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Test Taking Strategies for the ACT English Test

Author: Amanda Soderlind

Overview

This tutorial will explain important strategies for success on the English section of the ACT exam. Our experts here at Sophia have chosen these strategies based on their experience raising students’ scores.

  • Skim passage before answering any questions. It’s important to understand the context, even though you are just being asked about small chunks of the passage

 

  • Questions correspond to the order of the passage (first question deals with the beginning, middle question deals with the middle...)

 

  • If you don’t know the answer, guess and move o

 

  • If you have to guess, use educated guessing and attempt to eliminate some of options. Unlike the other sections of the exam, English items only have 4 options, so even if you can just eliminate one, your chances of guessing correctly are 33%

 

  • The “No Change” option is correct approximately 20% of the time, so don’t overlook it

 

  • The “Omit” option is correct approximately 25% of the time, so don’t overlook it

 

  • Use “Omit” if there is redundancy or irrelevant statements

 

  • Focus on clarity

 

  • Try to predict the correct answer before looking at answer options

 

  • No loss of points for wrong answers, so don’t leave any blank