ACT English Tips

The ACT Reading is a tough, time-pressured section where many capable students underperform. We’ve been helping students boost their ACT scores for decades and in this guide, we’re sharing our top ACT Reading tips which will genuinely improve your score.

Before diving into our tips, here’s a quick summary of how the Reading section works and what is tested.

ACT Reading Structure

The Reading section of the ACT is comprised of several, usually four, parts. Each part contains a single long passage or a few short passages, followed by a series of multiple-choice questions about the passage(s).

These questions ask you to understand the meaning of the passage or parts of it, analyse the author’s intention and tone, locate and interpret significant details, and analyse the way arguments are constructed. There is a single right answer to every question.

The passages fit into one of four groups: fiction, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

How Long Is the Reading Section on the ACT?

The Reading section lasts 35 minutes and contains 40 questions.

How Many Passages Are There in the Act Reading?

It’s often said that there are four long passages in the Reading section with 10 questions for each passage. In fact, while there are usually four parts to the Reading section, there may be just one passage in each part or two shorter paired passages.

ACT Reading Tips: 3 Ways to Approach the Passage

The key challenge in the Reading is combining speed with accuracy. There are usually ~90 lines of text to read for each passage and ten questions to answer.

With less than a minute per question plus substantial time needed for reading the text, every student needs to go into the ACT with a clear plan of attack to help them answer all the questions without sacrificing precision.

	Low Accuracy	High Accuracy
High Speed	Medium Score	High Score
Low Speed	Low Score	Medium Score

One of the most important ACT Reading tips is therefore to find the strategy for approaching each passage which best suits you. Below are three structured approaches. Each one can work well, but they suit different types of students.

Strategy 1: Full Read First, Then Answer the Questions

With this approach, you read the entire passage carefully before answering any questions. Your goal is to understand the author’s purpose, tone, structure, and development of ideas. Once you have that full picture, you work through the questions in order, returning to the passage to verify evidence.

Pros

• You gain a strong understanding of the author’s purpose, tone, and structure, which makes main idea, function, inference, and voice questions easier to answer.
• Because you read everything in context, you are less likely to choose an answer that sounds right in isolation but conflicts with the passage as a whole.
• You can answer the questions in order without jumping around or deciding which types to prioritise first.
• You may feel more confident about your answers because you have the full picture of the passage – this can help you psychologically hold up better under exam pressure
• This approach is particularly effective for dense or literary passages, such as Prose Fiction or Humanities texts, where nuance and subtle shifts in tone matter.

Cons

• You will inevitably spend time reading information that is never directly tested in the questions.
• Because you have front-loaded your reading, you could find yourself several minutes into the passage without having answered any questions, which may cause you to panic or rush later.
• Even after a full read, you are likely to need to re-read specific lines to verify details, which wastes time.
• You may be tempted to answer from memory rather than locating proof in the text, which could cause avoidable slip-ups.

Works Best For

Students who feel unsettled or anxious without a complete understanding of the passage before answering.

Faster readers who retain information well.

Students who regularly struggle with big-picture questions when they do not read fully.

Strategy 2: No Upfront Read – Go Straight to the Questions

With this method, you deliberately skip the initial read of the passage and begin with the questions. Instead of building your understanding first and then answering, you allow the questions to guide what you read and in what order. Your comprehension develops in layers as you move through the test.

This is one of the most tactical ACT Reading tips because it treats the passage as a resource to consult rather than something to absorb in full.

Two Sub-Strategies to Support the No-Read Approach

If you simply jump to Question 1 and move forward blindly, this strategy can become chaotic. To make it effective, you need to make use of one or both of the following sub-strategies.

1. Do the ‘Line-Reference’ Questions First

Start with the questions that tell you exactly where to look. These are usually easy to identify because they include line numbers or paragraph references, such as “In line 12…”, “In the third paragraph (lines 15–23)…”, or “As used in line 27…”.

You go directly to the cited lines, read slightly above and below for context, and answer based strictly on what is written there.

By doing this repeatedly, you will also begin to piece together a partial mental map of the passage without ever reading it in full.

2. Answer the ‘Easy’ Questions

Tackle questions which require simple retrieval from the passage before moving onto more abstract ones.

Look for phrases such as “according to the passage”, “the passage states”, “the author indicates”, or “based on the passage”. These are usually asking for information that is explicitly stated rather than inferred. They tend to be quicker to answer, allowing you time at the end to try the more general questions.

As with the line-reference questions, by answering these, you naturally build up a partial picture of the passage overall, which helps you later when you face broader questions.

Only after you have cleared most of the clearly located or direct retrieval questions should you move on to the whole-passage questions, such as main idea, author’s attitude, or overall organisation. By that stage, you will have read several key sections and should be able to answer these questions more quickly.

