A free 20 minute ACT lesson, a printable wall poster and a one page student handout. No signup, no account, nothing to buy. Use it, copy it, change it.
A three point jump costs far fewer questions than it sounds like it should. This lesson is built so the room measures the distance between its own guess and the arithmetic.
You need: the poster on the wall or projected, one handout per student, something to write with. You do not need to have taken the ACT or to know anything about it.
| Section | Questions | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| English | 50 | 35 |
| Math | 45 | 50 |
| Reading | 36 | 40 |
| In the composite | 131 |
Science is 40 questions, optional, and reported as its own score. It is not part of the composite, though it does average with Math for a separate STEM score. Writing is one prompt, also optional and separate.
Write this on the board before students walk in:
A student scored a 24. She wants a 27.
There are 131 questions that count toward the composite.
How many more does she need to get right?
Every student writes a number on the back of their handout. Privately, no talking. Emphasise that it is a guess and nobody is going to be wrong in front of anyone.
Then collect five or six numbers and write them on the board without comment. Do not react to any of them. If the guesses run high, the gap between the board and the answer is the whole lesson. If a student guesses low, do not correct course: ask them to explain their reasoning to the room. They have already found the point and they will make it better than you will.
12
Four more in English. Four more in Math. Four more in Reading. Let it sit before you explain it.
| Section | For a 24 | For a 27 | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 37 of 50 | 41 of 50 | +4 |
| Math | 27 of 45 | 31 of 45 | +4 |
| Reading | 25 of 36 | 29 of 36 | +4 |
| Total right | 89 of 131 | 101 of 131 | +12 |
| You can miss | 42 | 30 | 12 fewer |
Two things to say out loud while they look at it:
How many you can afford to get wrong, for every composite score. This is the table students should keep.
| Composite | English | Math | Reading | Total allowed wrong |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 35 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 34 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 10 |
| 33 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| 32 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 15 |
| 31 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 17 |
| 30 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 19 |
| 29 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 22 |
| 28 | 8 | 12 | 7 | 27 |
| 27 | 9 | 14 | 7 | 30 |
| 26 | 10 | 15 | 8 | 33 |
| 25 | 11 | 17 | 10 | 38 |
| 24 | 13 | 18 | 11 | 42 |
| 23 | 14 | 19 | 12 | 45 |
| 22 | 16 | 20 | 13 | 49 |
| 21 | 18 | 21 | 15 | 54 |
| 20 | 20 | 22 | 16 | 58 |
| 19 | 21 | 24 | 16 | 61 |
| 18 | 23 | 25 | 18 | 66 |
These are Prep36 estimates from the published scoring information, not a published cutoff. ACT equates every form separately, so the real numbers move by about a question either way. Use them to size the work, not to predict a score.
The lesson only works if the twelve questions become something specific. Prep36 is free for that: 131+ practice questions tagged to the ACT reporting category they test, each with a worked explanation, plus two full length timed tests. No account and no card, so a student can start the same evening.
This page and the poster are free to print, copy, adapt and hand out. No attribution required, though a link back is always welcome. If you run a tutoring centre or a school programme, /for-tutors covers assigning Prep36 to a group.