Creating a study plan for the ACT® can be difficult since it is an exam that isn't directly tied to a course in which students are currently enrolled. Without the structure of a class or syllabus, the first step in ACT preparation is to identify "what" and "how" to study. Our study guide will help you set goals for your upcoming ACT test and advise you on when to start studying and how to study for the ACT.
Planning Your ACT Prep: Things to Consider
You have signed up to take the ACT, and you know when you plan to take it; now it is time to begin studying. Regardless of how much time you have before test day, if you begin preparing, you will see improvement. To help make an ACT study plan, start by answering these 5 questions:
Setting Goals for the ACT
Since the ACT score should align with your preferred colleges, make a list of at least 5 schools you’d be happy to attend, then research the 25th and 75th percentile scores accepted by each. Armed with that information, your first step is to set a target ACT score so you can plan a study schedule that will help you achieve that goal. To solidify this goal, consider building a 3-column chart with the following information.
- In the first column, list the schools you’re interested in attending.
- Title the second column “25th percentile.”
- Title the third column “75th percentile.”
Once you’ve populated the chart with the relevant scores, you should have a better idea of what your goal score should be. If your score matches the highest value in the 75th percentile column, you’re more likely than not to be accepted by each school on your list.
25% of accepted applicants scored at or below the 25th percentile score, which indicates the minimum score you should expect to be accepted. Similarly, 75% of accepted applicants scored at or below the 75th percentile; this provides you with a target score that helps you feel fairly confident of acceptance.
When Should You Start Studying for the ACT?
After you’ve set a target score that will help get you accepted to your school of choice, you need to determine when you should start preparing for your ACT test. Be sure to consider these 2 factors when deciding how long to study for the ACT:
- Your goal score
- How much time can you devote to practice each week
If you don’t already have a diagnostic score, take a practice test to establish a baseline for your performance. You can use the data from your initial performance to streamline an effective study plan that will help you achieve your goal score.
Even students who tend to score well on standardized tests benefit from practice and exposure to the exam’s format and content, and many find that the ACT tests at least a few concepts that they are unsure of how to approach. By studying for 3 to 6 months before your test date, taking about 7 full-length practice tests, and completing at least 70 hours of untimed practice, you can close your content gaps by test day. However, it is imperative to practice smart and use practice material that includes comprehensive explanations and intentional consideration of strategy.
How Long Should You Study for the ACT?
How many months you study is not as critical as how much time you study each day. Most experts note that consistent studying, even for only a short time each day, can help close content gaps and earn you a great score. In fact, studying for a short amount of time every day is usually the best option. An hour of daily study is usually sufficient, and if you like, you can break this into two 30-minute sessions with a short break in between. To get the most out of that hour of study, consider the following tips:
- Choose a study time or times that work well with your schedule and stick to them.
- Keep all your study materials and stationery handy; that way, you won’t waste time looking for pencils, scratch paper, a calculator, or other supplies.
- Turn off your phone, get rid of distractions, and focus solely on your studies.
ACT Study Plans
Our personalized ACT study plans are intended to assist you in efficiently preparing for the ACT. These study plans are tailored to your preparation time, learning habits, and tactics, with a focus on a section-by-section preparation schedule to ensure your success.
With 6 months to prepare for the ACT, you can focus on building strong foundational skills, addressing weaknesses, refining test strategies, and preparing under real test conditions.
Month 1: Baseline + Fundamentals
- Take a full-length, timed ACT diagnostic test
- Review thoroughly and identify weak areas
- Create a weekly schedule: 5 days/week, 1 hour/day
- Focus on one section per week (Week 1: English, Week 2: Math, Week 3: Reading, Week 4: Science)
- End the month with another full-length practice test
Activities:
- Review missed questions and explanations
- Start and maintain a mistake journal
- Study core grammar rules, algebra, and reading comprehension basics
Month 2: Strengthening Weaknesses
- Spend more time on your weakest two sections
- Practice specific question types that are most challenging
- Mix timed and untimed drills for strategy building
- Take a full-length ACT every other weekend
Activities:
- Use flashcards and summaries for review
- Track timing for each section
- Continue updating your mistake journal
Month 3: Strategic Deep Dives
- Focus on advanced strategies for each section
- Work on trickier and less common question types
- Combine sections in practice sessions to simulate partial test days
- Take two full-length, timed ACTs
Activities:
- Write your own explanations for incorrect answers
- Review high-yield grammar and math rules
- Apply reading and science reasoning strategies under timed conditions
Month 4: Full-Length Focus
- Take one full-length ACT each week under real test conditions
- Practice individual sections on alternate days
- Reserve one day each week for review and rest
- Rehearse your full test-day routine
Activities:
- Analyze performance with focus on accuracy and timing
- Identify patterns in mistakes due to fatigue or time pressure
- Test different strategic approaches (e.g., question order, pacing tactics)
Month 5: Polish + Final Reviews
- Revisit and review your early mistakes and notes
- Focus exclusively on timed practice and strategy application
- Use official ACT practice tests
- Take at least two full-length ACTs with 5-day review periods in between
Activities:
- Create summary review sheets
- Use your notes to teach key concepts to someone else
- Review for recurring errors and make adjustments
Month 6: Peak Performance
Weeks 1–2:
- Take full-length ACTs each weekend
- Focus on review and light daily practice during the week
Weeks 3–4:
- Light review of core notes and test strategies
- No new content — just review and confidence-building
- Taper off practice and avoid burnout
Test Week:
- Review only the most important material
- Sleep 8+ hours per night
- Keep practice short and relaxed
- Prepare test-day materials early and mentally rehearse success
With 3 months to prepare, you can build a strong foundation and steadily improve your test performance.