Pros

• You avoid spending time upfront reading material that may never appear in a question.
• Every time you read, you are doing so with a specific purpose tied to a question, which reduces passive reading.
• Information tends to feel fresher because you apply it immediately rather than trying to remember it minutes later.
• You are forced into an evidence-first mindset
• If a passage includes many line references or definition-based questions, this method can be extremely efficient.

Cons

• If a question does not indicate where to look, you can waste valuable time scanning multiple sections.
• You may find a sentence that matches a keyword in an answer choice but miss how the surrounding context qualifies or contradicts it.
• Because you are not reading the full passage in order, your ability to answer whole-passage questions is weaker.
• You are likely to be less confident that you have the right answer.
• This approach requires you to identify different question types and answer them in the right order, which adds mental strain and potentially costs time.

Works Best For

• Students who are highly efficient at scanning and quickly locating specific lines.
• Students who remain calm when they have not read the passage from beginning to end.
• Students who are disciplined about always rereading a few lines above and below any cited reference before selecting an answer.

Strategy 3: Skim for Structure, Then Target Questions, Then Fill the Gaps

This is often the most balanced and widely effective of the ACT Reading tips.

You begin with a structured skim of the passage. Focus particularly on the first and last lines of each paragraph, topic sentences, transitions such as “however” or “therefore”, contrasts, definitions, and examples. Your goal is to understand how the passage is organised rather than to memorise every detail.

Next, you answer the questions that refer to specific lines or phrases, returning to the text to prove each answer carefully.

Finally, in order to answer the remaining global questions about purpose, tone, and organisation, you re-read the passage or key sections of it more fully.

Pros

• You build a structural map of the passage without committing the time required for a full initial read.
• When a question asks about a specific claim or example, you usually remember roughly where it appeared, which improves your ability to navigate the passage.
• You still rely on textual evidence, because you return to exact lines to confirm your answers.
• You are better prepared for global questions than with the no-read approach because you have at least gleaned a sense of the passage’s purpose and organisation.
• You avoid the feeling of being several minutes in without answering anything, which can reduce panic.

Cons

• If your skimming is too shallow or rushed, you may not gain a meaningful understanding of the passage and will need to reread large sections anyway.
• Literary passages with subtle meanings or shifts in tone can be misread if you rely only on a surface-level skim.
• You may assume your initial skim was sufficient and fail to reread carefully when the question demands closer analysis.

Works Best For

• Most test-takers.
• Students aiming to balance speed with reliability.

How to Decide Which Strategy Is Right for You

The most practical ACT Reading tip is to test each strategy under realistic conditions. Complete one full timed Reading section using each method, and compare your score, your timing, and how confident you felt throughout.

Do not base your decision on a single passage, because some passages naturally favour certain approaches. A section with many line references may make the no-read strategy look strong, while a section filled with global questions may reward the full-read method.

The right strategy is the one that consistently produces accuracy, controlled pacing, and confidence across entire sections.

More ACT Reading Tips

Once you have chosen your core passage strategy, the next step is to strengthen the habits that support it. These ACT Reading tips will help you gain marks and avoid careless errors.

Tip 1: Read Widely and Consistently

One of the most effective ACT Reading tips begins long before test day: read widely, in a range of genres.

Exposing yourself to different types of writing – fiction, essays, and journalism – improves your vocabulary, reading speed, and comfort with complex sentence structures. It also helps you recognise the tone, argument flow, and rhetorical techniques used in ACT passages more quickly.

Half an hour of reading a day in the months leading up to the test makes a massive difference.

Tip 2. The Answer Is in the Text

This is maybe the most important thing to understand about the ACT Reading. You’re not being asked to use your imagination, bring in outside knowledge of the subject of the passage, or make massive inferential leaps.

Before selecting an answer, ask yourself: where in the passage is the proof? If you cannot point to specific lines that justify your choice, reconsider it.

Treat every question as if you were on trial and must defend your answer using specific textual evidence.

Tip 3. Learn Key ACT Literary Terms

Many ACT Reading questions assume that you understand terms such as tone, imagery, symbolism, irony, metaphor, foreshadowing, and hyperbole. If you are unsure what these terms mean, you will struggle to interpret what the question is actually asking.

Tip 4. Always Read the Blurb

Before you begin each passage, read the short introductory blurb carefully.

The blurb tells you where the passage is from and often signals its genre and purpose. If you know you are reading a memoir, you can anticipate a personal tone. If you know you are reading a scientific article, you can expect definitions, structured explanations, and evidence.

