ACT English strategies

1.The shortest answer that still makes sense

When the choices all say the same thing, pick the shortest answer that still makes sense and is still grammatical. A fragment is short. It is not the answer.

And when "DELETE the underlined portion" is an option, take it seriously. Students skip it because it feels like a trick. It is right more often than students expect.

NO CHANGE is right about a quarter of the time. Students avoid it as a trap. It is not.

2.The semicolon test

A semicolon is only right if you could put a period there instead. Two complete sentences on either side, or it is wrong.

Same idea for commas: if you can't name why the comma is there, cut it. Do not assume fewer commas is always safer — appositives and intro clauses need theirs.

3.If two words mean the same thing, one is wrong

"Each and every." "Annual yearly report." "Rose up." "Final outcome." The test calls it redundancy and the answer is usually the shorter version.

When one choice cuts a word and the sentence still makes sense, that is your pick.

4.Transitions and yes/no: read the reason

A transition word has to connect both sides. "However" needs a contrast. "Therefore" needs a cause. Read one sentence back and one sentence forward before you pick, and the wrong choices disappear.

On yes/no (or keep/delete) questions, read the reason, not the yes/no. Two of the four choices die on the reason alone. These rhetorical-skills items are about a fifth of the section.

5.How to pace ACT English

Students count essays, not questions. Halfway is two essays done by 14 min. English is the section students finish early and then spend the extra minutes second-guessing. Use them instead to go back to anything you flagged, and leave the rest alone.