Month 1: Core Practice Sessions
- Begin with a timed, full-length ACT practice test.
- Review your answers to identify knowledge and strategy gaps.
- If you’ve already mastered a section, limit your practice of it to 1 week.
- Practice 1 hour a day: ACT-style questions, explanation review or creation, and journaling mistakes.
- Alternate sections each week, but dedicate about 2 weeks to your weakest section.
- Take a full-length, timed practice test every weekend to monitor progress.
Month 2: Focus on Weak Areas
- Revisit the broader gaps identified in Month 1.
- Focus on streamlining your strategies and reinforcing weak areas.
- Practice with less common question types.
- Develop a deeper conceptual understanding of what each question is asking.
- Take a full-length, timed ACT practice test every other weekend.
Month 3: Practice Under Timed Conditions and Review
- Continue targeted practice using your notes.
- Avoid learning new content — focus on review and strategy.
- Maintain steady practice and take full-length, timed ACT practice tests every weekend leading up to test day.
Weeks 1-2: Target Weak Areas
- Dedicate about 2 full weeks to improving your weakest section.
- Review your answers to identify knowledge and strategy gaps.
- Limit practice to 1 week for any section you’ve already mastered.
- Spend 1 hour daily practicing ACT-style questions and journaling mistakes.
- Alternate sections throughout the week, with extra time devoted to your weakest one.
Weeks 3-4: Sharpen Test Skills
- Continue practicing daily with explanations and review.
- Take a timed, full-length ACT practice test each weekend.
- During the final days, focus on reviewing your notes — avoid learning new material.
- Get a full night’s sleep on the Friday before your test for optimal performance.
Check out our One-Month Study Plan for the ACT to get more help with improving your score.
Week 1: Assess Weak Areas
- Start with a full-length ACT practice test to identify knowledge and strategy gaps.
- Review your answers and pinpoint your weakest section.
- Spend 1 hour daily on ACT-style questions, journaling mistakes, and reviewing or creating explanations.
- Alternate sections each day, but prioritize your weakest section.
- Limit practice time for sections you’ve already mastered.
Week 2: Prioritize Daily Practice
- Continue targeted daily practice and focus on timing strategies.
- Take at least 1 full-length, timed ACT practice test to simulate test conditions.
- Review your notes and common mistakes — avoid cramming new material.
- Sleep well the night before the test to stay sharp and confident on exam day.
How to Study for the ACT
Having a study plan is foundational, but it’s also important to understand where your focus needs to be during your studies. Preparing for the ACT has 2 major challenges: familiarizing yourself with the format of the test and learning the content within the test. Let’s look into each challenge in detail:
- Format—We cannot stress enough the importance of taking ACT practice tests. Regular practice tests will help you familiarize yourself with the structure, language, and timing of ACT questions. This will improve your ability to comprehend question prompts quickly, limit confusion, and manage time effectively.
- Content – Each component of the ACT is designed to assess specific aspects of college readiness. It is crucial to understand the content and skills tested on the exam. Start by familiarizing yourself with the syllabus of the ACT sections, and then focus on each separately. You can review each of our English, Math, Reading, and Science study guides for help.
Given the challenges of the ACT, the best method of preparation is to practice with questions that match the format of the exam, paired with comprehensive explanations that teach its content. Use a timer only for full-length practice. Practicing untimed will allow you to focus on learning content and experiment with different approaches as you settle on which ones to implement in timed practice.
