Core Academic Skills Assessment Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield Core Academic Skills Assessment facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. When an author uses irony in a text, the intended effect is typically to: → Express a meaning that contrasts with or is opposite to what is literally stated
2. Find the LCM of 10, 15, 18. → 90
3. What does the statistics and probability domain involve? → Calculating chance, interpreting distributions, and using descriptive statistics
4. A conjunction that connects one adverb or adjective to another → Correlative conjunction
5. Which subject is an important part of ACT assessments? → Science
6. What do cross-cutting concepts do in science education? → Link separate fields of science and promote transfer of knowledge
7. A student reads three articles about minimum wage increases. Two support increases and one opposes them. To write an integrated summary, the student should: → Present all three perspectives and evaluate the evidence offered by each
8. What are the science practices in the core academic skills curriculum? → The design and use of experiments for scientific argumentation and modeling
9. Two consecutive prime numbers whose difference is 2 are called → Twin primes
10. In a persuasive text, an author's 'tone' is best described as: → The author's attitude toward the subject and audience as conveyed through language
11. When a passage from a historical document is compared to a modern analysis of the same event, readers should recognize that the historical document: → Reflects the perspective and limitations of its time period
12. According to the text, why is language for learning and communication included as a core academic skill? → To cover knowledge about how language functions in a range of school and work contexts
13. What is the focus of the ACT College and Career Readiness Standards? → ELA and mathematics
14. Select the sentence that demonstrates the correct use of apostrophes. → The children's toys were scattered all over their parents' room.
15. Which text structure presents events or information in the order they occurred? → Chronological order
16. Solve the following inequality for x: 2(x + 3) > 4x - 10 → x < 8
17. Lack of punctuation following an independent clause → Run-on sentence
18. How many degrees are in a complete rotation (full circle)? → 360°
19. A text organized using 'compare and contrast' structure would most likely use which signal words? → Similarly, on the other hand, however
20. An author supports a claim by referencing an anecdote from a single individual's experience. This type of evidence is considered weak primarily because: → A single example cannot be generalized to represent a broader pattern
21. Give precise names to places, things, or concepts. → Proper nouns
22. In a passage, an author cites three studies to support a claim. Which question is MOST important to ask when integrating this information? → Are the studies relevant to the claim being made?
23. Refers to the subject & is necessary to the meaning of the sentence → Reflexive pronoun
24. A scale drawing uses a scale of 1 inch = 5 feet. A wall measures 3 inches on the drawing. What is the actual length of the wall? → 15 feet
25. There are 3 prime numbers between → Both A and C
26. For a number to be divisible by 2, it must have ______ in the ones place. → 0,2,4,6,8
27. A bag contains 5 red marbles, 3 blue marbles, and 2 green marbles. If one marble is drawn at random, what is the probability that it will be blue? → 3/10
28. Why are direct measures of science important in evaluating students' skills and readiness? → Math or ELA as proxies introduce construct irrelevance
29. Two angles are complementary. If one angle measures 30°, what does the other angle measure? → 60°
30. A rectangular room is 15 feet long and 10 feet wide. What is its area? → 150 sq ft