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.

• 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 independent clauses.

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.