ACT WorkKeys is a job skills assessment developed by ACT that measures workplace readiness — the practical skills employers say they need most in employees. It's used by employers for hiring and promotion decisions, by workforce development programs for training placement, and by job seekers to earn the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), a widely recognized credential that signals job readiness to employers nationwide.
WorkKeys isn't a traditional academic test. It doesn't test history or literature — it tests the skills you actually use on the job: understanding written materials you'd find at work, solving the kinds of math problems that come up in business and manufacturing, identifying information in workplace documents, and writing clearly in professional contexts.
This guide explains the three core WorkKeys assessments, how scoring works, what the NCRC means, and how to use free practice tests most effectively to prepare.
The current WorkKeys assessment suite centers on three assessments that are the foundation of the NCRC:
Applied Math tests your ability to solve math problems that arise in real workplace situations. The problems involve everyday scenarios — calculating material quantities, determining pay from hours and rates, figuring out dimensions for construction projects, working out unit conversions, and interpreting data from charts and tables.
The math involved isn't highly abstract — it's arithmetic, percentages, fractions, decimals, ratios, proportions, and basic algebra applied to practical situations. What makes WorkKeys Applied Math challenging isn't the underlying math — it's setting up the problem correctly from a word problem description and managing multi-step calculations accurately.
Applied Math is scored on a scale of 3 to 7:
Most entry-level manufacturing, production, and skilled trades jobs require Level 5 or Level 6 in Applied Math. Professional and technical roles often require Level 6 or 7.
This assessment (updated from the former 'Reading for Information' and 'Locating Information' assessments, which were merged into Workplace Documents in 2017) tests your ability to read and understand the kinds of documents you encounter at work: memos, charts, graphs, schedules, policies, forms, tables, and illustrated instructions.
Questions test literal comprehension (what does this section say?), inference (what would this policy require in this situation?), and locating specific information across complex documents. You're not tested on outside knowledge — everything you need to answer each question is in the document provided.
Like Applied Math, Workplace Documents is scored on a Level 3–7 scale. Higher levels involve more complex document formats, multiple documents, and more demanding inference tasks.
Business Writing tests your ability to write a focused, organized response to a workplace scenario in 30 minutes. You're given a situation (write a memo explaining a new procedure, respond to a customer complaint, summarize findings for a manager) and must produce a written response.
Responses are scored holistically on a scale of 1–7, evaluating:
Business Writing is not required for the standard NCRC — it's an add-on component. But many employers specifically request Business Writing scores, particularly for administrative, supervisory, and customer-facing roles.
The National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) is awarded by ACT based on your WorkKeys scores. It's a portable, nationally recognized credential that demonstrates workplace skill competency. Employers across the country use it in hiring — over 5,000 employers have endorsed the NCRC as valuable evidence of job readiness.
The NCRC comes at four levels:
A Gold NCRC is the most commonly targeted level — it satisfies requirements for a very wide range of manufacturing, technical, healthcare, and professional jobs. Silver is appropriate for entry-level roles. Platinum is required for some engineering and advanced professional positions.
Free practice tests are one of the most valuable preparation tools for WorkKeys — because the assessment is highly formula-driven. Once you understand what each level of Applied Math looks like, you can practice specifically to push your performance to the next level. Here's how to get the most from practice testing:
Before you start studying, take a complete set of practice questions across all three assessments under timed conditions. This gives you a realistic baseline. Where are you already at Level 5? Where are you stuck at Level 3 or 4? Your diagnostic results tell you where to focus your limited study time.
Applied Math allows a calculator on the actual assessment — but you still need scratch paper to organize multi-step problems. Practice writing out your problem setup before calculating. The most common error isn't arithmetic mistakes — it's misreading the problem and setting up the wrong calculation. Slowing down to read each problem carefully and identify what's being asked before picking up the calculator improves accuracy significantly.
You won't have time to read every word of every document on the Workplace Documents assessment. Develop the skill of scanning for key information — then reading carefully only the relevant section. Practice identifying where in a document specific types of information would likely appear. Table of contents, headers, footnotes, legend keys — know how each type of workplace document is organized so you can navigate quickly.
Thirty minutes sounds like enough time, but many test-takers are surprised by how quickly it goes. Practice drafting responses to workplace writing prompts under strict 30-minute conditions. Focus on the first two minutes: reading the prompt carefully and jotting a 4–5 point outline. Responses with a clear structure consistently score higher than unstructured stream-of-consciousness writing — even when both use correct grammar.
You might encounter other job skills assessments in hiring processes — the TABE (Tests of Adult Basic Education), Wonderlic, or company-specific aptitude tests. Here's how WorkKeys fits in:
WorkKeys assessments are most commonly used in:
The NCRC program has endorsed employers in all 50 states. Checking whether employers in your target industry use WorkKeys is straightforward — ACT maintains a database of NCRC-endorsed employers on their website.
A few evidence-backed strategies for improving your WorkKeys scores:
The best way to improve your WorkKeys scores is consistent, targeted practice with active review of your errors. Use our free WorkKeys practice tests to get comfortable with the Applied Math problem types, practice navigating workplace documents quickly, and build the writing habits that score well on Business Writing.
Each practice session is an investment in a more competitive application and a higher NCRC level. Approach it systematically — diagnostic first, then targeted practice by assessment, then timed full-length simulations as your exam date approaches. The applied, practical nature of WorkKeys means preparation genuinely moves the needle.