The Format of the Reading Test
The Reading Test has two main components: the passages
and the questions.
The Passages
Each of the four passages is approximately 750 words long
and presented in two columns. They’ll basically look like this (except
they’ll be longer and have words other than “blah”):
|
| |
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| Line |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| (5) |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah. |
| |
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| (10) |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| (15) |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah. |
| |
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| (20) |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah |
| |
blah blah. |
The numbers along the left side of the column are line
numbers (the “5” means that you’re reading the fifth line of the
passage, the “15” means you’re reading the fifteenth line, etc.). Line
numbers appear on every fifth line of the passage. They are useful
primarily to refer to specific sections addressed by some questions.
The Questions
Each passage is directly followed by 10 questions
of varying difficulty, making a total of 40 questions on the Reading
Test. The ACT includes a number of different types of questions
in each batch of 10. We’ll cover each type in the following “Content”
section, and provide in-depth examples in the section featuring
sample passages and questions.
