Updated April 29, 2026

The 4 Types of ACT Reading Passages (and 9 Strategies to Ace Them)

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With 4 passages and 36 questions to tackle in just 40 minutes, ACT Reading can be nerve-racking.

But it doesn’t have to be. The secret to the ACT Reading section is that you’ll always see the same 4 passage types. Once you have strategies for each passage type, you’ll be ready to ace the Reading section of the test.

We’ve been preparing students for the ACT for over 20 years. Below, we’ll share the strategies you need for each Reading passage type.

First, what ACT Reading score should you be aiming for anyway? We’ve researched the average ACT scores at over 500 colleges and universities so you can see what you need to be a strong applicant. Take a look at the button below!

Jump to section:
What are the ACT Reading passage types?
Passage 1: Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative
Passage 2: Social Science
Passage 3: Humanities
Passage 4: Natural Science
Your Strategy for the Double Passage
What order should you do the ACT Reading passages in?
Next Steps

What are the ACT Reading passage types?

These are the 4 passage types you’ll see on ACT Reading. They always appear in this order.

Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative

Social Science

Humanities

Natural Science

Literary Narrative or Prose Fiction passages will be excerpts from novels, short stories, memoirs, or personal essays. Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science passages often come from journal or newspaper articles, research papers, or books.

All passages on the Reading section test your critical reading skills — your capacity to identify main ideas, understand how writers set up their arguments, and analyze key details in a text.

We’ve gathered our best strategies for any ACT Reading passage here. But first, let’s look at the specific challenges that come with each passage type — and how you can tackle them.

Passage 1: Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative

This passage is often an excerpt from a novel or short story. Common question topics include:

the narrator’s point of view
the tone of the passage
what you can infer from the passage

The Challenge: Questions can often seem subjective

The Solution: Always make sure you can point to evidence for your answer in the text

Questions about tone and perspective, which seem subjective, are hard to answer in black and white.

But note that we said seem subjective. There’s always only one right answer on the ACT, and it can always be backed up by evidence in the text.

“Transition”or “signal” words are extremely useful for questions about tone. What does the author think about an event in the passage? You can tell by whether they use words like “unfortunately” or “to my relief.”

Transition words are like signposts showing you the relationships between sentences, paragraphs, and ideas in the text. They provide a ton of information! (Need a refresher on common ACT transition words? Here you go.)

It’s also helpful to get in the habit of marking up your text as you go along.

In each paragraph, underline the topic sentence. Circle key transition words. Mark opinion words like ‘thought,” “claimed,” and words that reflect emotions.

Once you’re done, you’ll have a passage map to guide you as you answer the questions. That saves you a ton of time, because you don’t have to comb back through the whole passage to find important ideas.

A skilled ACT tutor can help you practice these strategies. We’ve researched the best ACT tutoring services and lined them up here.

Passage 2: Social Science

This passage can cover a wide range of topics, from history to geography to psychology to sociology. Common question topics include:

the main point of the passage or of specific paragraphs
the function of specific lines in the passage
the evidence or reason for claims in the passage
the points of view of the author or of people referred to in the passage

The Challenge: Topics might be unfamiliar

The Solution: Use “headlines” to zoom in on the most important information and understand the text

Most students aren’t deeply familiar with, say, psychology or sociology or every era of history that ever happened. That can make the social science passage intimidating: you’re likely to see concepts and terms that you may not recognize.

The good news is that you don’t need to know, or care, anything about the topic to do well on this passage.

That’s because, as we like to tell our test-prep students, the ACT is an open-book test.

No, you’re not allowed to bring notes with you. But, just like in the Prose Fiction passage, every single answer can be found in a specific place in the passage.

And those specific places tend to be somewhat predictable, too. Many questions on this passage are about the main idea of the passage or of certain paragraphs, or about the function of certain sentences or pieces of information.

Main ideas on the paragraph level tend to cluster in topic sentences, which are usually at the beginning or end of a paragraph.

You can think of any question about the main idea as asking: “If this were in a newspaper, how would you headline it?”

So when you get a main idea question, write a headline for the passage (or for a specific paragraph).

Then eliminate answer choices that cover only part of the headline. You want a short summary of the main point, not “also-true” details.

This strategy takes time to perfect. That’s where a skilled ACT tutor can make a big difference. Check out our research on the best ACT tutoring companies out there, or give our team a call to talk about the best fit for you. Many of our students see their scores increase by several points over a few months!

Passage 3: Humanities

This passage will be non-fiction, but like the Prose Fiction passage, it might include more personal perspectives than the Social Science and Natural Science passages, which are more fact-based. The theme of the passage can be anything from music or art to literature or film. Common question topics include:

the author’s point of view or opinion
the function of specific sentences or pieces of information
the meaning of words of phrases in context

The Challenge: Vocab questions can trip students up with unfamiliar uses of a word, and questions about what an author would agree with can seem subjective

The Solution: Use context, not knowledge, to answer vocab questions, and use “headlines” to determine what an author would agree with

The Humanities passage is where you’re most likely to get questions about the meaning of a word or phrase. This can be tricky, since the meaning is often context-dependent.

Do not just choose the definition of the word if you happen to know it. Context can totally change the meaning!

Instead, substitute the answer choices back into the sentence, in place of the word or phrase you’re defining. That way, you’ll be sure that your definition is the right one for that particular context.

