ACT English Test Strategies: Know the Format, Directions, and Methods

1. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 1: Know the Test FORMAT 45 Minutes – 75 Questions Five passages or essays – about 350 – 400 words. Each paragraph in the passage is numbered. Each paragraph contains underlined phrases followed by numbers. Those numbers refer to a corresponding question. Questions are multiple-choice with 4 possible answer choices. Some questions refer to underlined portions of the passage and offer several alternatives to the underlined portion. Some questions ask about an underlined portion, a section of the passage, or the passage as a whole. Many questions offer “NO CHANGE” to the passage as one of the choices.

2. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 1: Know the Test (cont.) • FORMAT (cont.) • The English test puts you in the position of a writer who makes decisions to revise and edit a text. • The test measures your understanding of the Conventions of Standard English. • Spelling, vocabulary, and rote recall of rules of grammar aren't tested. • The English test does not require you to memorize what you read. The questions and essays are side-by-side for easy reference. • This is NOT a memorization test.

3. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 1: Know the Test (cont.) CONTENT • Production of Writing (29-32%) - Apply your understanding of the purpose and focus of a piece of writing. - Focuses on Topic Development - Organization, Unity, and Cohesion • Knowledge of Language (13-19%) - Demonstrate effective language through ensuring precision and concision in word choice and maintaining consistency in style and tone.

4. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 1: Know the Test (cont.) CONTENT (cont.) • Conventions of Standard English (51-56%) - Apply an understanding of the conventions of standard English grammar, usage, and mechanics to revise and edit the text. - Sentence Structure and Formation - Punctuation - Usage

5. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 2: Know the Directions • By learning the directions in advance, you’ll be racking up points while everyone else is still reading the directions.

6. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 3: ACT Method • Pace Yourself 75 questions in 45minutes results in 36 seconds per questions. Spending 1 ½ minutes skimming through each passage leaves 30 seconds per question. • Be aware of the writing style used in each passage. Some questions will ask you to choose the best answer based not on its grammatical correctness but on its consistency with the style and tone of the essay as a whole. • Examine the underlined portions of the passage.

7. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 3: ACT Method (cont.) • Be aware of questions with no underlined portions. Questions of this type are often identified by a question number in a box located at the appropriate point in the passage. Questions about the entire passage are placed at the end of the passage. • Note the differences in the answer choices. Be careful not to choose an answer that corrects one error but causes a different error. • Determine the best answer. If the underlined portion is the best answer, select “NO CHANGE”.

8. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 3: ACT Method (cont.) • Consider a question’s context before choosing an answer. • Be aware of the connotations (feelings and associations) of words. • Reread the sentence, using your selected answer. • Be careful with two-part questions. • Watch for interrelated questions. Occasionally, answering a question after you’ve answered the one that follows it is easier.

9. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 4: Kaplan Method • Plan to spend 9 minutes per passage. • Do not skip around in the English test. • Move straight from beginning to end, answering all of the questions as you go. • When you’re running out of time, choose the shortest answer for each one. OR • Pick a letter of the day and use that as the answer.

10. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 4: Kaplan Method (cont.) • When in doubt, take it out. Everything should be written concisely. Between two grammatically correct and relevant choices, the shorter one will ALWAYS be right. • Make sure it makes sense, and is logically and grammatically correct. • Trust your eyes and ears. Don’t choose the answer that “sounds fancy.” Choose the one that sounds right.

11. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 4: Kaplan Method (cont.) • Kaplan 3 steps 1. Read the passage and identify the issue. Read until you see a number, stop reading, look at the question. If you need more information, keep reading until you have enough context to answer the question. 2. Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue. 3. Plug in the remaining answer choices and select the most correct, concise, and relevant one. • Correct answers do not change the intended meaning of the original sentence, paragraph, or passage or introduce new grammatical errors.

12. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 5: Peterson’s Method • Review sentence function and formation. • Review punctuation and usage. • Watch out for sentences that overuse parentheses. • Production of Writing questions may ask you the best way to improve paragraphs by moving sentences to the spots where they are most logical.

13. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 5: Peterson’s Method (cont.) • Keep an eye out for transitional words such as however or also when answering organization questions. • Rhetorical skills questions may ask you to identify the audience for a particular piece of writing. To answer such questions, think about its tone and mood. • Off-topic and redundant details need to be deleted. • Correcting wordiness involves picking out all of the unnecessary words without deleting any essential details and reconstructing the sentence.

14. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 6: Princeton Review Method • 4 C’s 1. Good writing should be in COMPLETE sentences. 2. Everything should be CONSISTENT. 3. The meaning should be CLEAR. 4. The correct answer, free of any errors, will be the most CONCISE.

15. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 6: Princeton Review Method (cont.) • 5-step Basic Approach 1. Identify the Topic: For each underlined portion, finish the sentence, and then look at the answers. The answers are your clues to identifying what the question is testing. 2. Use POE (Process of Elimination): After you’ve identified what’s wrong, eliminate all the choices that do not fix the error.

16. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 6: Princeton Review Method (cont.) 3. Use the Context: Don’t skip the non- underlined text in between questions in order to save yourself a few minutes. 4. Trust Your Ear, But Verify: Always verify what your ear signals by confirming the actual error. 5. Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken

17. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 7: Random Methods UNDERLINED PORTION • Read before and after the underlined portion. • Move to the answer choices. Skip (A) or (F) (No change). • Read the other three choices carefully. • Cross out answers that create an error in sense or intended meaning, are inconsistent in style, or simply do not “work” with the rest of the passage. • Remember, “NO CHANGE” might be the correct answer. • If you find an error in the underlined portion but are unsure which answer choice makes the best improvement, guess and move on!

18. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 7: Random Methods PLUG IN (Princeton and Kaplan Method) • Ask – What are you being tested on? • Cross out answer choices that do not address the issue. • Plug in the remaining answer choices. • The best choice will be grammatically correct, concise, and make sense. • Read the answer choice in the sentence in place of the underlined portion; this way you can “hear” which is best. • Don’t think too much about technical rules. The first thing is to get rid of unnecessary or irrelevant words.

19. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES Strategy 7: Random Methods ECONOMY QUESTIONS • The longer answer is not always the better choice. • When in doubt, take it out. • Redundancy: The text in a sentence should never repeat itself. In English, every single word and sentence should have a unique purpose. If the underlined portion is not absolutely necessary, it is probably redundant or irrelevant. • Verbosity: Write concisely, as long as it is grammatically correct. • Irrelevance: Omit complete ideas that are not directly related to the purpose of the passage.

20. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES TIPS • Always read the options in context, pretending you are saying them out loud. Often, the mistake will become clear to you when you say it to yourself. • Trust your eyes and ears. • Improve your “ear” by reading good, informative prose under relaxed conditions, perhaps on a daily, limited basis. • Some questions have OMIT the underlined portion option. Read the underlined passage without the underlined portion to ensure the passage is clear and correct when it is left out. (In past exams, when OMIT has appeared as an answer choice, it’s been correct more than half of the time.) • Read all the answer choices carefully. Answers written in formal English are usually the best contenders for the “best” answer. • Eliminate any answer choices that are written in informal English or contain incorrect grammar, punctuation, or usage. • On recent ACTs, the shortest answer has been correct on about one-half of all English questions. • Do not defend something if the passage could make sense without it. The ACT will never ask you to add any unnecessary details or descriptions.

21. ENGLISH ACT STRATEGIES TIPS • If you can’t find a mistake in an underlined sentence, consider logic. A sentence may sound like English but actually have a logical inconsistency, which makes it not make sense. • Pay close attention to all words near the underlined part. • Be aware of questions with no underlined portions—that means you will be asked about a section of the passage or about the passage as a whole. • When you approach each question ask: Does this belong here? Does this make sense? (Check logic) Does this sound like proper English? (Check grammar). Usually the word or phrase that contains an error will sound wrong. • Make sure it makes sense. • When in doubt, take it out. Make sure that everything is written as concisely as possible. • A good vocabulary and an awareness of not only the dictionary definitions of words but also the connotations (feelings and associations) suggested by those words will help you do well on the test. • Avoid making new mistakes. Be observant, especially in questions where the responses have similar wording.