Key ideas and details

The ACT divides its Reading questions into three types: key ideas and details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge and ideas. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to recognize these question types and use reliable strategies to answer them.

Key idea questions

Key idea and detail questions make up about 52-60% of the ACT Reading section, so you’ll see them often. Key idea questions can be broken into two types:

1. Key idea (passage)
2. Key idea (paragraph)

Key ideas (passage)

Key idea (passage) questions ask about the passage as a whole. To answer them, you need to understand the overall point, theme, or purpose - not just one specific line.

Below is an example of a straightforward key idea (passage) question.

Here’s another example. Notice that this question also requires you to think about the passage as a whole. It doesn’t point you to one specific paragraph; it asks about the entire passage.

If you feel a little lost while reading, you can often get back on track quickly by returning to the introduction and conclusion. Writers commonly restate the main idea or theme in those places, so they’re good sections to revisit when you’re stuck on a key idea (passage) question.

Here’s a less obvious example of a key idea (passage) question:

This question requires a solid understanding of both passages. For questions like this, your passage annotations help you keep track of each passage’s main point and where key information appears.

Think about it… what is a strategy you can use to help you answer key idea (passage) questions?

Key ideas (paragraph)

Key idea (paragraph) questions work the same way as key idea (passage) questions, but they focus on a single paragraph instead of the entire passage.

Here’s an example:

You may not have time to reread the entire paragraph when you see one of these questions. When you’re short on time, focus on the first and last sentences:

• The first sentence usually introduces the paragraph’s topic.
• The last sentence often states the takeaway or wraps up the idea.

Even when you do have time, this approach helps you stay focused on the paragraph’s main point instead of getting pulled into minor details.

Answer this: what is a strategy you can use to help you answer key idea (paragraph) questions?

Now you know the core approach to key idea questions.

Detail questions

Detail questions ask, in effect, “What does the passage say?” They might ask what the author states, what a character does, or what event occurs. For a detail question, the correct answer will always be supported directly by the passage.

Be sure to keep a few things in mind when answering detail questions:

• The correct answer may not use the exact same wording as the passage. The test often uses synonyms to check whether you understand what you read.
• Detail questions are almost always answered in the body of the passage, not the introduction or conclusion.
• Most of the time, the first sentence of a paragraph gives you a clue about what that paragraph covers. That topic sentence can help you locate the right paragraph without skimming the entire passage.

Here’s an example of a detail question:

This is a detail question because it asks you to find something explicitly stated in the passage. A common clue is the wording at the beginning of the question. For example, “According to the passage” signals that the passage directly provides the information - you just need to locate it.

Here are some other phrases detail questions frequently use:

• “The passage indicates…”
• “The narrator claims…”
• “Based on the passage…”
• “The passage states…”

Another common type of detail question looks like this:

These questions appear pretty reliably (about one per Reading test), so you’ll likely see one on test day. This question is asking which event happened first in time.

Be careful: the first event mentioned in the passage is often not the earliest event chronologically. For example, the passage might describe a recent event and then later say something like “Back in 1972…” That later sentence could refer to an earlier event.

This is why it helps to annotate words and phrases that signal time (as discussed in the annotating chapter).

Some things to keep in mind about chronology questions:

• They are trying to trick you with these questions, so the answer usually isn’t obvious.
• The event you notice first in the passage is almost never the correct answer.
• Use your annotations for time markers when approaching a chronology question.

What are some strategies you can use to help answer detail questions?

Now you know the core approach to key idea and detail questions. Use these strategies consistently to improve both speed and accuracy on ACT Reading.