The PreACT 9 Secure counts for 50% of a CPS selective enrollment high school application. Testing begins October 7, 2026.
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PreACT 9 Secure Practice Test – Find Out If Your Child Is Ready Before It Counts
A full-length PreACT 9 Secure practice test is the fastest way to find out where your child stands — before the score counts. The PreACT 9 Secure replaced the HSAT for CPS Selective enrollment and choice program high school admissions. It’s a 9th grade test — meaning it covers material many 8th graders haven’t been taught yet — and there are no retakes for the admissions cycle. The single biggest mistake families make is preparing blind. You can’t fix what you haven’t measured.
What’s on the PreACT 9 Secure
2 hours 35 minutes. Four sections. No retakes.
All multiple choice, all on a computer — and for CPS families, it’s 50% of the high school admissions 900 point system.
Two of these — Science and the expanded English section — weren’t on the HSAT. Most 8th graders have never taken a timed, computer-based test this long. That’s exactly why practicing under real conditions matters.
Two Ways to Practice — Start Free
CPS and schools point families to the official PreACT 9 Secure practice test on TestNav — take it, it’s free and official. But it ends with a raw score and a list of 0s and 1s. Ours ends with a report that tells you what to do next.
Both are full-length practice tests. Only one tells you what to do next.
Free Full-Length Diagnostic
FREE
✓ One full-length PreACT 9 Secure practice test — all four sections
✓ Self-paced, taken at home -no proctor, no appointment, start anytime
✓ Scored instantly online — no pencil-and-paper self-grading. Review every question with the correct answers
✓ Detailed report: difficulty analysis, skill-by-skill breakdown, question timing
✓ Try “Ask Ms. Lemi”, our AI study coach
Every family should start here. See exactly where your child stands.
BEST VALUE – CTC Complete Practice Portal
$197 $99
Summer price. Returns to $197 in the fall.
✓ Four full-length PreACT 9 Secure practice tests
✓ Everything in the free diagnostic — for every test
✓ Learn library: adaptive lessons on exactly the skills your child needs, at their level, building to mastery
✓ Ask “Ms. Lemi” AI study coach — full access
✓ 3 months of portal access
✓Accommodations like extended time available for IEP or 504
✓ Self-paced — no live classes, no scheduling
Your child doesn’t need 100 practice tests. They need four good ones — and a system that fixes what each one finds.
After the Practice Test: A Report That Tells You What to Do Next
The score is just the headline. Every full-length practice test generates a detailed report showing:
Where your child stands by difficulty level.
Missed easy questions point to foundation skills. Missed medium ones, skill gaps. Missed hard ones, advanced material not yet taught. Three different problems — three different fixes.
Exactly which skills need work.
“Work on English” isn’t a plan. Knowing your child has commas down but struggles with word choice — that’s a plan. Practice time goes straight where it’s needed.
How your child spends time.
Question-by-question timing catches what scores hide — the student who gets everything right but spends four minutes on one question is at risk on test day. The report catches it before the real exam does.
15+ Years of Proven Results
85%
Receive eligible scores
10+
Years of virtual test prep
150
Rising 8th graders preparing now
When our 9th grade students who had taken the real PreACT 9 Secure completed our practice test, their scores came very close to their actual scores — our tests measure what the real one measures.
Right now, over 150 rising 8th graders are preparing on our platform for the October test.
“Our child got into Payton. We got a perfect score. You will be able to repeat the process – we’ll have our little girl going to your program in a few years. Thank you!”
– CPS Parent
“We got our results – she was offered a seat at Whitney Young! Thanks for all your efforts preparing her. We are overjoyed!”
– CPS Parent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a free PreACT 9 Secure practice test?
Yes. The Critical Thinking Child’s free diagnostic is a self-paced, full-length PreACT 9 Secure practice test your child takes on our prep platform, with instant results. We also recommend the free official practice test on TestNav — the same one CPS points families to. Use both: ours adds the detailed report showing exactly what to work on.
What does the Complete Practice Portal include that the free diagnostic doesn’t?
Volume and a system. The free diagnostic is one full-length test with a full report — a snapshot of where your child stands today. The Complete Practice Portal is four full-length tests plus the Learn library: adaptive lessons on the exact skills your child’s report flagged, at their level, building to mastery. Test, learn, retest — four times before test day — with 3 months of access and Ask Ms. Lemi, your child’s 24/7 study coach, whenever they’re stuck.
Are there official PreACT 9 Secure practice questions?
No — and no company has them. “Secure” is in the test’s name because ACT does not release or license these forms to anyone. If a prep program claims its materials are “official,” that’s a red flag. The only PreACT 9 Secure materials ACT provides are what’s freely available as practice and information on their website.
Our questions are original, designed by our expert team to match ACT’s published specifications for PreACT 9 Secure — the same question counts, timing, question types, and difficulty mix. Behind every question we create is more than a decade of teaching the ACT standards this test is built on, a research-based review process, and feedback from our own students who’ve taken the PreACT 9 Secure and told us our practice tests match the real exam’s feel and rigor.
How close are your practice tests to the real PreACT 9 Secure exam?
We tested that claim. The PreACT 9 Secure is a national exam 9th graders already take — so we put our practice test in front of students who had just taken the real one. Their feedback: the difficulty and format felt like the real thing — and their scores on our practice test came very close to their real ones.
What feedback does my child get from a PreACT 9 Secure Practice test?
Every practice test on The Critical Thinking Child’s platform delivers instant results, plus a report that goes beyond a score: performance by difficulty level, a skill-by-skill breakdown within each section, and question-by-question timing that catches pacing risks a score alone hides. And if you want help making sense of it, give us a call — we’ll walk you through your child’s report, what counts as on track, and what to focus on next, free.
What does my child need to take a PreACT 9 Secure practice test?
A computer with internet access. The real PreACT 9 Secure is an online test — practicing on a computer isn’t optional, it’s part of the preparation. For math, an on-screen calculator is built into the real test, and our portal has one too — your child practices under the same conditions they’ll see on test day. But the questions are designed to be answered without one: this test isn’t about computation, it’s about reasoning
Are accommodations like extended time available for PreACT 9 Secure practice?
Yes. If your child receives extended time through an IEP or 504 plan, The Critical Thinking Child’s Complete Practice Portal can match it — just let us know when you enroll and we’ll set up your child’s profile so all four practice tests run with extended time, the same way the real exam will. Practicing under your child’s actual testing conditions matters: pacing is a skill, and it should be rehearsed at the timing they’ll really have.
What if my child needs more than self-study?
Some students thrive self-paced; others need live instruction and coaching. The Critical Thinking Child’s live PreACT 9 Secure course adds certified tutors, strategy sessions, and a class structure on top of the same practice platform. Course details and the current schedule are on our PreACT 9 Secure test prep course page. See the course details and schedule here.
What happens after the PreACT 9 Secure practice test?
That depends on what the report shows. Some families prep independently from there; others enroll in our live course or 1-on-1 tutoring for targeted help. The report shows you the gaps — you choose how to close them.
October 7 will be here faster than any of us want. Find out where your child stands while there’s still time to do something about it.
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