ACT Practice Questions
This is a free 15-question ACT sampler you can take right here, with the four subject areas mixed in roughly the proportions the test uses: English, math, reading and science. It combines multiple choice, select all that apply and fill in the blank, and every question comes with an explanation. Answer all 15, then check your score and read why each answer works.
Which version of the sentence is punctuated correctly?
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All 15 questions at a glance
Prefer to read before you play? Every question in the sampler is listed below. Answers and explanations stay collapsed until you open them.
1. Which version of the sentence is punctuated correctly?
- A. The storm knocked out power for two days, we cooked everything on a camp stove.
- B. The storm knocked out power for two days; we cooked everything on a camp stove.
- C. The storm knocked out power for two days we cooked everything on a camp stove.
- D. The storm knocked out power for two days, and, we cooked everything on a camp stove.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. The storm knocked out power for two days; we cooked everything on a camp stove.
Both halves of this sentence can stand alone, so joining them with only a comma creates a comma splice. Two independent clauses need a semicolon, a period, or a comma followed by a joining word such as and or so.
2. Complete the sentence.
The box of old photographs that my grandparents kept in the attic _____ finally been opened.
Options for blank 1: have, has, having, were
Show answer and explanation
Answer: has
The subject is box, which is singular, so the verb is has. The ACT often buries the subject by putting a prepositional phrase and a relative clause between it and the verb, so find the subject before you decide on the verb form.
3. A paragraph reads: In its first year, the school's bike repair club fixed 140 bicycles for students who would otherwise have paid a shop. The writer wants to end the paragraph with a sentence that supports its point about saving students money. Which choice does that best?
- A. A basic tune-up at a local shop starts at about forty dollars, so the club kept thousands of dollars in students' pockets.
- B. The club meets on Tuesdays in the shop room behind the gym.
- C. Bicycles have been a common way to get around the city for decades.
- D. Two members of the club later joined the track team.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. A basic tune-up at a local shop starts at about forty dollars, so the club kept thousands of dollars in students' pockets.
Rhetorical skills questions are decided by the purpose stated in the question, not by which sentence sounds nicest. Only the first choice puts a number on the money saved, while the others are true sounding details that never touch cost.
4. Which of these sentences use an apostrophe correctly?
Select all that apply.
- A. The team celebrated its first win in three years.
- B. It's been a long season for the coaching staff.
- C. Both players' jerseys were retired on the same night.
- D. The bus left without it's driver.
- E. The Wilsons' invited us to dinner.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. The team celebrated its first win in three years., B. It's been a long season for the coaching staff., C. Both players' jerseys were retired on the same night.
Its is the possessive form and takes no apostrophe, while it's is only ever a contraction of it is or it has. A plural that already ends in s takes the apostrophe after the s, as in players' jerseys, and a plain plural family name like the Wilsons takes no apostrophe at all.
5. A jacket is marked down 30 percent, and the sale price is $84. What was the original price?
- A. $109.20
- B. $114.00
- C. $120.00
- D. $126.00
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. $120.00
A 30 percent discount leaves 70 percent of the original price, so solve 0.7x = 84 and get x = 120. Adding 30 percent back onto the sale price gives $109.20, which is the trap answer, because the percent was taken from the larger number.
6. What is the slope of the line that passes through the points (-2, 5) and (4, -7)?
- A. -2
- B. -1/2
- C. 1/2
- D. 2
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. -2
Slope is the change in y over the change in x, so (-7 - 5) divided by (4 - (-2)) gives -12 over 6, which is -2. Watch the signs in the denominator, since subtracting a negative x value is the most common place this goes wrong.
7. Complete the sentence.
In a right triangle, the leg opposite angle A measures 5 and the hypotenuse measures 13, so sin A equals _____.
Options for blank 1: 5/12, 5/13, 12/13, 13/5
Show answer and explanation
Answer: 5/13
Sine is the opposite side over the hypotenuse, which is 5 over 13. The third side is 12 by the Pythagorean theorem, so 12/13 is cos A and 5/12 is tan A, and those are the choices that catch people who mix up the three ratios.
8. Which of the following values are solutions to the equation x squared minus x minus 6 equals 0?
Select all that apply.
