I’ve taken the official ACT 3 times, scoring a 35, 36, and 36 respectively on the English section. What I’ve realized is that most of this is learning how to take the test. So, here are some tips that I learned about the English section and things that I wish somebody would have told me when I started:
- If you're new to the ACT, note: The shortest answer that does not lose detail is the correct answer. Do not add detail with what is not stated. The ACT likes to add answers that sound better because they add more information. Do not be fooled. Note: The underlined word in examples will show up in quotation marks.
Example…
He worked in the agricultural industry for a “long time.”
A) No Change
B) long duration of time in which he worked.
C) time that was considered long.
D) span of time great in length.
The correct answer here would be A. It is the most concise answer. If the information in the answers is repetitive, do not pick it. A longer answer should raise red flags immediately as it is almost always wrong. Same goes for if the answers were to add detail. For example, if answer “D” in the example above were to say, “for a long time and remained their for 30 years,” do not pick that answer. Although it may sound better, it does not mean it is necessarily true. The only time that would be an acceptable answer is if the question were asking something like, “which of the following provides the clearest information about how long the man worked in the agricultural industry?”
- For some reason, the ACT loves to test on the word "however." Almost always is it in between two commas.
Example…
This was not the end of the road, however, and he stepped on the gas.
Other words that love to be “hugged” between commas include: Thus, therefore, and other transitional words. From what I have seen, “however” is by far the most common.
- ; Semi-colons are used to link together two closely related sentences. They are essentially just periods built for lazy people because you do not have to capitalize the starting letter in the next sentence (unless it is a proper noun).
Example…
It was her only chance to escape; she took it.
- : Colons are used to connect sentence fragments to the rest of a sentence and often are used to provide a list of things. It can almost be used to answer a "question" in a way. They are NOT periods. The answers on the test usually do not contain this. It
Example…
She took to an unusual medium of protest: Books.
The basket was full of the following: Socks, shirts, and shorts.
- Another thing the ACT likes to test on sentence agreement (I forgot what the actual term is, but we will call it that). This generally happens when extra information is provided before the object in a sentence.
Example…
Mother painted the house with a green paint.
This can be confused easily. Mother painted the house with a green paint that she bought? Or, did she paint the already green painted house?
While shopping for gifts, the dog ran up to the woman.
The dog was shopping for gifts? Wrong (Yeah, yeah, maybe the dog was some superintellectual intelligent being that wanted to go shop for gifts). The point being, make sure the sentence makes sense.
- Don't concern yourself with reading every little detail word for word. If there is a lengthy paragraph that contains one question, read at a quick (but comfortable) pace until you get to the question. This is not the Reading section. You could probably do all the syntax/grammatical questions without reading any of the piece.
- If it sounds right in your mind, it probably is.
- You often need to read the surrounding context (1-2 lines before) to answer the question. This is especially true for answering verb tenses correctly.
- If it can word without a comma without sounding rushed (or wrong to the war), it is probably correct. It it isn't broke, don't fix it.
- If it is repeated elsewhere in the sentence, it is probably wrong.
- -- an em dash is used to indicate a break or interjection of extra information. If the part within the dashes it taken out, the sentence should still make sense.
Example…
The play–an elegantly crafted production of Smith–was the highlight of the year.
- Relax, it is just a test.