ACT Science / Topic
Conflicting Viewpoints
Conflicting Viewpoints passages present two or more scientists or students disagreeing about the same phenomenon. Questions test whether you can keep each viewpoint straight, find agreements and disagreements, and evaluate how new evidence would affect each side.
What the exam asks
- Summarize the core claim of each viewpoint in one line
- Identify specific points where the viewpoints agree and where they conflict
- Determine what new evidence would strengthen or weaken a given viewpoint
- Answer 'according to Scientist 2...' questions strictly from that viewpoint
- Track the assumptions each side makes about the underlying mechanism
How to attack this passage type
write each scientist's claim + mechanism before touching the questions
answer only from the named viewpoint, even if it is scientifically wrong
new finding supports the side whose predicted mechanism it matches
look for shared premises (the phenomenon itself) — sides usually agree on the observation, not the cause
Question bank breakdown
4
22
7 easy · 5 medium · 10 hard
Skills covered
Every question in the bank comes with a per-choice explanation, so you learn why each wrong answer is wrong — not just the key.
Practice this topic
The full set of Conflicting Viewpoints questions — with a per-choice explanation on every answer — lives in the practice workspace. Start free, no account needed.
Study tip
This is the only passage type worth reading fully before the questions. Save it for last in the section, and label each paragraph's claim so 'which scientist would agree' questions take seconds.