Strategy lessons
Practice this topic
The bank includes 73 questions on main idea: 1 easy, 69 medium, 3 hard.
Why this question type matters on the PreACT 9
The PreACT 9 Reading section has 33 questions in 40 minutes. The mix is roughly even across question types, so main idea questions appear on every test. Strong students do not over-study any one type; they make sure no type is a glaring weakness.
Main-idea questions reward readers who notice the structure of the passage, not just the topic. The right answer covers the WHOLE passage.
Other topics
Conventions of Standard EnglishProduction of WritingKnowledge of LanguageNumber & QuantityPre-AlgebraAlgebraFunctionsGeometryStatistics & ProbabilityModeling & Word ProblemsInferenceDetailVocabulary in ContextAuthor's PurposeEvidencePaired PassagesInterpretation of DataScientific InvestigationEvaluation of Models
Topics are aligned to 8th-grade Common Core standards. The actual CPS HSAT covers slightly more than these buckets but the core mix is the same.