The first step to raising your ACT Reading score is understanding how the test is organized. When you know what to expect, you’re less likely to be surprised on test day.
This chapter breaks down the overall structure of the ACT Reading section.
The ACT Reading section is divided into four passages. Here, a “passage” means a short story or an article.
For each passage, you’ll answer 10 questions. Each question checks how well you understood what you read. Below is a sample showing how a passage and its questions are formatted.
There’s also a strict time limit: you must read all four passages and answer all 40 questions within 35 minutes.
The ACT Reading section includes four passage types. You’ll learn more about each one later. For now, focus on the names and what each type generally looks like:
Also notice the order. These four passage types always appear in the same order on every test.
That means the literary narrative passage always comes first. Social science follows literary narrative, humanities comes after social science, and natural science always comes last.
| Passage order | Passage type |
| Passage 1 | Literary narrative |
| Passage 2 | Social science |
| Passage 3 | Humanities |
| Passage 4 | Natural science |
Of the four passages you read, one will be a paired passage. A paired passage is a single passage split into two shorter passages.
If you look closely, you’ll see two headings before the text begins. These headings are always labeled “Passage A” and “Passage B.”
You’ll learn specific paired-passage strategies in later chapters. For now, remember these basics:
In addition to passage types, you’ll also notice that not all Reading questions work the same way. That’s because the ACT uses different question types.
Knowing the ACT Reading question types is important because each type tends to use specific “tricks” and traps.
When you know what a question type is trying to test (and how wrong answers are designed), it’s easier to avoid those traps on test day.
The ACT groups Reading questions into three broad categories: key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas.
You’ll see key ideas and details questions more than any other type. They make up 52-60% of the ACT Reading questions.
These questions ask you to do one of two things:
Craft and structure questions are the second most common type. They make up 25-30% of the test.
These questions ask you to infer meaning based on how the passage is written - for example, the author’s word choice, the way ideas are organized, or the point of view.
The least common type is integration of knowledge and ideas (13-23%).
These questions focus on arguments in the passage: what claims are being made, what evidence supports them, and how ideas or claims compare and differ.
| Question categories | Question requirements |
| Key ideas and details | Locate and interpret highly specific parts of the passage or summarize large paragraphs or the entirety of the passage |
| Craft and structure | Make logical leaps to infer the meaning being communicated, often with the author’s word choice, textual organization, or point of view |
| Integration of knowledge and ideas | Analyze arguments made in the passages, how the arguments use evidence, and how claims and arguments compare and differ from one another. |
| Question categories | Percentage of questions asked | Number of questions |
| Key ideas and details | 55-60% | 22-24 |
| Craft and structure | 25-30% | 10-12 |
| Integration of knowledge | 13-18% | 5-7 |
The ACT Reading section is 35 minutes long.
Because the test is divided into four passages, you have 8 minutes and 45 seconds to read each passage and answer its questions.
Since there are 40 questions total, that technically works out to 52.5 seconds per question. You’ll dig into pacing in much more detail in the pacing chapters.
| Time limit | # of questions | Time per passage | Time per question |
| 35 minutes | 40 multiple choice | 8:45 minutes | 52.5 seconds |
Improving your Reading score usually isn’t about being a “better reader” in the everyday sense (reading quickly and remembering everything). The ACT rewards strategy more than raw reading speed.
Scoring well comes from becoming a more strategic reader. That requires two changes:
These changes take practice, but they’re straightforward once you know what to do. In the next chapter, you’ll focus on the first change: how to read ACT Reading passages more effectively.