ACT Math Frequency By Difficulty

How Often Do Math Question Types Appear In Different Parts of the ACT?

I tagged every question from the last 10 ACTs (through June 2024), then used a python script to see how frequently each question type appeared in four parts of the test: 1 - 15, 16 - 30, 31 - 45, and 46 - 60. Because the ACT questions get harder as you move through the test, these four groups serve as a rough proxy for difficulty.

Versatile Types

Fractions, exponents, negatives, and probability appear frequently in every part of the test. Slope, rectangle area, quadratics, and averages appear in three of these four ‘top ten’ lists.

Long Tails Later

The further you progress, the more variation you see. The versatile problem types mentioned above are often paired with less common questions: you might see a similar triangle question with a fractional answer, or a ‘number sense’ question that requires you to be comfortable with both negatives and fractions. Mixed in with these are questions that rarely appear, like the Law of Sines or matrix multiplication.