Find Your Starting ACT Score
If you’ve already taken the ACT, your starting point is the best score you’ve ever gotten on the exam.
If you haven’t taken the ACT before, you should take a diagnostic test and score the exam so you understand how scoring works and what your starting point is.
Taking a diagnostic test is time consuming – but worth it.
The best way to take a diagnostic test is to download an official Enhanced ACT Practice Test PDF from the ACT’s website, print out the test, take it under time pressure, and score your exam using the answer sheet provided.
You can also take an online diagnostic test for convenience here.
Your Options to Prepare for the Enhanced ACT in 2026
The four main ways to prepare for the ACT are:
- ACT Prep Books
- If you like reading and self-teaching, ACT Prep Books are a really good option.Preparing for the ACT using books takes a lot of time and energy, but they can help you make a massive increase in your score if you dedicate a couple of months to teaching yourself everything about the test.
- Self-Paced online course
- Most students choose a self-paced online course. They provide the most flexibility so you can learn on your own schedule.Some courses even have built-in diagnostic tests so they can assess your strengths and weaknesses and give you test prep material that helps you improve your weaker areas without wasting time on things you are already great at.
- One on One Tutoring
- One on one tutoring is the most expensive ACT prep option. But, when paired with an online course, tutoring is the best option to help you maximize your score.Your tutor can review your practice problems in the online course and come with a lesson plan and a strategy for improving your skills in each tutoring session.
- Group Classes
- Whether in-person or online, group classes can be a very effective way to get an overview of the most important concepts and strategies that lead to success on the ACT.The downside of group classes is that they cannot address the individual needs of each student (unless the course takes months), but group classes are a very good resource, especially for last-minute studying.
Section-Specific Strategies for the Enhanced ACT
The ACT recently changed its test format, but the basic requirements to do well on each section of the test have stayed the same.
How to ace the new ACT English Section
Step one to acing the ACT English Section is to understand the best strategy, which is to read each passage carefully and answer the questions as you come to them.
You should read each sentence in the passage, even if there are several sentences in a row without a question, because the information you learn in those sentences will almost always help you answer questions correctly in the next paragraph.
Next, you need to know how to answer all of the different types of Grammar questions. The ACT has very specific Grammar rules that are guaranteed to show up on the test. If you learn these rules well, you will do well on the English section of the ACT.
Finally, you need to understand the Reading Comprehension questions on the English section of the ACT (yes, there are Reading Comprehension questions on the English section, even if they aren’t called Reading Comprehension questions). You can learn about these question types in this video.
How to ace the new ACT Reading Section
ACT Reading Tips and Strategies
The ACT Reading section used to be the hardest section to finish on time. With the new Enhanced ACT, students have slightly more time per question.
Use that extra time to make sure you read the entire passage before answering the questions.
The key to the ACT reading section is to read quickly and stick to the facts.
This means you should never read for a deeper meaning in the stories. The ACT only cares about the objective facts of the story. There is no deeper meaning to any of the passages on the ACT.
In order to do well, practice reading passages in about 3 minutes – that’s about how long it should take to read the passage. You do not need to remember every single word you read, because you are going to refer back to the passage in order to answer each question anyway.
How to Skim the ACT Reading Section
We do not recommend skimming the passage. Instead, you should read every single word in the passage – but read slightly faster than you are used to. You do not need to remember every single word you read, because you will refer back to the passage when you answer the questions, anyway.
If you are going to skim the passage, all you need to do is glance through the passage quickly, trying to pick up on keywords like character introductions, dates, and places. This will help you find the necessary information when answering questions.
How to ace the new ACT Math Section
The new ACT Math section has 45 questions and you have 50 minutes to complete the section.
The ACT Math section is very hard. You need to have many different math skills in order to ace this section of the exam, including algebra, geometry, trigonometry, statistics, and more advanced topics like polar coordinates, complex numbers, and matrices.
If you aren’t familiar with those advanced topics, that’s ok. You can learn how to answer ACT questions about those topics with a little hard work in an online Study Guide; it is very hard to get a high score on the ACT Math section without some familiarity with those advanced topics.
ACT Math Tips and Strategies
The strategy that has benefited the most students on the ACT Math section is time management. You need to answer the first 25 questions as quickly and accurately as possible. It should take you about 20 minutes to answer the first 25 questions, because the first half of the test is easier than the second half of the Math test.
