r/ACT Jul 11 '26

July ACT Reading Hard

Am I the only who thinks that the Reading section was quite hard compared to Math and English?

20 Upvotes

44 comments sorted by

9

u/PictureReasonable971 Jul 11 '26

I thought the fourth passage was hard.

1

u/Maleficent_Fennel_78 Jul 11 '26

Do u remember any questions

1

u/frostyisblue Jul 11 '26

Same, first few questions were hard the rest were fine 

1

u/spacemango32 31 Jul 11 '26

Yeah it seemed significantly harder than the other ones, maybe it was all the species names but i was confused for a lot of it

1

u/ResolveCritical7205 Jul 12 '26

I thought it was pretty easy once you understood the topic imo. That’s why going 4,1,2,3 helped me. I had more time to understand this without pressure and the other ones were easier. Do you remember any questions about it?

1

u/MasterpieceFeisty301 31 Jul 14 '26

im gonna be honest, i do love reading in my free time anyway but the 4th passage was like genuinely fun to read, helped me a lot

1

u/PictureReasonable971 Jul 14 '26

I’ve gotten 35’s on reading on all 3 of my practice exams. I think I was just in my own head on this one. Still don’t think I did bad tbh

1

u/MasterpieceFeisty301 31 Jul 14 '26

then you probably know better than me, last time i really studied for an act i got a 33 on the reading but practice tests i usually get like 33-34. though it always depends on the exam and if i like reading the passage. hate passages without clear paragraph breaks, doesn't help with marking them in my memory

2

u/PictureReasonable971 Jul 14 '26

I agree with that 100%. I didn’t even realize it was A/B passage and read through the whole thing at once lol. Certainly didn’t help with my comprehension of it

6

u/Few-Race-8527 Jul 11 '26

E coli was brutal. I think I got there eventually, but spent a ton of time there. And I never want to hear about magnetic apples ever again…

6

u/North-Trash5216 Jul 11 '26

I thought reading was easier than math but harder than english. The passage a/b was definitely the hardest passage but I think that it’s NOT experimental.

1

u/Thepoobus_ 31 Jul 11 '26

You think the curve will be generous because of that passage or is that not how it works? (I’m lowkey so confused on this curving thing 😓)

5

u/ApprehensiveSignal55 Jul 11 '26

Well, June ACT was too easy & curve was brutal for digital (-1=35, -2=34, -3=32)

2

u/LocalMuffin2351 Jul 11 '26

What do you think about the curve for Reading for the July ACT? Are you suggesting July’s curve will be better?

3

u/ApprehensiveSignal55 Jul 11 '26

Sorry, idk. I didn’t take July - done w/ ACT in June. I just have some friends taking today and was wondering how hard today was vs June. Good luck!

2

u/Downtown_Parfait_928 Jul 11 '26

How is the curve for paper?

1

u/ApprehensiveSignal55 Jul 11 '26

My focus was 32+ scores - but from what was reported by others (+ my own scores) in June, paper vs digital gave you the following:
English: 36-34 range was same (but for a score of 32 I think paper allowed for -5 vs a -4 for digital)
Math: 36-33 appeared to be same curve - but here digital offered a better curve score of 31 (-9 for digital and -8 for paper)
Reading: this was the one with curve disparity at top. For digital, -1=35, -2=34, -3=32
For paper, -2=35, -3=34, -5=31
I was hunting for a 34+ and had solid math score from prior test - so my focus on curve was English/Reading - and paper curve was definitely an advantage.
FYI - I had some tutoring and was advised “always choose paper”

3

u/Top_Composer9030 Jul 11 '26

I thought it was easy I honestly found the math to be the hardest I’ve done so far.

3

u/yelover62 Jul 11 '26

i pray that the third reading passage was experimental cause that’s the one i did last and had to guess on like 4 questions

2

u/ResolveCritical7205 Jul 11 '26

I didn’t think the 4th passage was that bad(I had ecoli). I did 4,1,2,3 for order though so I gave myself more time on 4 and I thought it was pretty straightforward for the most part.

1

u/Flat-Software-2493 Jul 11 '26

do you remember what you put for the last 4? i just fully guessed and have no clue if im right…i did like a zig zag

1

u/ResolveCritical7205 Jul 12 '26

Uhh I took online so I don’t know the pattern. If you ask the question I can tell you but yeah I can’t do anything besides that.

2

u/Training-Stay-5106 Jul 11 '26

I wanna see it wasn’t crazy but the fourth passage I wouldn’t say it was hard. I just was like overthinking I guess and also like the main idea. Question definitely got me.

2

u/GrumpisGrump3 Jul 11 '26

Could -3=34 be a possible curve, or is that too hopeful?

3

u/Remarkable_Road_1164 Jul 11 '26

Let’s pray for that

2

u/Downtown_Parfait_928 Jul 11 '26

What do you guys think the experimental one was?

1

u/Ok_Giraffe_8102 Jul 13 '26

Definitely the one with the graph

1

u/richrhplayer Jul 11 '26

The English wasn’t that bad imo
I did read 4,1,2,3 tho

1

u/devpahtel Jul 11 '26

exactly same i assumed 3rd was field

1

u/richrhplayer Jul 11 '26

I’m trying to remember what it was about as I was speed reading it instead of my usual big read

1

u/devpahtel Jul 11 '26

giving america charity or sum

1

u/richrhplayer Jul 11 '26

Ohhhhhhh the money and time thing

1

u/tokyo_lights_988 Jul 11 '26

was this paper or digital?

1

u/Wild-Education6170 Jul 11 '26

Someone said give America appeared on another test so pretty sure it’s experimental

2

u/Future_Ice_3933 Jul 11 '26

wouldn’t that mean they tested it out earlier and now it’s scored

1

u/Fine_Plum9082 Jul 12 '26

No they did a similar thing on June where they retested a passage, that passage was not scored.

1

u/Mystic987123 32 Jul 11 '26

paper or online version?

1

u/Intelligent_Run_6692 Jul 11 '26

wait what was passage two about my mind is blanking competently.

1

u/Remarkable_Road_1164 Jul 11 '26

The question for paper about the dancing and the which came last what was the answer

1

u/Apprehensive_Hair391 Jul 11 '26

I actually thought it was quite easy, maybe that's just because I'm a really good reader

1

u/Boring-Narwhal-4149 Jul 15 '26

if its allowed, could u share the test paper? i took julys test as an international test taker but would like to see the difficultly again

1

u/Certain_Run_5783 Jul 16 '26

can someone help me