Handy tips & tricks to answer word choice questions on the ACT

1. Handy tips & tricks to answer word choicequestionsontheACT WhatisACT? ACT admission test results are the primary factor most colleges and universities use when choosing admission options. ACT tests are used to evaluate a high school student's readiness for college and to provide a single, comparable set of information for universities to use in evaluating all applicants. College admissions officers will compare your standardizedtest results to yourhigh school GPA, coursesyou've taken, letters of recommendation from coaches or mentors, extracurricular activities, admissions interviews, and personal essays. The importance of ACT scores in the college admissions process varies from school to institution. Overall, the higher your ACT score, the more options you havefor attending and financing college. Hereis thelist ofthe top5 UScolleges thataccepts ACTScore ACTExamStructure The ACT test is conducted seven times a year in February, April, June,July,September, October, and December. The ACTtest consists of 215 multiplechoice questions (MCQs). The ACT test consists of four sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. The 30- to 40-minute writing assignment for the optional writing section specifies a topic and requests twoperspectives on it. This part of thetest is unclassified. Here’sthestep-by-stepapproachto registeringfortheACT

2. ACTCoursework ACT candidates should familiarize themselves with the entire ACT test syllabus in order to preparefor the test and avoidbeing inadequately prepared. English The first section of the ACT test is English. This section will have 75 multiple-choice questions from five paragraphs. The questions are designed on the basis of comprehensive andcomprehensive understanding of the passages. Mathematics The ACT test allows you to use a simple calculator for this part. The entire Elementary Mathematicssyllabus for classes 11 and12 will be covered. Reading A total of four long paragraphs representing four different genres will be included on the ACT ReadingTest. It will come from categories like Written English, Arts,Social Science, and Natural Science. The best advice to crack this section is to attempt the easy parts first and thenfocus on the challenging parts. Science The science part will have seven lessons and 40 multiple-choice questions. Earth Science, Chemistry,Physics, and Biology will be covered. Tipstosolvewordchoicequestions Onthe Writing and English portions of the SATand ACT, word choice problems are among the trickier ones. In word choice questions, you have to read a sentence or phrase and choose the word that best fits the context. For a few reasons, these questions can be challenging. First, they almost always provide at least two options for answers that are basically identical and make it challenging to decide between them. Second, they may possiblycontain words from an unknown vocabulary. Sometimes, when faced with challenging word choice problems, test takers falter or take too longto respond. Use the best practices belowto avoid this trap. Decideontheoutcome There is rarely a clear right answer to word choice questions. In contrast, two or more solution options will generally appear plausible at first. If you go over the response options and start phrasing them you won't be able to quickly determine which answer is correct. In fact, if you really wanted to, you could probably argue for each answer choice. This is due to the fact that, if you ignore the context, each answer choice is intended to sound appealing. Instead,try hidingthose challenginganswer choicesand rereadingthe passage.When you

3. reach the underlined part, say the first word that comes to mind. (Actually, take your guts on thisone!) Takenoteofthetone In addition to guessing which word is in the sentence, remember to consider the tone of the piece. While some paragraphs will be objective and analytical, others may be strong arguments or even more entertaining. The correct response will always reflect the overall mood of the passage. Correct responses often have a more formal tone, in contrast to incorrectresponses, which typicallyuse colloquial or casuallanguage. Ignorewordsyoudon’tknow Youmight hear a word or two from time to time that you'rereally unfamiliar with. If this happens, try not to panic! These words are deliberately used in the examinations to scare you and force you to take more time. Be prepared to ignore all unknown words to avoid falling into this trap. Even if you don't know all the words, you will often be able to give the correct response. If the terminology sometimes stops you from proceeding then the best thing to do is to guess and move on. Although word choice problems make up only a small partof your final grade, solving them isa waste of time. Keepyourlanguagemoderateandreasonable Thereading and grammar portionsof the ACT and SAToften follow this pattern. Avoid choosing answer options using strong language or "fancy" words unless you have a clear justification in the paragraph. These options may sound tempting, but they are often misleading and designed to lead you to choose the wrong response. There is almost always amore direct answer choice with thesame meaning. Beingtoowordyistypicallynotagoodidea Grammaticalclarity is valuedon the ACTand SAT, socorrect answers usuallymake their point in the fewest words possible. It is not recommended to simply select the shortest response;Rather, keep an eyeout for answer choices thatare redundant or repetitive. Watch carefully for words that become misconstrued easily There are many words in the English language that sound the same but have different meanings.Someofthesewordsarehomophones,whileothersarejustwordsthatcan easily be confused. If your vocabulary is not very good, you may have trouble answering questionsabout wordsthat areoften misunderstood. Tostudy andpractice theseterms, you canfind a worksheet here. For unprepared test takers who don't guess their words first or who allow foreign jargon to intimidate them, word choice questions can be a real pain in the neck. However, if you follow

4. your instincts and don't pay attention to unfamiliar words, you can easily solve these questionswithout much effort. The suggestions listed above are guidelines only. Contact our experts here if you have specificquestions. We are happy tohelp in whatever way wecan.