The math section of the ACT assesses the mathematical skills that students generally have acquired by the beginning of 12th grade. Many students consider the math section to be one of the ACT’s most challenging, as when you’re tackling problems with many moving parts, while under the ACT’s infamous time pressure, you can easily slip up and make a silly mistake.
Familiarizing yourself with the format, scoring, and content of the math section of the ACT is a great way of avoiding such mistakes, and ensuring that your score accurately reflects your mathematical knowledge.
Check out our video to learn more about preparing for the math section of the ACT!
The math section of the ACT consists of 60 questions and is 60 minutes long. It’s the second section of the test, which means it follows the English section and precedes the 10-minute break. For some students, the first challenge of the math section is shifting gears from humanities-based thinking to computational thinking.
If this is the case for you, experiment with mind-clearing strategies during your practice tests, and if they work for you, make sure to employ them on the day of the real ACT. For example, try taking several deep, meditative breaths while rolling your shoulders or arching/relaxing your back.
Doing these simple relaxation tricks while taking practice tests in your bedroom may feel silly. But if you get in the habit, you’ll have a mental cue that helps you shift gears quickly on test day. Make sure that you choose quick, simple actions that you can easily do as the test proctor reads the instructions.
With your mind clear of all the thinking you just did for the English section, you’re ready to get started on math. The 60 questions are not arranged by subject area or topic; however, they’re generally ordered by level of difficulty. So, the questions at the beginning of the section will be easier, and they will get harder and more complex as you proceed.
Of course, this is just an overall trend–how hard you find a particular question depends on your own strengths. Even well-prepared, mathematically strong students might find a few of the earlier questions difficult or a few of the later questions easier. So, if you find an early question that seems tricky, don’t feel bad–just circle it and come back to it later.
Calculators are allowed on the ACT, but the test makers note that all questions can be solved without a calculator. In other words, you should treat your calculator as a tool to help you solve questions more efficiently, or check your work with, but not as something that will paper over any gaps in your mathematical knowledge.
Make sure to review the ACT calculator policy well before exam day, as not all calculators are allowed. For example, the popular TI-89 calculator is not permitted. In fact, trying to use a TI-89 is one of the most common reasons students are dismissed from the ACT.
Also know that the ACT, unlike the SAT, does not provide any references, which means you’ll need to know all the common math formulas by heart. These generally include y = mx + b, the area formula, the quadratic formula, and others, but nothing too complex. Learn more about which formulas you’ll for sure want to memorize in our strategy section below.
Like the other sections of the ACT, your score report for the ACT math section will not state the number of questions that you got correct. Rather, this “raw score” is equated to a scaled score between 1-36.
The ACT scaling process is different from grading on a curve, as it doesn’t account for the performance of other students taking the same test as you. Rather, it ensures that from one test sitting to the next, students with the same mastery of the material will earn the same score, regardless of any slight variations in difficulty between exams.
Below is a table showing how many questions you need to get right on the math section of the ACT to earn a certain scaled score. Keep in mind that this scale is for a particular practice test and the exact numbers may vary slightly between different visions of the exam.
Scaled Score
Questions Answered Correctly