully supported by the passage, and the other three contain something false or unsupported. When stuck, cross off answers you know are wrong rather than searching for the perfect answer. Even one inaccurate word in a choice makes the whole choice wrong.

Building Good Study Habits

The most effective practice habit is not doing as many passages as possible in one sitting. It is completing a few passages and then documenting your mistakes. Write down what you got wrong and, more importantly, why you got it wrong. Were you misreading the question? Running out of time? Falling for a trap answer? Once you recognize your patterns, you will stop repeating the same errors. That is where real score improvement comes from.