Free Resources to Prepare for the ACT® Test

Preparing for the ACT® can be done to a large extent for free self -studying. Students who aren’t familiar with the Test may have trouble discerning which free resources are the best. This article reviews all of the best free resources to self-study for the ACT® Test and discusses how and when to use each. Keeping read to find out more.

8 Free Official Practice Tests

The ACT® Test does a good job at releasing practice tests for students to use. These tests are done by the same company that creates the Test. The concepts and format are exactly what a student will see on test day. In other words, these practice tests are quite good. Practice Tests are useful for determining a baseline. Once a student knows how he or she does on the Test, studying targeted, specific areas becomes possible.

For newcomers, these tests are among the best resource to take a free practice test online.

The tests below are also great resources for self-studying. Learning from the people who make the test is a great way to ensure the concepts studied are the same as the ones that show up on the official Test. Students can start doing these tests untimed until they understand their mistakes, then try a few timed passages.

Take a mock practice test Free Official Practice Tests

2005-2006 – Form 59F
1. ACT Practice Test 2005-2006
2007-2008 – Form 61C
2. ACT Practice Test 2007-2008
2009-2010 – Form 64E
3. ACT Practice Test 2009-2010
2013-2014 – Form 67C
4. ACT Practice Test 2013-2014
2015-2016 – Form 1572CPRE
5. ACT Practice Test 2015-2016
2018-2019 – Form 1874FPRE
6. ACT Practice Test 2018-2019
2021-2022 – Form 2176CPRE
7. ACT Practice Test 2021-2022
2024- 2025
8. Preparing for the ACT 2024–2025

Learning the Concepts

There are a lot of free resource available on the Internet for self-studying the ACT® Test. Without insight into what’s on the test and which resources will teach that information, students can waste a lot of time searching and feeling frustrated.

Trusted Sources

Prep Scholar

Prep Scholar has been around for a while. In terms of free resources available online, they tend to be pretty good. You can read the posts on their blog. A lot of it mirrors the content available on my website. If it’s helpful to read that content with a different explanation, definitely check them out.

Kaplan

Kaplan is the company that makes the online official test-prep products for the ACT® Test. They’re certainly legitimate – but their books tend to be quite odd. See here for more info at this LINK Notwithstanding that, Kaplan offers a free tutoring trial. That can be very helpful for anyone looking to try tutoring out who is uncertain if it’s the right move.

Magoosh

Magoosh tends to be a solid resource for online ACT® Test information. They offer a free full-length practice test. My recommendation is to use this resource only after exhausting the free official practice test, above. Link

The Princeton Review

The Princeton Review has the best test prep books, second only to the official ones. They also offer a free practice test, which could be very useful for anyone looking for more insight into the ACT® Test. They also offer a range of free events. Be sure to check those out as well if there are any that are interesting to you.

Alexander Charles Tutoring

My website has all of the information a student needs to understand the content on the ACT® Test. A lot of guides claim to be complete. My website is built off of years of experience. There’s only one way to be complete. That’s what I’ve done.

I read the ACT® Technical Manual to understand what’s on the test, then looked at every practice test the ACT® Inc. has put out to decode what they say they’re putting out and how they’re actually putting out that content.

AlexanderCharlesTutoring.com teaches the information tested on the ACT® Test in the best, most efficient, straightforward way. Check out my guide on self-studying. LINK Ultimate Guide to Self Studying

Khan Academy

Khan Academy is a great resource for learning the fundamentals a student may have missed or never learned. The recommendations below provide the foundations for the rest of the material I cover in my website. If a student has trouble understanding several of the mid to high level concepts on the ACT® Test, he or she should self-study until mastering all of these topics. Here are some lessons students can use to study for the ACT® Test using Khan Academy.

English Subject Verb / diagramming

The ACT® English Test is so mechanical. A student needs to learn to recognize the grammatical subject of a sentence. All of the other grammar rules stem from this subject.

If you need help on the English Test, do Units 1-5 and Unit 8 for diagramming sentences.

Math: Algebra

This whole course covers the fundamentals of algebra. If a student learns these concepts, he or she will be able to do many if not most of the questions on the ACT® Math Test.

Books from Your Local Library

Most of the books on this link are available for free from your local library! Link to my paid resources.

What free resources helped you? Please leave a comment below to let other parents and students know.