Don’t be scared of the ACT. Why? Because we know what’s on the exam, and we know exactly how you should prepare for it. Kaplan has been teaching kids how to succeed on standardized tests for more than 75 years—longer than anyone else, period.
This book contains 8 practice exams that mirror the ACT you will face on Test Day—more ACT practice than can be found between the covers of any other book. Practice is one of the keys to mastery, and these 8 exams give you plenty of practice to assess your strengths and weaknesses before you take the real thing.
Just as important as taking practice tests is understanding why you got a question right or wrong when you’re done. The detailed answers and explanations that follow each practice test provide you with a thorough explanation of the correct answer as well as strategic advice, so you will start to learn some ways you can approach similar questions on Test Day. In addition, every answer explanation lets you know the difficulty level of each question. If you’re missing a lot of “Low” difficulty questions, you might need to do some extra review. If you are acing many of the “High” difficulty questions, you’re on the right track.
Every practice question and answer explanation in this book is geared toward one thing—getting you more points on the actual ACT. So don’t stress out—Kaplan’s got you covered.
This book is filled with over 1,700 practice questions to help you master the ACT. Follow these steps to get the most out of these 8 practice tests:
After making your way through these steps, we guarantee that you will have the test expertise and improved skills to tackle the ACT with confidence.
As a general rule, students take the ACT at least once in their junior year, often taking it for the first time in the early spring. The ACT is administered on select Saturdays during the school year. Sunday testing is also available for students who cannot take the Saturday test because of religious observances. Check the official ACT website at actstudent.org/regist/dates.html for the most up-to-date test dates.
To register for the ACT by mail, you’ll need to get an ACT Paper Registration Guide from your high school guidance counselor.
You can register online at actstudent.org/regist/. Note: Not all students are eligible to register online, so read the instructions and requirements carefully.
Register early to secure the time you want at the test center of your choice and to avoid late registration fees.
Students with disabilities can go to actstudent.org/regist/disab/ to learn how to apply for accommodations.
In the United States, the fee for the ACT is $62.50 with the writing test, and $46.00 without the writing test. This price includes reports for you, your high school, and up to four colleges and scholarship programs. To get the most up-to-date information on test fees, please check actstudent.org/regist/actfees.html.
You will receive an admission ticket at least a week before the test. The ticket confirms your registration on a specified date, at a specified test center. Make sure to bring this, along with proper identification, to the test center. Some acceptable forms of identification include photo IDs such as a driver’s license, a school identification card, or a valid passport. (Unacceptable forms of identification include a Social Security card, credit card, or birth certificate.)
Your ACT scores will be available online approximately three weeks after the test.
Remember to check act.org for all the latest information on the ACT . Every effort has been made to keep the information in this book as up-to-date as possible, but changes may occur after the book is published.
Finally, bookmark the ACT’s website: act.org.
The ACT is about three hours long (three and a half with the Writing Test). The test consists of four subject tests, with a total of 215 scored multiple-choice questions, and one optional essay.
Below is the breakdown of the test:
| Test | Questions | Timing | Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 75 questions | 45 minutes | Measures standard written English and rhetorical skills. |
| Mathematics | 60 questions | 60 minutes | Measures mathematical skills students have typically acquired in courses taken up to the beginning of grade 12. |
| Reading | 40 questions | 35 minutes | Measures reading comprehension. |
| Science | 40 questions | 35 minutes | Measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problemsolving skills required in the natural sciences. |
| Optional Writing Test | 1 prompt | 40 minutes | Measures writing skills emphasized in high school English classes and in entrylevel college composition courses. |
* There will be a short break between the Math and Reading subject tests.
The ACT is scored differently from most tests that you take at school. Your ACT score on a test section is not reported as the total number of questions you answered correctly, nor does it directly represent the percentage of questions you answered correctly. Instead, the test makers add up all of your correct answers in a section to get what‘s called your raw score. They then use a conversion chart, or scale, that matches up a particular raw score with what‘s called a scaled score. The scaled score is the number that gets reported as your score for that ACT subject test.
You gain one point for every question you answer correctly. You lose no points for answering a question wrong OR for leaving a question blank. This means you should ALWAYS answer EVERY question on the ACT—even if you have to guess.
| SCALED SCORE | RAW SCORES | |||
| English | Mathematics | Reading | Science | |
| 36 | 75 | 60 | 40 | 40 |
| 35 | 74 | – | – | – |
| 34 | 73 | 59 | 39 | 39 |
| 33 | 72 | 58 | – | – |
| 32 | 71 | 57 | 38 | 38 |
| 31 | 70 | 55–56 | 37 | 37 |
| 30 | 69 | 53–54 | 36 | 36 |
| 29 | 68 | 50–52 | 35 | 35 |
| 28 | 67 | 48–49 | 34 | 34 |
| 27 | 65–66 | 45–47 | 33 | 33 |
| 26 | 63–64 | 43–44 | 32 | 32 |
| 25 | 61–62 | 40–42 | 31 | 30–31 |
| 24 | 58–60 | 38–39 | 30 | 28–29 |
| 23 | 56–57 | 35–37 | 29 | 26–27 |
| 22 | 53–55 | 33–34 | 28 | 24–25 |
| 21 | 49–52 | 31–32 | 27 | 21–23 |
| 20 | 46–48 | 28–30 | 25–26 | 19–20 |
| 19 | 44–45 | 26–27 | 23–24 | 17–18 |
| 18 | 41–43 | 23–25 | 21–22 | 16 |
| 17 | 39–40 | 20–22 | 19–20 | 15 |
| 16 | 36–38 | 17–19 | 17–18 | 14 |
| 15 | 34–35 | 15–16 | 15–16 | 13 |
| 14 | 30–33 | 13–14 | 14 | 12 |
| 13 | 28–29 | 11–12 | 12–13 | 11 |
| 12 | 25–27 | 9–10 | 10–11 | 10 |
| 11 | 23–24 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
| 10 | 20–22 | 7 | 8 | 8 |
| 9 | 17–19 | 6 | 7 | 7 |
| 8 | 14–16 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| 7 | 12–13 | 4 | 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 9–11 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | 7–8 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | 4–6 | – | 2 | 2 |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | – | – | – |
| 1 | 0–1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
There are four separate scoring domains for the ACT Essay: Ideas and Analysis, Development and Support, Organization, and Language Use. Two trained readers score your essay on a scale of 1–6 for each of the four Writing test domains; those scores are added to arrive at your four Writing domain scores (each from 2 to 12). You will also receive an overall Writing test score ranging from 2 to 12, which is determined by a rounded average of the four domain scores. The graders will use a rubric similar to the following to determine each domain score.
| 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Ideas and Analysis | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Development and Support | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Organization | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Language Use | |||||
|
|
|
|
|
|