- A. -3
- B. -2
- C. 0
- D. 2
- E. 3
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. -2, E. 3
The expression factors into (x - 3)(x + 2), so the solutions are 3 and -2. Checking beats trusting the factoring: 9 minus 3 minus 6 is 0, and 4 plus 2 minus 6 is 0, while -3 gives 9 plus 3 minus 6, which is 6.
9. Read the passage. When the Millbrook library ran out of shelf space, the head librarian did something odd with the empty basement room: she filled it with hammers, drills and a tile saw. Patrons could borrow a tool for a week the same way they borrowed a novel. Within two years the tool collection was checked out more often than the fiction shelves. Some staff were skeptical, and the repair bills were real, but the librarian argued that a library lends access, and access does not have to come in the shape of a book. The main idea of the passage is that:
- A. the Millbrook library had run out of shelf space.
- B. libraries should spend less money on fiction.
- C. one library widened what lending can mean, drawing doubts from staff but clear demand from patrons.
- D. most people find tools more useful than novels.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. one library widened what lending can mean, drawing doubts from staff but clear demand from patrons.
A main idea has to cover the whole passage, not one sentence of it. The shelf space problem is only the setup, and the last two choices are broad claims about libraries and readers in general that this passage never makes.
10. Passage A: Rewilding a river means taking out what we built and stepping back. When the Corbin Dam came down, the channel rearranged itself in a single spring flood, and the fish returned without anyone stocking them. Nature keeps a blueprint we cannot draw. Passage B: Taking out a dam is not stepping back, it is one more decision. Someone picks which structure goes, which floodplain gets bought, and who pays for it. Rivers do recover, but calling that recovery natural hides the engineering and the money behind it. Both authors would most likely agree that:
- A. a river can recover ecologically after a dam is removed.
- B. people should stop managing rivers.
- C. dam removal costs too much to be worth doing.
- D. fish populations return only when they are restocked.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. a river can recover ecologically after a dam is removed.
Paired passage questions ask you to find the narrow patch of common ground, not the argument. Passage A says the fish came back on their own and passage B says rivers do recover, so the two disagree about what to call the recovery rather than about whether it happens.
11. Complete the sentence.
Marisol read the committee's letter twice, set it down, and spent the rest of the afternoon rearranging books that were already in order. The narrator most likely wants readers to understand that Marisol is _____ the news in the letter.
Options for blank 1: indifferent to, unsettled by, delighted by, confused by the wording of
Show answer and explanation
Answer: unsettled by
Inference questions ask what the details imply, and here the rereading plus the pointless busywork signal agitation the narrator never names outright. Indifference is ruled out by the second reading, and nothing in the scene suggests pleasure or trouble understanding the words.
12. A student dropped one tablet of compound Z into 200 mL of water and timed how long it took to dissolve completely, repeating the trial at four water temperatures. Trial 1: 10 degrees C, 96 seconds. Trial 2: 20 degrees C, 62 seconds. Trial 3: 30 degrees C, 41 seconds. Trial 4: 40 degrees C, 28 seconds. Based on these results, a tablet dropped into water at 25 degrees C would most likely take about how long to dissolve?
- A. 24 seconds
- B. 35 seconds
- C. 51 seconds
- D. 70 seconds
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. 51 seconds
25 degrees falls between trial 2 and trial 3, so the dissolving time falls between 62 and 41 seconds, and 51 seconds is the only choice in that range. Notice that you never needed to know what compound Z is, which is the point: the science section is a data reading test, and it often uses substances and setups you have never met.
13. A student wants to test whether adding salt changes how long water takes to freeze. Which of the following should be kept the same in every trial?
Select all that apply.
- A. The starting temperature of the water
- B. The volume of water in each container
- C. The freezer setting
- D. The amount of salt added
- E. The time each sample takes to freeze
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. The starting temperature of the water, B. The volume of water in each container, C. The freezer setting
Everything except the one variable you are testing has to be held constant, or you cannot tell what caused a difference. The amount of salt is the variable being changed on purpose, and the freezing time is the result being measured, so neither one can be controlled.
14. Two scientists explain why dissolved oxygen in a lake has fallen. Scientist 1 says fertilizer running off nearby fields feeds algae, and the algae die and decay, which uses up oxygen. Scientist 2 says the lake water has warmed, and warmer water holds less dissolved oxygen. Which finding, if confirmed, would most weaken Scientist 2's explanation?
