Why You Should Never Read The ACT Science Passages

Why You Should Never Read the ACT Science Passage First

Let me save you a lot of time—and a lot of stress:

If you’re reading the ACT Science passage first, you’re doing it wrong.

Not because you’re lazy.
Not because you’re bad at science.

But because the ACT Science section is designed to punish that instinct.

The ACT Science Section Is Not a Science Test

This surprises students every year.

The ACT Science section is not testing:

How much biology you know
Whether you remember chemistry formulas
If you understand physics concepts deeply

It’s testing:

How fast you can find information
How quickly you can interpret a graph or table
How efficiently you can ignore irrelevant data
How calmly you can make decisions under time pressure

In other words: it’s a data interpretation test, not a content test.

The Biggest Time Trap on the ACT

Here’s what most students do:

They start a passage.
They read every word.
They try to “understand” the experiment.
They highlight details they’ll never use.

By the time they reach the questions, they’ve already burned 2–3 minutes—and the clock is already working against them.

The ACT Science passages are intentionally bloated.
They include far more information than any single question will ever require.

That’s not an accident.
It’s a trap.

The Only Strategy That Works: Questions First

If you want to finish the Science section on time, you need to flip your approach completely.

Here’s what high-scoring students do:

Go straight to the questions
Identify what the question is asking for
Locate the specific graph, table, or figure referenced
Pull only the data you need
Answer and move on

No pre-reading.
No summarizing.
No “trying to understand the whole passage.”

You treat each question like a scavenger hunt, not a reading assignment.

Why This Works (and Reading First Doesn’t)

Most ACT Science questions only require:

One graph
One table
One comparison
One trend

Reading the full passage first forces you to:

Hold unnecessary information in your head
Waste time deciding what’s important
Second-guess yourself when you don’t “get” the experiment

Starting with the questions tells you exactly what matters—and everything else becomes background noise.

The Real Problem Isn’t Science. It’s Time.

Here’s the math students don’t think about:

You get less than a minute per question on ACT Science.

That’s not enough time to:

Read
Understand
Analyze
Reflect

It is enough time to:

Locate
Compare
Decide
Move on

Students who run out of time on Science almost always say the same thing:

“I understood it… I just didn’t finish.”

That’s not a content issue.
That’s a pacing issue.

Why This Feels Uncomfortable at First

Let’s be honest—this strategy feels wrong initially.

Students worry:

“What if I miss something?”
“What if I don’t understand the setup?”
“What if I need the background?”

You don’t.

The ACT tells you exactly what it wants—in the question.
Everything else is optional.

Once students trust this process, their speed increases dramatically—and their stress drops.

How Pacing Changes Everything

When students know:

Where they should be in the section
How much time they can spend per passage
When to move on without panic

They stop over-reading.
They stop freezing.
They stop fighting the clock.

That’s why pacing—not content—is the hidden skill on the ACT.

(If this sounds familiar, it’s the same core issue we talk about in [The ACT Isn’t Hard. It’s Fast.])

Final Thought

The ACT Science section doesn’t reward understanding everything.

It rewards:

Finding what matters
Ignoring what doesn’t
Moving decisively under pressure

If you’re reading the passage first, you’re giving away free points.

Read the questions.
Work backwards.
Trust the process.

And you’ll finish—calmly.