ACT Reading tips and timing: how to finish 36 questions in 40 minutes
The ACT Reading section gives you 40 minutes for 36 questions, about 67 seconds per question. In ACT's 2025–26 practice test, the questions came in 4 passages of 9 questions each, so plan on about 10 minutes per passage, reading included, and check the clock at 10, 20 and 30 minutes. If a question is taking too long, guess, flag it and move on. There's no penalty for a wrong answer, so don't leave any blank.
Where it shows up on the ACT
| Enhanced ACT | |
|---|---|
| Section | Reading |
| Length | 36 questions (27 scored) in 40 minutes, about 67 seconds each |
| Reporting category | The whole Reading section |
| Share of the section | 36 questions in 40 minutes, 27 of them scored |
| In the Composite | Yes. The Composite averages English, Math and Reading. |
The other 9 are unscored try-out questions mixed into the section. In ACT's 2025–26 practice test, we counted 4 passages with 9 questions each, and all 9 questions on the first passage were the unscored ones. Don't count on the same layout on test day: nothing on the test marks which questions are try-outs. Source: ACT: enhanced ACT FAQs (question counts, timing, unscored questions).
What the questions ask you to do
- Key Ideas and Details, 44–52% of Reading: main ideas, details, inferences and what a paragraph says.
- Craft and Structure, 26–33%: why the author includes a detail, word meaning in context and point of view.
- Integration of Knowledge and Ideas, 19–26%: claims and evidence, comparing two passages and, when there is one, reading a graph or table with a passage.
Time budget for ACT Reading
The numbers behind the pacing plan, worked out from ACT's question count and time limit.
| Item | Time |
|---|---|
| Whole section | 40 minutes for 36 questions |
| Per question, on average | About 67 seconds |
| Per passage of 9 questions | About 10 minutes |
| If you spend 3 minutes reading a passage | 7 minutes left for 9 questions, about 47 seconds each |
| If you spend 4 minutes reading a passage | 6 minutes left for 9 questions, 40 seconds each |
Pacing checkpoints, passage by passage
Glance at the timer when you finish each passage. If you're more than 2 minutes behind a checkpoint, guess on the question you're stuck on and start the next passage.
| Passage | Questions | Finish by |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1–9 | Minute 10 |
| 2 | 10–18 | Minute 20 |
| 3 | 19–27 | Minute 30 |
| 4 | 28–36 | Minute 40 |
Based on the 4 × 9 layout we counted in ACT's 2025–26 practice test. The order of passage types on your test may differ.
Tips that save time
- Read the passage once with care instead of skimming it twice. ACT's own tips are to read carefully, take notes and go back to the passage for each answer.
- When a question names lines or a paragraph, reread only that part and a sentence on either side.
- Guess and flag any question you can't settle in about a minute, then come back if you have time left.
- Treat every passage as scored. You can't tell which questions are try-outs, so skipping a passage can cost real points.
- If a passage comes with a graph or table, read its title and column labels before the questions that use it.
Common mistakes
Wrong answer choices are often built around these.
- Spending 13 or 14 minutes on the first passage. Three or four minutes over early leaves the last passage rushed.
- Leaving questions blank. ACT doesn't take off points for wrong answers, so a guess can only help.
- Rereading the whole passage for every question instead of going to the lines it points to.
- Skipping a passage because you think it's the unscored one. Nothing on the test tells you which questions are try-outs.
- Answering from what you already know about the topic. ACT says Reading questions don't test outside facts, so the answer has to be in the passage.
- Skipping a graph or table. When a passage comes with one, questions can ask you to connect it to the text.
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
For decades, the Millbrook Public Library charged ten cents a day for overdue books. Librarians had long suspected that the fines did less to bring books back than to keep some families from borrowing at all. At the start of 2019, the library dropped the fines, and the head librarian, Dana Ruiz, began tracking what happened. The first change was at the front desk. Families who had stopped coming because of an unpaid balance began to return, some carrying books that had been missing for years. Ruiz expected late returns to climb once there was no penalty. They barely moved. Most borrowers, she found, brought books back late because they forgot, not because a dime a day seemed cheaper than a trip to the library. Ruiz is careful not to claim too much. One library's numbers, she says, can't show what would happen everywhere.
Millbrook Public Library, books checked out and returned late Year Books checked out Returned late 2017 40,600 3,800 2018 41,200 3,900 2019 46,800 4,100 According to the passage, why had librarians suspected that the fines were a problem?
- AThey cost more to collect than they brought in.
- BThey led borrowers to return books damaged.
- CThey were higher than fines at nearby libraries.
- DThey kept some families from borrowing at all.
Show the answer
D. The first paragraph says librarians suspected the fines kept some families from borrowing at all. The passage never mentions what the fines cost to collect, damaged books or other libraries' fines.
Question 2 · Medium
Based on the passage above, it can reasonably be inferred that Ruiz expected late returns to climb because she assumed that:
- Ffamilies with unpaid balances would stop borrowing.
- Gthe fines had been what made some borrowers return books on time.
- Hthe library would have more books to lend.
- Jborrowers would forget more often without reminder notices.
Show the answer
G. Ruiz expected more late returns once there was no penalty, which only makes sense if she thought the penalty had been getting books back on time. Families with unpaid balances came back rather than stopping, and the passage says nothing about new books or reminder notices.
Question 3 · Hard
Based on the passage and the table above, which statement about 2019, the first year without fines, is best supported?
- ALate returns fell compared with 2018.
- BFewer books were checked out than in 2018.
- CMore books were checked out than in 2018, and late returns rose only slightly.
- DMost of the books checked out were returned late.
Show the answer
C. Checkouts rose from 41,200 to 46,800 while late returns went from 3,900 to 4,100, which matches the passage's note that late returns barely moved. Late returns didn't fall, checkouts didn't drop, and 4,100 late out of 46,800 is far from most.
More ACT Reading guides
- Paired passages
- 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
Get ready for ACT Reading
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Practice test 1
Example
27
Composite
(28 + 26 + 27) ÷ 3
- English28
- Math26
- Reading27
- ScienceOptional, not in the Composite25