ACT Math Integrating Essential Skills: what it is and how to answer it
Integrating Essential Skills is the ACT Math reporting category for multi-step problems built on rates and percentages, proportional relationships, area, surface area and volume, average and median, and numbers written in different ways. ACT lists it at 20% of the Math section, but in the scoring key of ACT's 2025–26 practice test it covered 16 of the 41 scored questions, more than any other category. ACT warns that these questions often take several steps and that an answer choice is frequently an intermediate result, not the final answer.
Where it shows up on the ACT
| Enhanced ACT | |
|---|---|
| Section | Math |
| Length | 45 questions (41 scored) in 50 minutes, about 67 seconds each |
| Reporting category | Integrating Essential Skills (its own reporting category, separate from Preparing for Higher Math) |
| Share of the section | About 20% of Math, by ACT's description; 16 of 41 scored questions in ACT's 2025–26 practice test (our count) |
| In the Composite | Yes. The Composite averages English, Math and Reading. |
ACT's guide gives 20%. The scoring keys tag more questions than that: 16 of 41 in the 2025–26 practice test and 25 of 60 in the older test in the 2024–25 guide (our counts). Source: ACT, Preparing for the ACT 2025–2026: full practice test, directions and scoring keys.
What the questions ask you to do
- Find a percent change, or apply two percents one after the other, such as a discount and then tax.
- Set up a proportion or use a scale, such as on a map or a recipe.
- Work with rates and convert units along the way.
- Find area, surface area or volume, often of a shape made from simpler ones.
- Use an average to find a missing value or a total.
- Rewrite a number in another form: a fraction, a decimal, a percent or scientific notation.
The setups to know
Most Integrating Essential Skills questions are one of these, wrapped in a short story.
| Setup | How to do it | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Percent change | (new − old) ÷ old | $40 to $50 is a 25% increase |
| Two percents in a row | Multiply the factors, don't add the percents | 20% off, then 10% off: 0.8 × 0.9 = 0.72, so 28% off |
| Proportion | Match units in the same position, then cross-multiply | 3 cups per 4 servings is x cups per 10 servings |
| Scale | Convert each length separately before computing area | 1 in = 2.5 mi, so a 2 in side is 5 mi |
| Rate | Distance = rate × time; work = rate × time | 60 mi at 40 mph takes 1.5 hours |
| Unit conversion | Multiply by fractions equal to 1 so units cancel | 90 min × (1 h ÷ 60 min) = 1.5 h |
| Average | Total = average × count | To average 80 over 5 tests, you need 400 points |
| Composite shape | Split into simple shapes, then add or subtract | A square with a semicircle on one side |
What the 16 questions were about
Our count of the Integrating Essential Skills questions in ACT's 2025–26 practice test, by topic.
| Topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Geometry (area, volume, scale) | 4 |
| Statistics and probability | 4 |
| Word problems with rates and percents | 3 |
| Algebra | 2 |
| Functions | 2 |
| Number and quantity | 1 |
Topic labels are ours. ACT only tags these questions as Integrating Essential Skills.
How it relates to Modeling
Modeling is a separate ACT label for questions that ask you to build, use or judge a mathematical model of a real situation. Each Modeling question also counts in another category, so it overlaps Integrating Essential Skills rather than replacing it.
In the older 60-question practice test, the scoring key tagged 24 questions as Modeling. The 2025–26 key doesn't mark Modeling question by question.
Common mistakes
Wrong answer choices are often built around these.
- Picking the intermediate result. If the question asks for the final price, the price after the discount alone is a trap.
- Adding two percents. 20% off and then 10% off is 28% off in total, not 30%.
- Dividing by the wrong value in a percent change. The starting value goes on the bottom.
- Scaling area by the map scale once. Each side scales by the factor, so area scales by the factor squared.
- Forgetting to convert units. A rate in miles per hour and a time in minutes don't mix until you convert.
- Not checking whether the answer makes sense. ACT's own tip: an error often gives an answer that isn't possible in the situation, like a negative length.
3 example questions with answers
Written by Ashore in the style of the enhanced ACT. They aren't official ACT questions. Try each one before you open the answer.
Question 1 · Easy
A jacket is priced at $80. It is on sale for 25% off, and an 8% sales tax is then applied to the sale price. What is the total cost?
- A$60.00
- B$64.80
- C$66.40
- D$86.40
Show the answer
B. The sale price is 80 × 0.75 = $60, and with tax it's 60 × 1.08 = $64.80. $60.00 stops before the tax, $66.40 subtracts 25% and adds 8% of the original $80, and $86.40 adds tax to the full price.
Question 2 · Medium
Maya's average score on 4 quizzes is 85. What score does she need on the 5th quiz to raise her average to 87?
- F87
- G92
- H95
- J435
Show the answer
H. She has 4 × 85 = 340 points. An average of 87 over 5 quizzes needs 5 × 87 = 435 points, so the 5th score must be 435 − 340 = 95. 435 is the needed total, not the score, and 87 is the target average.
Question 3 · Hard
On a map, 1 inch represents 2.5 miles. A rectangular park on the map measures 2 inches by 1.2 inches. What is the actual area of the park, in square miles?
- A2.4
- B6
- C15
- D37.5
Show the answer
C. Convert each side first: 2 × 2.5 = 5 miles and 1.2 × 2.5 = 3 miles, so the area is 5 × 3 = 15 square miles. 2.4 is the area on the map, and 6 multiplies the map area by 2.5 once instead of twice.
More ACT Math guides
- Math formulas to know
- What topics are on ACT Math
- Desmos and calculators
- ACT score calculator: questions right in each section to a 1–36 score and Composite.
- SAT vs ACT: which test fits you better.
- All ACT guides and free tools
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Practice test 1
Example
27
Composite
(28 + 26 + 27) ÷ 3
- English28
- Math26
- Reading27
- ScienceOptional, not in the Composite25