When I first started studying for the ACT exam, my scores on the english section were by far the weakest. However, don’t give up because english is one of THE easiest and quickest sections you can improve on as it simply requires you to be aware of the most common topics tested.
Throughout my studying process, I recognized that the english section commonly tested students on commas, parallel structure, active voice, the meaning of the passage, redundancy, wordiness, idioms, word choice, arrangement, etc. It is IMPORTANT to recognize these types of patterns so you can ANTICIPATE them for any ACT exam you take. With these general patterns, you can identify what you really need to study and what you can just quickly brush up on.
Here is a list of the main ACT English topics that can be categorized so you know which areas to improve on, and all of the different skills tests can be placed under a section:
From discussing with people in my graduating class, the largest struggle students faced while studying for the english section were commas and understanding the overall meaning of the passage. There are a lot of rules regarding commas, so make sure to know all of them. For example, there are restrictive clauses, nonrestrictive clauses, appositives, and much more. If you are unable to identify the difference between some of the few terms I just listed, I highly suggest you to review some of these grammar rules so you can understand why and when we use them in sentences.
As for the passage itself, I would recommend reading the entire passage as it makes the questions at the end of each passage very easy. I’ve heard that some people use the tactic of just reading the sentences that contain the missing blank for each question—while that may seem time efficient, it’ll hurt you in the long wrong because not all answers can be found just based off the one sentence that is identified. There are many questions that will require you to use context clues from other parts of the passage. Reading the whole passage allows you to get the big picture while you’re answering questions.
Besides those two struggles, I always found the idioms and word choice questions to be the hardest. I wish there was an easier way to fix this issue, but the only way is to choose the one that sounds right and/or to memorize all of the ones you come across on while taking practice tests. Any standardized exam reuses questions from a question bank made up of older exams, so you can anticipate similar question types with similar answer choices. I found PrepScholar’s blog post on ACT English Idioms to be pretty helpful. With these two type of problems, I strongly suggest you to utilize process of elimination rather than finding the “right answer.” Instead, cross out the ones that completely sound wrong because in most cases it will be much more efficient and will save you time, regardless of if you know the right idiom/word choice or not.
A very common question that is also asked, and is highly missed on the exams, is phrasing. There’s a common phrase that I was taught when studying these types of questions: “shorter is better.” Essentially, you should choose the shortest option that is also the most concise, eliminating any wordiness within the phrase. Test makers like to trip you up by using complicated, long sentences but don’t fall for it. They want the most concise and straight-to-the-point answer choice.
Beyond identifying the different rules, you must practice! Practicing is so important because memorizing rules and definitions can only get you so far. I used practice exams from all of the released Official ACT Books and found a lot of them online too.
While practicing, always make sure to work on the section under time constraints so you get used to the 45 minutes. I’ve practiced to the point where I can leave around 5 to 10 minutes to recheck my answers and go over tough questions.
And while practicing is very important, the MOST important thing that will truly enhance your score is reviewing. If you don’t review your practice exams, you won’t see much improvement. Whenever I take practice exams, I like to circle the questions that I felt iffy on. After the 45 minutes are up, I then go back and try to see if I can figure out all of the questions I circled untimed. Then you can grade your answers, and go over the questions you got wrong. When grading your test, you need to really understand WHY you got a question wrong and WHY the right answer choice is right. This way, you won’t be simply answering and grading your tests, but you’ll be interacting with the work you did and truly understanding each question and answer option (this applies for all sections).
Here is a list of resources that I utilized while studying for the english section:
The Official ACT Prep Guide
The Complete Guide to ACT English
Sample English Passages from the official ACT site
PrepScholar Grammar Rules
PrepScholar List of Official ACT Exams
I also just wanted to say that not getting a perfect score or the score you want does not define you as a person. Study hard and work hard, but don’t give up if you aren’t seeing the results right away! It takes time but you’ll get there eventually. Please DM me if you have any questions, I would love to help out! Good luck on your studies! :D
