Reading syllabus, dot point by dot point

Author's purpose and point of view: identifying why an author wrote a passage (to inform, persuade, describe, or entertain) and the author's stance or attitude toward the subject, and explaining how purpose and point of view shape emphasis, tone, and the selection of detail.

Characters and narrative voice: inferring a character's traits and motivation from words, actions, and others' reactions, and identifying the narrative point of view (first person, third limited, third omniscient) and how it controls what the reader is shown, on an ACT literary narrative passage.

Text structure and organization: recognizing how a passage is organized (chronological, compare-contrast, problem-solution, cause-effect, claim-and-support) and how a particular paragraph or sentence functions within that structure to advance the author's purpose.

Tone and word choice: identifying the author's or narrator's tone (attitude as conveyed by language) from connotation and diction, distinguishing close tone words, and reading how specific word choices create or shift the feeling of a passage.

Words and phrases in context: determining the meaning of a word or phrase from how it is used in the passage, including familiar words in secondary senses and figurative phrases, by reading the surrounding sentences and substituting the candidate meaning back in.

Active reading on the ACT: previewing structure, reading for the main point and the function of each paragraph, marking the passage lightly, and returning to the text for evidence before choosing an answer, so that every choice is grounded in a line or phrase.

Answer-choice strategy on ACT Reading: predicting an answer before reading the options, eliminating choices that are too extreme, half-right, out of scope, or true-but-unsupported, and selecting the choice the passage actually supports rather than the one that merely sounds good.

How ACT Reading is scored: a raw score (number correct, no penalty for wrong answers) converted to a 1 to 36 scale; three reporting categories (Key Ideas and Details, Craft and Structure, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas); and on the enhanced ACT a Composite that averages English, Reading, and Math with Science optional.

Legacy versus enhanced ACT Reading: the legacy section had 40 questions in 35 minutes as four passages of about 10 questions each; the enhanced section has about 36 questions in 40 minutes in several parts with slightly shorter passages, rolled out online in spring 2025 and on paper in spring 2026, with the same skills and 1 to 36 scale.

The enhanced ACT Reading format: about 36 questions in 40 minutes, built from several parts (a longer prose passage, shorter passages, and a paired set), drawn from four subject areas, all multiple choice with four options, and answered entirely from the passage.

Analyzing arguments and claims: identifying the central claim (thesis) of an argumentative passage, the reasons that support it, and the evidence offered for each reason, and distinguishing the main claim from supporting points and counterclaims.

Comparing two passages: reading a pair of passages on a related topic for their shared subject and differing claims, tone, or emphasis, answering questions about each and about the relationship, and inferring how one author would respond to the other.

Evaluating evidence and reasoning: judging how well the evidence supports a claim, identifying which detail or line backs a particular point, recognizing when support is strong or weak, and spotting reasoning that does not follow from the evidence given.

Fact versus opinion: distinguishing a verifiable statement of fact from a statement of opinion, judgement, or interpretation, recognizing the signal language of each, and using the distinction to weigh a passage's claims and evidence.

Central idea and theme: stating the main point of an informational passage and the theme of a literary passage as a full idea, distinguishing it from the topic and from supporting details, and choosing the answer that captures the whole passage rather than one part.

Drawing inferences: reading what a passage implies but does not state, taking the smallest step the evidence forces, recognizing the signal words of inference questions, and rejecting choices that go further than the text supports.

Relationships between ideas: identifying how the people, ideas, and events in a passage relate (comparison, contrast, support, qualification, problem and solution) and how each paragraph functions in the whole, choosing the answer that matches the passage's actual relationships.

Sequence and cause and effect: following the order of events even when a passage uses flashback or non-chronological order, and identifying which event or factor causes another, distinguishing a true causal link from mere sequence or correlation.

Summarizing a passage: capturing the main point plus its essential support in a faithful, balanced summary, distinguishing a good summary from one that is too detailed, too narrow, or distorted, and choosing the summary answer that neither adds nor omits.

Final-minute strategy: using the closing minute or two to bubble every unanswered question with a best guess, prioritizing quick detail questions over slow ones, double-checking the answer grid, and never leaving a blank, since there is no penalty for a wrong answer.

Managing hard passages: keeping a confusing or dense passage from derailing the section by reading for the gist rather than every detail, answering the questions you can, marking the rest with a best guess, and not letting one tough part overrun its time.

Order of attack: choosing which parts and questions to do first, starting with the passage types you read fastest, banking easy detail questions before slow inference ones, and skipping and returning rather than stalling, since the section is not adaptive and every question is worth one point.

Pacing the section: budgeting about 40 minutes across the parts of the enhanced Reading section, spending roughly nine minutes per part including reading, banking checkpoints, and protecting time so no part is left unread or unbubbled.

Paired passages: the routine for the two-passage part, reading Passage A and answering its questions, then Passage B and its questions, then the comparison questions last, keeping each author's view attributed and using both texts for the relationship items.

Humanities passages: reading reflective, often first-person essays on art, music, theater, literature, philosophy, and culture, tracking the author's stance and the development of an idea, and reading tone and nuance as carefully as fact.

Literary narrative (prose fiction) passages: reading an excerpt from a story, novel, or memoir for character, relationships, motivation, mood, and meaning, and answering questions that reward inference about people and feelings rather than locating a single stated fact.

Natural science passages: reading term-dense texts on biology, chemistry, physics, and earth or space science, following processes and cause-and-effect chains, locating the right detail, and answering from the passage rather than from prior science knowledge.

Reading informational passages: the shared approach to the three nonfiction passage types (social science, humanities, natural science), reading for main idea and structure, mapping where information lives, following arguments and processes, and answering every detail from the text.

Reading literary passages: the distinct approach to prose fiction, reading for character, relationships, mood, and meaning beneath the events, inferring rather than locating facts, and reading dialogue and detail for what they imply about people.

Social science passages: reading fact-dense, argument-driven texts on history, economics, psychology, sociology, and politics, tracking the main claim and its support, holding many details in order, and locating the right fact to answer detail questions.