You will need a little more time per question for the final 20 questions, because they will be more difficult.
And the biggest tip to get more questions correct – and save time – is to know how to use your calculator really well. Having a graphing calculator like a TI-84 (and knowing how to use it) is a massive advantage on the ACT Math section.
Note: Certain calculators are prohibited on the ACT.
You should be able to do all of these things on your calculator:
- Simplify Fractions
- Calculate Absolute Value
- Use the LOGBASE function
- Handle Imaginary Numbers
- Multiply Matrices
- Simplify Trigonometric Expressions
- Plug answer choices into equations
How to ace the new ACT Science Section
The new ACT Science section is optional, so be sure to check your registration information to see if you are taking the Science section before you spend time preparing for it.
ACT Science Tips and Strategies
If you are taking the Science section, the best strategy is to skip the passage (don’t read the passage) and go straight to the questions.
The questions will tell you which chart, graph, or paragraph you need to interpret in order to answer the question.
Next, you need to know that the ACT Science section is just a problem solving test. It isn’t really a Science test – at least, not like you would take in school. You don’t need to know much about science to do well on this section of the test.
You just need to know how to read charts and graphs and track down information. So focus on solving the problem in front of you – do not worry about understanding the science discussed in the passage.
How to get a 36 on the Enhanced ACT
How Scoring works on the Enhanced ACT
Your Composite Score – which is your ACT Score – is the average score of your Reading, English, and Math sections on the ACT.
That’s right. The Science section doesn’t count.
How to get a 36
So, in order to get a 36 on the new ACT, you need to get a 36 on two of those sections and a 35 on the third section.
Your average score when you get a 36 on two of the sections and a 35 on the other section is 35.7, which rounds up to 36, so your ACT Score would be a 36.
Of course, you can just get a 36 on every section and get a 36, too.
Here’s an example of a 36 on the ACT: score a 36 on Reading and English and a 35 on Math. That gets you an average score of 35.7, which rounds up to 36, so you get a 36.
Do all of the questions on the ACT count?
For each section of the exam, there are some “ungraded” questions.
This means some of the questions will not actually count for anything.
No one knows which of the questions are going to be the questions that do not count, so you need to assume every question you answer is going to count.
On the English section, 10 questions do not count. On the Math section, 4 questions do not count. On the Reading section, 9 questions do not count. And on the Science section, 6 questions do not count.
But you can’t predict exactly which questions will not count, so you really should plan to answer every single question on the test.
How many questions you need to get right to get a 36 on the ACT
In order to get a 36 on the English section, you need to get all of the questions correct. In order to get a 36 on the Math section, you need to get all but one of the questions correct. And in order to get a 36 on the Reading section, you need to get all of the questions correct.
Remember, some of the questions you answer will not be graded.
Here’s a complete scoring chart for the Enhanced ACT:
The strategies you should use to get a 36 on the ACT
On the English section, read the entire passage, answering questions as you come to them. Be sure to read each sentence in the passage, because context is key to answering questions, even on the English section.
On the Math section, do the first 25 questions as quickly and accurately as possible. The first half of the test is significantly easier than the second half of the test. Learn how to answer the most difficult questions on the test using your calculator.
On the Reading section, read the entire passage, but read it quickly. You should read each passage in about 3 minutes. For most students, this will feel like “speed-reading.” That’s okay. You don’t need to remember every word of the passage the first time you read it.
Remember, the Science section is optional and doesn’t actually count for your ACT score.
How students who got a 36 on the ACT prepared for their exam
You need to choose the method of preparing for the ACT that you will actually do.
Here’s what that means: any method of test prep CAN work as long as you actually show up and do the work.
So if you’re going to prepare using books, you need to read the books, do the practice questions, and most importantly review the questions you get wrong.
If you’re going to do group classes, you need to attend the classes. If you’re doing one-on-one tutoring, you need to do the lessons your tutor assigns.
And if you’re doing an online course, you need to finish the course.
But most importantly, be prepared to take the ACT multiple times. If you do a lot of prep work and you only have one chance to ace the exam, you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.
Take the ACT 2 or 3 times so that you have multiple chances to show what you’ve learned.