Since other questions on this passage type are often about tone, which is subjective, it can be hard to pick just one answer choice. More than one might feel possible (though only one will ever be completely correct).

So instead of just picking the answer choice that feels like a good fit, make sure you rule out the other options.

The “headline” strategy from the Social Science passage works well here, too. In the Humanities passage, you can think of it as more of an “op-ed” headline reflecting the point of view of a scholar or artist mentioned in the text.

Then use that headline to answer questions about that person’s opinion and what they might agree with. Does the headline match or clash with the statement in the question?

Passage 4: Natural Science

The Natural Science section could be about animals, the environment, minerals, outer space, DNA — pretty much anything you can imagine in the realm of science! Common question topics include:

comparing different pieces of information or data
identifying evidence that supports or weakens a claim

The Challenge: Science jargon and new concepts can be intimidating

The Solution: Treat this as any other reading comprehension passage, and don’t get too deep into the data

Don’t panic – you don’t need to know any science to ace this passage.

Treat it like any other reading comprehension passage — even if there’s data in the form of a table or graph that goes with the passage.

Pick your answer, then use the data to confirm it.

This is a little-known but powerful strategy for the Natural Science passage. Whether data is presented in a graph or table or just sprinkled into the passage itself, don’t get bogged down by data.

For questions like “Which evidence from the table would best support the scientists’ claim?”, do not jump straight to the table! Instead, select the answer that, if true, would best support the claim. Then double-check that that evidence is actually true according to the data.

This will save you valuable time on ACT Reading!

And make sure you double-check what the question’s referring to.

Unfortunately, ACT Reading loves to provide lots of variables that are easily confused.

It might sound simple, but you can save yourself lots of points on “careless mistakes” just by double-checking that these three things are all referring to the same thing:

the passage
the question
and the data.

Say that the passage is comparing red and black squirrels. If the question is asking you about the red squirrel, an answer that would be perfect for a question about the black squirrel will get you zero points.

If you’re aiming for a highly competitive — or even perfect — ACT Reading score, knowing key strategies like this will be essential. That’s where a specialist ACT tutor can make a big difference, helping you to learn and practice the key strategies you’ll need.

Your Strategy for the Double Passage

One of the ACT Reading passages will be a double passage. This can be any of the passage types. Common questions on the double passage include:

comparing the opinions of the two authors
identifying differences between the two passages
determining what the authors would agree or disagree on

On the double passage, divide and conquer.

The double passage can be intimidating — you have to keep information about both texts in mind at the same time, and you have to remember which author is which, and you have to remember how they’re the same and how they’re different.

Except that for most of the questions, you don’t.

Most of the questions that go with the double passage will only ask you about one passage at a time. Start with those. Then finish with the questions that ask you to compare the passages.

You don’t get any more points for questions about both passages, and they tend to be harder. So leave them for last. Plus, by the time you’ve answered all the questions about the two individual passages, you’ll have a good grasp of each passage.

In a nutshell, make your life easier by tackling only one passage at a time.

Take a look at the questions
Tackle the passage that has the most questions first
Answer questions for that passage
Tackle the other passage and its respective questions
Complete questions about both passages

What order should you do the ACT Reading passages in?

That’s a very personal question. You should start with the passage that’s easiest for you and save the hardest one for last.

That’s because every question on ACT Reading is worth the same number of points. And with 36 questions to get through in just 40 minutes, you might find yourself rushed towards the end.

So, start with the passage where you’re more likely to gain points. If you’re going to be rushed on any passage, you want it to be the one where you’re most likely to lose points anyway.

How do you know which passage is hardest for you, if you don’t have a gut feeling already?

After your first 1-2 practice tests, look at where you’re losing the most points. Is it on the Humanities passage? The Natural Science one?

Then, focus your practice on that passage. There’s no rule that says you have to take only full ACT Reading sections as practice, especially early on in your prep.

As well as the passage-specific strategies above, check out our 10 essential ACT Reading strategies here. If you’re newer to ACT Reading, take a look at our guide, which covers everything you need to know about this part of the ACT. And make sure you understand how your Reading score goes into your overall ACT score with our ACT score calculator.

If Reading is a tough area for you, remember that you can take the ACT more than once and use superscoring to boost your score. We’ve put together an in-depth guide on ACT superscoring here.

An experienced tutor can also help you make your test prep plan and master tricky ACT content, as well as learn valuable test-taking strategies. Give us a call for a free consultation on whether tutoring could be a good option for you.

Next Steps

These strategies are just the start to your ACT Reading prep. You’ll want to be as prepared as you can be to help you reach your goal score.

We’ve been working with students preparing for the ACT for over two decades, and many of our tutors achieved perfect scores on the ACT themselves. Our students often see their scores go up by several points over just a few months of tutoring.

Learn more about our programs here, and get in touch with our team for a free consultation on the right option for you.

The 4 Types of ACT Reading Passages (and 9 Strategies to Ace Them)

The 4 Types of ACT Reading Passages (and 9 Strategies to Ace Them)

What are the ACT Reading passage types?

Passage 1: Prose Fiction/Literary Narrative

Passage 2: Social Science

Passage 3: Humanities

Passage 4: Natural Science

Your Strategy for the Double Passage

What order should you do the ACT Reading passages in?

Next Steps

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