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ACT Reading reporting category

ACT Key Ideas and Details Practice

Key Ideas and Details questions ask what a passage says and what it clearly implies: its central idea, supporting details, sequence of events, and causes and effects. According to ACT, this category makes up 44–52% of scored reading questions, the largest of the three reading categories. Every correct answer traces back to specific lines in the passage.

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44–52% of scored Reading questions3 original questionsInstant answer checks

At a glance

Key Ideas & Details on the ACT: the key numbers

Section and category facts from ACT.org, checked October 9, 2026. Time per question is ACT's section time divided by its question count.
SectionACT Reading: 36 questions in 40 minutes
Scored questions27 scored, 9 field test
Reporting categoryKey Ideas & Details
Share of scored questions44–52%, according to ACT
Average time per questionAbout 67 seconds
Counts toward the CompositeYes
Practice on this page3 original questions: Easy, Medium, Hard

What this tests

What does ACT Key Ideas & Details test?

Practice questions

Practice ACT Key Ideas & Details questions

Pick an answer to check it. Each question has one correct choice.

Question 1 of 3Easy

When the hardware store on Main Street closed in 2019, residents of Ellison Falls lost the only place in town to rent a ladder or a pressure washer. Two retired carpenters, Rosa Delgado and Hal Pruitt, responded by turning a spare room in the public library into a tool-lending shelf. They started with forty donated tools and a paper sign-out sheet.

The shelf now holds more than three hundred items, from drills to canning pots. Delgado says the numbers matter less than what happens at the checkout desk. Neighbors who borrow a tile cutter often ask how to use it, and the volunteers end up teaching small lessons several times a week. Several borrowers have since become volunteers themselves, keeping the shelf open on evenings the founders cannot cover.

Which choice best states the central idea of the passage?
Show answer and explanation
Correct answerB. A tool-lending shelf started by two retired carpenters has grown and become a place where neighbors teach and help one another.

How to solve it

  1. Paragraph 1 explains how the shelf began: two retired carpenters turned a spare library room into a tool-lending shelf.
  2. Paragraph 2 reports growth to "more than three hundred items" and says "the numbers matter less than what happens at the checkout desk": lessons and new volunteers.
  3. Choice B covers both the growth and the neighbors helping one another, so it fits the whole passage.
Why the other choices miss
A is too narrow: it describes only the opening problem, which the shelf went on to address. C is too broad and makes a recommendation the passage never makes. D contradicts Delgado's statement that "the numbers matter less than what happens at the checkout desk. "
Question 2 of 3Medium

For most of its history, the Marsh family orchard lost part of its apple crop to late spring frost. In 2015, Lena Marsh installed two large fans at the low end of the property, where cold air settled on still nights. The fans mixed that cold air with warmer air from higher up, and the orchard's spring losses fell sharply the next year.

The fix created a new problem. Neighbors on Creek Road complained that the fans, which switched on automatically before dawn, woke them several nights each April. Marsh first tried adjusting the timer, but the fans had to run during the coldest hours to work. She finally replaced the original motors with quieter models in 2018, and the complaints stopped.

According to the passage, why did adjusting the fans' timer not solve the noise problem?
Show answer and explanation
Correct answerD. The fans had to run during the coldest hours to protect the crop.

How to solve it

  1. Find the timer in paragraph 2: "Marsh first tried adjusting the timer, but the fans had to run during the coldest hours to work. "
  2. The word "but" gives the reason the timer change failed: running the fans at a different time would stop them from doing their job.
  3. Choice D restates that reason.
Why the other choices miss
A is not stated: the only complaint described is that the fans woke neighbors before dawn. B contradicts the passage, which says the fans woke the neighbors. C has no support: the passage says losses fell sharply and never says the fans stopped working.
Question 3 of 3Hard

Nadia had practiced the speech in the car, in the shower, and twice in front of the dog, who had not seemed impressed. When the principal called her name, she walked to the podium and unfolded a paper she no longer needed.