Once you’ve taken a few practice tests, you will be able to focus on the questions you missed or answered incorrectly. Missed questions can be attributed to 1 of 2 issues: content gaps and ineffective strategies.
- Content gaps represent topics that students need to remember or comprehensively learn. While these gaps often feel the most daunting, they’re the easier of the 2 issues to correct. Learning the solution once, taking notes, and reinforcing it with additional questions is often enough to ensure that you never again miss a similar question.
- Ineffective strategies represent approaches that take too much time, are not consistently successful, or are utilized without conscious intent. The common complaint of “silly mistakes” also falls into this category because such mistakes generally correspond to questions approached without a comprehensive strategy. These issues often take longer to resolve than content gaps because many are ingrained in how a given student thinks about a section. Therefore, they must repeatedly and consciously practice a new strategy until the former habit is broken.
Fortunately, both issues can be overcome with proper practice. To perfect your practice, here are a few ACT study tips:
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Start studying while you still have time
As a rule of thumb, begin studying at least 3 months before you plan to take the ACT–or, if you want to improve by much more than 10 points, at least 6 months of prep time is advised. This schedule provides you more time to spread the workload evenly and conduct multiple full-length practice tests before the real thing.
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Identify your learning pattern
Every student learns differently from their peers, and knowing your learning style is key to an effective study plan. Some learn best in a group; others do better alone. Some can study for longer durations; others absorb information better in shorter, more frequent sessions.
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Choose review materials carefully
Practice tests alone will not effectively prepare you for the exam. Analyze your answers and determine why you got a question wrong and how you can correct your mistakes next time. Consistently incorporate full-length practice ACTs and evaluate every question you get wrong.
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Learn concepts you’re unfamiliar with
Do you struggle with basic math concepts? Take a refresher course. Is grammar your hangup? Then brush up on grammar rules. Do you struggle with scientific concepts or reasoning? Take some time to learn how to relearn critical science concepts and how to interpret and read scientific graphs and charts. Learning the concepts that you are not familiar with before you take the test will help your score.
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Personalize your study to your strengths and weaknesses
Identifying your testing strengths and weaknesses is crucial as you refine your study plan. If you’re struggling with a particular content area or skill, you’ll want to identify and prioritize it with more thorough practice. Full-length tests interspersed with untimed practice will help you craft a single, accurate approach to every question type in a section.
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Maintain a healthy routine
A well-balanced lifestyle should accompany any intensive ACT prep course. Without adequate rest and nutrition, the constant stress of test prep can lead to fatigue and anxiety. Prepare your mind and body before every prep session. A healthy breakfast, mindfulness techniques, and breathing exercises will help you achieve calm and focus.
Remember that the ACT can only fulfill its function as an assessment of college readiness if its questions are objective and clearly connected to some academic focus. This requirement means that every question on the exam is designed to have an objectively correct answer. While that fact is likely obvious in the Math section and, to a lesser extent, the Science section, keeping it in mind can help you perform better in the Reading and English sections as well. Free yourself from the assumption that any reading or writing question is based on a subjective comprehension of the passage or preference for a particular writing style, or “what sounds right.”
- Ensure that for every question you review, you have a particular in-text citation, grammatical rule, or strategy that clarifies how the right answer is undeniably correct.
- Make use of your pencil, whether it’s drawing out images described in the Math section, annotating portions of the Reading and Science sections, or circling and underlining sentence parts on the English section.
- Limit accidental mistakes or misreadings, and simplify the process of checking over your work at the end of any given section.
ACT Review/Study Materials
Finally, here are the best resources to help you with your ACT test preparation.
- ACT's Practice Test: While the ACT no longer provides extensive free practice, it does provide a full-length practice test that can serve as your initial diagnostic and provide a baseline for your current scoring potential.
- UWorld’s ACT Mock Test: It makes your exam prep more effective with ACT-like questions and thorough, immediate explanatory feedback — including tips, fundamental content, and strategies for scoring higher and more consistently. Question explanations are also frequently accompanied by visuals, definitions, and hyperlinked lessons, ensuring no content on the ACT is left unexplained. You can also try free ACT practice tests designed by former teachers and ACT tutors to mimic the feel and difficulty of the questions you’ll see on test day.
The key to performing well on your ACT is knowing how to study effectively, but the best method varies for everyone. It’s up to you to find or design your own process. Follow the previously mentioned tips, and come test day, you’ll have the preparation to perform at your best. And if you’re unsatisfied with your score, remember that you can usually retake the exam and superscore to combine your best performance in each section. Good luck!
