Master the ACT Math & Science Sections: 96 Flashcards on Format, Calculators and Percentiles
Deck EM5310 holds 96 cards on the ACT Math and Science sections: timing, calculator rules, passage types, benchmarks and the full percentile ladder.
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ACT English & Reading Study Guide: 100 Flashcards on Timing, Scoring, Benchmarks and Percentiles
Study the ACT English and Reading facts that shape your strategy: 45 min/75 questions, 35 min/40 questions, benchmarks 18 and 22, percentiles, SAT conversions. Deck LC0990.
Deck EM5310, ACT Math & Science, is 96 cards, and not one of them asks you to solve an equation or read a graph. Every card is about the exam itself: how many questions, how many minutes, which calculator, what percentile a 24 buys you. Treat it as the briefing you run before you start drilling problems, not as the drilling.
Study this deck: ACT Math & Science
1 / 10How long is the ACT Math section?
Tap the card for the answer · swipe right if you knew it, left if not
What the cards actually hold
| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| How many questions are in the ACT Math section? | 60 questions |
| What is the usual distribution of ACT math questions? | Approximately 14 pre-algebra, 10 elementary algebra, 9 intermediate algebra, 14 plane geometry, 9 coordinate geometry, 4 elementary trigonometry |
| Which TI-Nspire calculators are allowed on the ACT? | The standard and CX versions are allowed; the CX CAS is not |
| What change occurred to ACT math answer choices as of April 2025? | Four answer choices instead of five (September 2025 for paper-and-pencil) |
| What is the College Readiness Benchmark for ACT Math? | 22 |
| What percentile is an ACT Science score of 18? | 34th percentile |
| What are the three formats of ACT Science passages? | Data Representation, Research Summary, and Conflicting Viewpoints |
| Does the ACT Science section require memorizing scientific facts? | No, there is more emphasis on problem-solving skills |
| What is the STEM score on the ACT? | An average of the Math and Science scores (added September 2015) |
The full inventory
By the end you will know cold: seconds per question across all four sections (36 for English, 60 for Math, 52.5 for Reading and Science); the six math content areas and what each contains, from basic number properties up to sine, cosine, tangent and the unit circle; calculator policy (TI-83 and TI-84 fine, TI-89 and TI-Nspire CX CAS banned, paper tapes and silenced noisemakers permitted); the three Science passage formats and the rule that exactly one Conflicting Viewpoints passage appears; 2025 averages (Math 18.9, Science 19.6) against benchmarks of 22 and 23; percentile ladders for Math, Science and STEM at scores 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36; how the composite, STEM and ELA scores are built; the US$4.00 Science add-on on the digital test; perfect-score history, from 19 students scoring 36 in 1990 to a peak of 5,579 in 2020 and 2,958 in 2025; the ACT-SAT concordance built from about 600,000 students in the class of 2017; and state-mandated testing, starting with Colorado and Illinois in 2001.
Fix two cards before your first review
The deck contradicts itself twice, and both errors sit on high-value cards.
The composite. One card says the composite is the rounded average of "English, reading, and math" scores, while another correctly states that Science counts toward the composite when you take it. Rewrite the first back as: the rounded whole-number average of your section scores, Science included when taken, Writing never.
The passage count. One card says seven Science passages; another explains the count dropped from seven to six, which is what the current digital format looks like. Edit the seven-passage card or suspend it.
Use the percentile gap to allocate prep hours
The same raw score is worth very different ranks by section. An 18 in Math is the 49th percentile; an 18 in Science is the 34th. Near the middle of the scale, a point of Science moves your national rank faster than a point of Math. Science is now optional and costs four dollars, and it feeds both the composite and the STEM score, so the deck quietly hands you the argument for taking it.
If you are covering the whole test, the companion deck is LC0990, and we wrote it up here: ACT English & Reading Study Guide.
Deck EM5310 - ACT Math & Science is in the Flip It library at flip-it.app. Run it in the week before test day, then go do practice problems.
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