- A. Lake water temperature rose by 3 degrees C over the same period.
- B. Oxygen fell just as sharply in a nearby lake whose temperature did not change.
- C. Algae counts in the lake rose over the same period.
- D. Cold water is able to hold more dissolved oxygen than warm water.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Oxygen fell just as sharply in a nearby lake whose temperature did not change.
A case where the effect appears without the proposed cause is the strongest evidence against that cause, so an unwarmed lake losing oxygen just as fast undermines the temperature explanation. Rising algae counts support Scientist 1 without weakening Scientist 2, because both processes could be draining oxygen at once.
15. Figure 1 plots the size of two bacterial cultures over 8 hours. Culture A rises in a straight line from 200 cells per mL at hour 0 to 1,000 cells per mL at hour 8. Culture B holds steady at 800 cells per mL through hour 4, then falls in a straight line to 400 cells per mL at hour 8. According to Figure 1, at about what time are the two cultures the same size?
- A. Hour 2
- B. Hour 4
- C. Hour 5
- D. Hour 7
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Hour 5
Culture A gains 100 cells per mL each hour, so it sits at 700 at hour 5, and culture B loses 100 per hour after hour 4, so it is also at 700 at hour 5. When a question asks when two things are equal, look for where the lines cross rather than reading each line on its own.
What is actually on the ACT
The ACT is a multiple-choice test built from four subject areas: English, math, reading and science. Each section you sit is scored on a 1 to 36 scale, and your composite is the average of those section scores, rounded. There is an optional essay, scored separately on its own scale, which does not change the composite. Nothing is subtracted for a wrong answer, so there is never a reason to leave a question blank.
The format has been changing, and that matters more than usual right now. From 2025 ACT began rolling out a shorter version of the test: fewer questions, more time per question, and science as an optional section rather than a required one. On that version the composite comes from English, math and reading, and a science score is reported separately if you choose to take it. Which version you sit can depend on your test date and on whether you test online or on paper, so treat any fixed question count you read anywhere, including an older prep book and including this page, as something to confirm. Check the official ACT format for your own test date before you build a pacing plan around a number.
What each section asks has been steadier than the counts. English tests usage and mechanics, meaning punctuation, grammar and sentence structure, plus rhetorical skills, meaning organization, style, and whether a sentence belongs in the paragraph at all. Math runs from pre-algebra and elementary algebra through coordinate geometry, plane geometry and a small amount of trigonometry. Reading is passage based: main idea, supporting detail, inference, vocabulary in context, and questions that compare two passages on one topic. Science hands you tables, graphs and competing explanations and asks you to read them.
How to use this sampler
These 15 questions follow the ACT content mix in miniature. English gets the largest share because it carries the most questions on the real test, math is next, and reading and science fill out the rest. The real ACT is multiple choice from start to finish. This sampler also uses select all that apply and fill in the blank, because those formats are harder to guess your way through, which makes them a better check on whether you actually know the rule.
Take it in one sitting without notes or a calculator. The ACT rewards speed more than most exams do, and on the longer format it gave you well under a minute per question on several sections. The shorter format eased that without removing it, so practicing at a pace where you commit to an answer and move on is worth as much as content review.
Then read the explanation for every question, including the ones you got right. A wrong answer usually points at a skill rather than a fact. If you missed the comma splice question and the apostrophe question, review punctuation as one topic instead of memorizing two sentences. And watch what you did on the science questions: if you reached for something you half remember from biology class instead of reading the numbers in front of you, that habit will cost you points on the real thing.
How StudyPDF builds full practice tests from your own materials
Fifteen questions can show you which areas are shaky. They cannot get you ready on their own, and a generic question set has no idea which chapters your class actually covered or which mistakes you keep repeating.
StudyPDF works from your material instead. Upload your ACT prep book, your class notes or a practice test your teacher handed back, and Bo, the study agent, builds full-length practice tests from those exact pages. Every question is grounded in what you uploaded, and every explanation points back to where the answer came from, so you can check the source when something looks wrong. You can regenerate a fresh test as often as you want, narrow it to one area like trigonometry or comma rules, and see which topics you keep missing.
You do not need a document to start. You can also just name a topic, for example ACT science data interpretation or subject verb agreement, and Bo writes a practice set from that instead. Starting is free.
Written by the StudyPDF team. Last updated 2026-08-19.