Pacing is the distinguishing problem
The ACT gives less time per question than most tests students have met before, and the commonest failure is not knowing the material but running out of time. That makes timed practice non-optional in a way it is not for every exam: untimed practice tells you whether you know something, and timed practice tells you whether you can produce it fast enough, which is the thing actually being measured. Build timing into your practice early rather than adding it at the end, because discovering a pacing problem in the final fortnight leaves no time to fix it. ACT publishes the current structure and timing for each section, and that publication is the one to plan against.
Build the schedule around measurement
Start with a full timed test before you feel ready. Its section breakdown decides where your hours go, and the attempt itself is a study session — retrieval practice produces more durable learning than rereading, so an early test is not a wasted score. Then work your weakest section during the week and re-measure at intervals, spacing the sessions across days rather than massing them into weekends. Three to four months of regular work suits most people. Log what you predict before each attempt alongside what you score; a consistent gap between the two is a calibration problem, and it is much better to find it in October than on the morning itself.
Settle registration and test day early
ACT publishes registration deadlines, late-registration windows, accepted identification, what you may bring into the room, and the accommodation request timeline. Read those on their site rather than relying on any summary, and treat accommodation requests as a months-ahead task rather than a weeks-ahead one. Know your test centre and the journey at that hour. Reserve the final week for review and logistics rather than new material, and prioritise sleep over a last revision push — on a test this heavily paced, tiredness costs more than an extra evening gains. The exam-day checklist in the free kit covers the practical items so the morning holds no decisions.