1. English (45 minutes, 75 questions)
2. Math (60 minutes, 60 questions)
3. Reading (35 minutes, 40 questions)
4. Science (35 minutes, 40 questions)
5. Optional Essay (30 minutes)

Scores in each of the four sections of the test are reported on a scale of 1 to 36 (36 being the highest possible score). The composite score is an average of the 4 section scores and is also on a scale of 1 to 36. Beginning in 2005, the ACT will include an optional essay. The essay will be scored by two trained readers. Each reader will score the essay on a scale of 1 to 6 and you will receive a composite score on a scale of 2 to 12.

There is a "score choice" option with the ACT. The colleges will not see your scores unless you specifically release them. This means if, for example, you take the ACT 3 times, you can choose to submit any or all of the composite scores. ACT has changed their scoring procedure for the new writing section though. The new policy is that when you submit a composite score to a school, the corresponding writing score from that same test date will be submitted along with the composite score (but not averaged into the composite).

Guessing and Process Of Elimination (POE):

On the ACT, there is no guessing penalty, so it does not pay to leave any questions blank. If you don't know the answer, guess! The Princeton Review strategy of POE (Process of Elimination) will enable you to make your guesses really count. Incorrect answer choices are often easier to spot than correct ones. Eliminate as many of the obviously incorrect answer choices before you make a guess. Each time you can eliminate an answer choice, your odds of guessing correctly get better.

If you are running out of time on a section and still have several questions left, pick a letter of the day and fill in that letter for the remaining answers. You won't get all of them correct, but you will do statistically better than if you randomly fill in different answers for each of the remaining questions.

The ACT English Test

In this section you will see five essays on the left side of the page. Some words or phrases will be underlined. On the right side of the page, you will be asked whether the underlined portion is correct as written or whether one of the three alternatives listed would be better. This is a test of grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and rhetorical skills. Throughout each passage there will also be questions about overall organization and style, or perhaps about how the writing could be revised or strengthened.

Strategies:

• Work through questions 1-75 in order; don't go back to work on questions because you won't have the time. On the English Test, if you don't know it, you don't know it.
• Work 2 pages at a time; in other words, work through all the questions on the two pages open in front of you first, then bubble the answers in and move on to the next 2 pages

These are the regular multiple-choice math questions you've been doing all your life. The easier questions tend to come first - they test basic math proficiency. Forty percent of the test covers pre-algebra and elementary algebra. Slightly less than a third covers intermediate algebra and coordinate geometry (graphing). Regular geometry accounts for less than a quarter of the questions, and there will be four questions (toward the end) about trigonometry. You are allowed to use your calculator on the ACT Math Test.

Strategies:

• Work through all the math questions on your first pass, answering the questions you know; circle the questions you don't know the answers to and go back to them, time permitting
• Formulas are not provided in the Math Test, so be sure to review the formulas for area, circumference, etc. prior to taking the test
• For the trigonometry questions, use SOH-CAH-TOA to help you remember the formulas for computing sine, cosine and tangent:
  • Sine (S) = Opposite (O) over Hypotenuse (H)
  • Cosine (C) = Adjacent (A) over Hypotenuse (H)
  • Tangent (T) = Opposite (O) over Adjacent (A)

In this section there will be four reading passages of about 750 words each - the average length of a People magazine article, although maybe not that interesting. There is always one prose fiction passage, one social science passage, one humanities passage, and one natural science passage, and they are always in the same order from test to test. After each passage, you will be asked ten questions.

Strategies:

• Find the critical words and phrases: take about 30 seconds and before you read the passage, look at the questions (but not the answer choices) and underline their critical words or phrases
• Scan the passage for critical words: this should also take about 30 seconds; don't read the entire passage, just scan it and as you do, underline any words and phrases that seem to be very much like the critical words you found in the questions
• Skim and scribble: Take about 60 seconds to skim the passage and in the margin of each paragraph you scribble a few words that describe its main idea; then quickly review all your underlined words and scribbles
• Answer the questions: use the visual clues of underlined words and scribble to help you pinpoint the areas of the passage you need to read in detail and attempt to answer all the questions; remember, it may be initially easier to eliminate obviously wrong answer choices before trying to select the correct answer

No specific scientific knowledge is necessary for the Science Reasoning Test. You won't need to know the chemical makeup of hydrochloric acid or any formulas. Instead, you will be asked to understand six sets of scientific information presented in graphs, charts, tables and research summaries, and you will have to make sense of a disagreement between two (and sometimes three) scientists. The questions break down as follows:

• Data Representation (charts, graphs, etc.) - 3 passages, 15 questions
• Research Summaries (experiments and their results) - 3 passages, 18 questions
• Conflicting Viewpoints (aka "The Fighting Scientists") - 1 passage, 7 questions.

• Scan the passages: identify the passage type (charts and graphs, experiments or fighting scientists) and then go back and read the introduction
• Look at each question and identify its type: identify each question as either an understanding, analysis or generalization question; knowing the question type will help you eliminate distracters and zero in on the right answer
• Guesstimate: some of the questions will require you to do some pretty simple calculations. Sometimes you can come up with the right answer choice by "guesstimating," which means making a rough estimate. This technique works particularly well on problems that require you to interpret graphs.
• Use POE (Process of Elimination): you should use POE to eliminate incorrect answer choices; once you have eliminated a couple of answer choices, you'll be able to spend a little less time on the remaining choices and make a pretty good guess
• Pace yourself: you'll need to move along at a good clip on the Science Reasoning Test, which means you'll have to answer the questions strategically