ACT Prep For Dummies Cheat Sheet

The American College Testing exam (ACT) tests your knowledge of grammar, reading, science, and math. In addition, the ACT includes an optional writing test. Many colleges require or recommend and entrance exam, such as the ACT, as a component of your application for admission.

Test sections of the ACT

The ACT comprises several different test sections, and each section has its own time limit. The following table shows you how many questions each ACT section has and how much time you have to answer them.

ACT Breakdown by Section

If you add up the numbers, you find that you have 216 questions to answer in 205 minutes. You get one 10-minute break between the second and third tests (the mathematics and reading tests). If you opt not to take the optional writing Test, then you get to walk out right after the science test.

Occasionally, the ACT will throw in an extra 20-minute section at the end to test questions for future exams. This section could be English, mathematics, reading, or science. These questions don’t count toward your composite score.

Tips for avoiding mistakes on the ACT

Taking the ACT requires quite a bit of preparation. If you’ve taken the time to prepare, you don’t want to jeopardize a good score by making a silly mistake. So, be aware of the following catastrophes so that you can prevent them from happening to you.

Translating math word problems

When you see a word problem on the ACT math test, you may feel a little lost at first. Straightforward math equations seem so much more, well, straightforward. Even though word problems are written in English, they may seem like they’re written in a foreign language.

To help you with the translation, the following table provides you with some of the more common words you encounter in word problems and tells you what they mean (and look like!) in math terms.

Common Words and Their Math Counterparts

Subtraction phrases such as “taken away from,” “subtracted from,” “less than,” and “fewer than” require you to switch the order of the quantities you’re subtracting. For example, “Ten decreased by six” means 10 – 6 (which equals 4), but “Ten subtracted from six” means 6 – 10, or –4.