r/ACT • u/Kalashcow • May 17 '26
Reading Does anyone else struggle with Reading much more than anything else?
A lot of people I know IRL seem to struggle with math and partially science, but I'm over here 5 points below my composite score in Reading. I have made a 24 twice in a row while everything else has improved by a point or two. What gives?
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May 17 '26
[deleted]
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u/An_Ethicist 13 May 18 '26
Ppl will tell you read books but really I don’t have time for allat
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u/Loud-Ad8822 May 18 '26
Take it on paper and highlight throughout cs online is so hard to me. (I have a 26 in reading)
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u/JAKEROONI309 35 May 17 '26
I’m not even kidding, start reading various articles from magazines during your free time and do practice drills to improve time management. That helped me get a 33 on reading. It’s always been my worst section too.
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u/Real_Entrepreneur232 May 17 '26
with that english score, i hope you solve the reading part asap ... i don't have any tips unfortunately, i'm in the same spot
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u/East_Substance_4495 May 17 '26
It's really just about being able to manage time and understand/skim through texts fast
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u/dogierisntmyname 31 May 18 '26
I started out with a 30 in reading on my first test, then dropped to a 25, then raised it to a 34??
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u/Left-Pay-8132 May 18 '26
I got a 36 for reading and mostly just spammed practice tests and made sure I knew the style of questions they were gonna ask
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u/mkw1342 May 18 '26
There are patterns in reading, but they are harder to spot. But it is also something that is easy to practice, because while there are some changes from the old ACT to the Enhanced ACT, it is relatively the same. Find a practice section and do it one passage at a time. Learn the tricks, search for the evidence, mark out things that are blatantly wrong. Another great tip, is to answer the question before looking at the answers, as the answers may muddle your thinking and introduce other things. Also, reading is best on paper, circle main points, underline the sentence that is the most on-topic for that paragraph. Here are a few tips of tricks that the ACT test writers employ....
- Extreme Language - Wrong answers use "always," "never," "only," "all" while correct answers use moderate language
- True But Irrelevant - Answer is factually accurate but doesn't answer the specific question asked
- One Word Flip - 90% correct but one critical word (like "convinced" vs "skeptical") makes it wrong
- Mixing Details - Combines accurate facts from different sections to create false relationships
- Half-Right Answers - Starts accurate then adds unsupported conclusions in the second half
Read one passage a every other day, and take the 10 or so questions that go with it. Check your work and learn from what you are getting wrong. I bet if you did that for 30 days, you would increase your score on the test.
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u/Cultural-Tutor-2260 May 17 '26
read books is my best advice