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Cracking the English Test. General Hints. Do the questions in order , leaving the tougher rhetorical questions for the end. If you’re having trouble with a particular question, leave it and come back . Often a later question will help you with an earlier one.
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General Hints • Do the questions in order, leaving the tougher rhetorical questions for the end. If you’re having trouble with a particular question, leave it and come back. Often a later question will help you with an earlier one. • Search the answer choices for clues to determine the error(s) being tested.
General Hints • Don’t forget that NO CHANGE is correct a little less than 25% of the time. If you can’t find anything wrong with the underlined portion, it may be correct as written.
Sentence Structure • ACT writers like to test your knowledge of whether sentences are put together correctly. • Watch for sentence fragments, run-ons and comma splices, misplaced modifiers, and non-parallel construction. • If you’re not sure what the question is asking you to do, check the answer choices. The differences will provide clues.
Grammar and Usage • Many ACT questions include pronoun errors, subject-verb agreement errors, and other grammatical mistakes. • If a verb is underlined, check for subject-verb agreement, verb tense errors, and verb parallelism. • If a pronoun is underlined, check for noun-pronoun agreement, pronoun-verb agreement, and pronoun case (subj. or obj)
Grammar and Usage • ACT test writers like to mix up adjectives and adverbs. Be careful that you are using the correct type of modifier for what is being modified • Idioms are expressions that require the use of a specific preposition. If you know the correct idiom, great. If not, just guess. • Check answer choices
Punctuation • Punctuation errors are common on the ACT • The most common errors involve commas. Comma errors can take the form of serial commas, comma splices, and restrictive/nonrestrictive clause separation errors. • ACT test writers also like to test semicolon usage. Semicolons connect two related yet independentclauses.
Punctuation • You might also see colons being used in sentences. A colon typically introduces a list that follows an independent clause. • Dashes can be used to separate a word or group of words from the rest of the sentence, but a dash cannot be combined with a comma. Dashes usually come in pairs unless the isolated group of words is at the end of the sentence.
Punctuation • Watch for apostrophes. They can either indicate possessives or contractions. • It’s can be used only to replace it is or it has.Its is the possessive form of the word it. Its’ is not a word. • Check answer choices.
Rhetorical Skills • Do the questions in order. However, if you’re having trouble with a particular question, or if it seems to be taking too much time, circle the question number, leave it, and come back on your second pass. Often a later question will help you with an early one.
Rhetorical Skills • Search the answer choices for clues. Focus on the differences between the answer choices, and use that information to determine the error(s) being tested. • Look for one error at a time. Eliminate all answers that do not correct the first error you spotted. Compare the remaining answers and choose the most concise answer choice free of any additional errors.
Rhetorical Skills • Don’t forget that NO CHANGE is correct a little less than a quarter of the time. If you can’t find anything wrong with the underlined portion, it may be correct as written. • Remember to look very carefully at any question with OMIT as an answer. If you can OMIT and the passage/sentence is still correct, then do so.