Those few seconds of context shape how you interpret the entire passage and can save you time later on.

Tip 5. Know Which Sentences to Read Carefully

Not every sentence in an ACT passage carries equal weight. Certain words or phrases often indicate that a sentence is more likely to be tested.

For example, you should slow down when you encounter:

• A clear time marker, such as “initially”, “later”, or a specific date.
• A logical transition, such as “however”, “because”, or “although”.
• A comparison or contrast, such as “more”, “similar”, or “rather than”.
• A definition of an unfamiliar term.
• A statistic or specific numerical detail.
• A piece of figurative language, such as a simile or metaphor.

When you see one of these, alarm bells should ring, and you should read more deliberately. They often form the basis of ACT questions.

Tip 6. Use the 30-Second Rule for Timing

If you cannot answer a question using textual evidence within about 30 seconds, eliminate any definitely wrong answers, make an educated guess, and move on.

(More on how to eliminate wrong answers in our ACT Reading tip #8.)

Spending several minutes on a single question can damage your performance on the rest of the passage. Think about it this way – you’re guaranteed to lose marks on any questions you don’t answer, but you might at least gain some on the questions you guessed.

Tip 7. Vocabulary in Context Questions

Most ACT vocabulary questions do not test obscure words. Instead, they test how a familiar word is being used within a particular context.

When you encounter one, re-read the context surrounding the word, including the sentences before and after. Then replace the tested word with a word of your own that fits the context. Compare your predicted meaning to the answer choices and eliminate those that do not match.

Tip 8. Eliminate Wrong Answers Strategically

Our final ACT Reading tip depends on the fact that many incorrect answers are incorrect for predictable reasons, test after test, year after year. Common patterns for wrong answers include:

• Too broad – the passage refers to something specific and the answer choice broadens it out too much (e.g. the passage states that the charity’s initiative will help local residents and the answer claims it will help all Americans)
• Too specific – the reverse of the above (e.g. the passage states that the audience included businesspeople and the answer claims that it only included CEOs)
• Extreme wording – the text of the passage is moderate (‘underwhelming’) but the answer choice is extreme (‘disgraceful’)
• Reverses a relationship – e.g. the passage states that thing a causes thing b but the answer claims that thing b causes thing a; or the passage states that person a called person b but the answer claims that person b called person a
• Introduces an unrelated concept – the answer choice is about a somewhat similar concept to the thrust of the passage but is not directly related (e.g. the passage is about how travel broadens the mind but the answer choice is about the benefits of economic migration)

If you keep an eye out for these traps, you’ll save yourself a lot of marks.

How to Improve Your ACT Reading Score

If you’ve implemented these ACT Reading tips and still need to improve your score, the first step is to diagnose your problem.

Take an untimed practice test and see how you scored. If your score improved, then your primary problem is not exam technique or reading comprehension, but time management. If it didn’t, then your problem is exam technique or comprehension.

Once you’ve identified your problem, work on it remorselessly:

How to Improve Timing

1. Finding the right strategy for you – time yourself while trying out our three ACT Reading Strategies and see which is quickest
2. Practise, practise, practise – getting used to reading quickly, understanding questions, and scanning the text can only come with practice but it can make a massive difference
3. Reading widely – if you have time before your test, double the amount of reading your doing outside of school. Read serious newspapers and magazines and literary fiction. Time spend reading every day will improve your reading speed, stamina, and ability to make quick inferences when you don’t understand a specific word or phrase.

How to Improve Comprehension / Exam Technique:

If your problem isn’t timing, then you need to work out exactly what it is. Our tip to improve your ACT Reading score is building a wrong-answer log.

After each practice section, record every wrong answer and force yourself to complete three steps in full sentences:

1. What is the correct answer, and what line(s) prove it?
2. Why did I choose the wrong answer? Be specific – e.g. misread a word, missed a transition, picked the wrong sentence, failed to recognise a paraphrase, vocabulary gap, rushed.
3. What will I do next time to prevent this exact mistake? This might be “take more time on whole passage questions”, or “re-read two lines above and below the reference”.

This is how you stop repeating the same mistakes. Most students do more practice but keep making the same mistakes; the log is what breaks that cycle.all the ACT’s sections. Whatever you struggle most with – a particular grammar rule, or relevance questions – memorising the principles and drilling the questions is guaranteed to improve your performance.

Get Help from Dukes Plus

If you’re struggling to make progress on your own, consider seeking extra help.

At Dukes Plus, our expert ACT preparation has helped students improve their scores for more than 20 years. Our ACT prep course offers an intensive guide to the content and key test strategies to excel, while our ACT test tutoring helps students increase their score by 7 points on average.

Book a free consultation to learn more.