Halfway through, she looked up and found her grandmother in the fourth row. Her grandmother had missed Nadia's eighth-grade graduation because of a double shift at the hospital laundry, and she had apologized for it more than once since. Nadia had told her it did not matter. Now her grandmother sat very straight, holding the program in both hands, not reading it.

Nadia lost her place. She looked down at the paper after all, skipped a line about "the road ahead" that had sounded better at home anyway, and finished with the part she had written last.

It can most reasonably be inferred from the passage that Nadia loses her place in the speech mainly because she:
Show answer and explanation
Correct answerA. is moved to see her grandmother, who had missed an earlier graduation, watching her speak.

How to solve it

  1. Nadia loses her place right after she "found her grandmother in the fourth row. "
  2. The passage then explains that the grandmother missed Nadia's earlier graduation and "had apologized for it more than once," so her presence carries weight.
  3. "Nadia had told her it did not matter" sets up a contrast: it does matter, and Nadia loses her place. Choice A states that inference.
Why the other choices miss
B contradicts the first paragraph: Nadia practiced repeatedly and "no longer needed" the paper. C reverses the order: she skips that line after losing her place. D is not stated; the principal only calls her name.

Avoid these traps

What mistakes do students make on Key Ideas & Details?

Choosing a narrow detail

On central idea questions, a wrong choice often repeats something the passage really says but covers only one paragraph or one example.

Fix: Check each choice against every paragraph. The central idea should explain why the passage includes its main details, not just one of them.

Adding outside knowledge

An inference choice can sound sensible because it matches what you already know about the topic, even though nothing in the passage supports it.

Fix: Before choosing, point to the sentence that makes the answer likely. If you cannot find one, cross the choice out.

Mixing up the order

Passages do not always tell events in the order they happened, and cause-and-effect questions often turn on which event came first.

Fix: Mark signal words such as first, then, after, finally, and because, and number the events before you answer.

Study method

How should you practice ACT Key Ideas & Details?

  1. Read the passage once for its main point, then jot a few words next to each paragraph saying what it covers.
  2. For a detail question, find the lines the question points to and reread the sentences just before and after them.
  3. Predict an answer in your own words before you look at the choices.
  4. Eliminate choices that are too broad, too narrow, contradict the text, or say something the passage never states.
  5. Practice Key Ideas and Details questions in Dolphin, and review each miss by finding the sentence that proves the right answer.
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FAQ

Questions about ACT Key Ideas & Details

How many questions are on the ACT reading section?

According to ACT, the reading section has 36 questions in 40 minutes. Of those, 27 are scored and 9 are field-test questions. That works out to about 67 seconds per question on average.

How much of the reading section is Key Ideas and Details?

According to ACT, Key Ideas and Details makes up 44–52% of scored reading questions, the largest share of the three reading categories. With 27 scored reading questions, that is about 12 to 14 questions. Craft and Structure accounts for 26–33%, and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas for 19–26%.

What is the difference between a detail question and an inference question?

A detail question asks what the passage directly states, so the answer is usually a close restatement of one sentence. An inference question asks what the passage strongly suggests. The answer is not stated word for word, but you should still be able to point to the lines that make it the most reasonable choice.

Should I guess if I run out of time?

Yes. According to ACT, there is no penalty for incorrect answers, so a blank answer has no chance of earning credit. If time is short, choose an answer for every remaining question before time is called.

Should I read the questions or the passage first?

Either order can work, so try both in timed practice and keep the one that gives you more correct answers. Whichever you choose, go back to the passage for each answer. Detail and inference questions are settled by specific lines, not by memory of a first read.

Related practice

ACT Craft and Structure PracticeACT Integration of Knowledge and Ideas PracticeACT Production of Writing PracticeAll ACT Reading practiceACT English practiceACT Math practiceACT Science practiceDolphin ACT prepSAT vs ACTCollege ACT score ranges

Sources

Where these facts come from

ACT facts checked . Every practice question on this page is original Dolphin practice written to match one ACT reporting category. None is a released ACT item.

ACT® is a trademark registered by ACT, Inc., which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, Dolphin.