ACT English Test Prep and Practice Makes Perfect
The ACT test can be daunting, especially for newbies and first timers. It takes a lot of prep and practice to be able to muster confidence come the ACT test day. So what ACT prep methods are considered to be effective? You’ll want to pass the ACT test with flying colors to be able to gain admission to the college of your choice. Among the most challenging sections of this test is the ACT English Test. Just like with the other topics, you’re aiming to get hold of foolproof tips about how to ace your English ACT test. You will find them in the discussion below.
Ace The ACT English Test With These Valuable Tips
Avoid giving wordy answers. That is, keep it simple when conveying your thoughts and ideas in the ACT English test. Not that you’ll have to give short answers either. Sometimes you need to put in more words in your phrases and sentences so that they become grammatically correct. The key to providing efficient answers in your ACT English is to be concise and straight to the point.
Read the whole sentences in the questions. Don’t rush when answering the questions in the test. It’ll make you frazzled and haphazard as you respond to the items. It may be tempting to read only the underlined portion of the sentence, but steer clear of this tendency. Be particular that the wrong clause or clauses in your sentence can affect your answer.
Consider the context and the meaning of the test items. Just because you’re tackling the grammar portion of the test doesn’t mean that you should disregard the meaning of the sentence. In many of the questions in ACT English, the context must be taken into account. This ought to be applied, especially in transition word questions and questions that require you to find the proper placement of a sentence in the whole paragraph.
Take into account the consistency of the sentence. A major example of this the proper placement of the verb tense and the voice. When adding the tense of the sentence, look for cues in the surrounding sentences and accord their tenses. But there are exceptions, such as when a certain clause conveys a past event within a paragraph that is set in the present tense.
Steer clear of being redundant. Avoid stating a meaning or idea that has already been conveyed or implied. Likewise, refrain from using two adjectives that mean the same. As mentioned earlier in this text, keep your sentences simple and consider the whole sentence when answering the questions. Remember that reading only the underlined phrase in the items can make you go amiss on the other parts that also state the same idea.
Apply the rule of sentence parallelism in grammar. You can easily spot the parallelism of ideas in a sentence the more you familiarize yourself with them. A sentence that is parallel have clauses that match in structure. An example of a sentence that lacks parallelism is:
My hobbies are swimming, running and to sing.
“Swimming” and “running” are in gerund form while “to sing” is in infinitive form. The above sentence can become parallel if the infinitive form “to sing” is changed to its gerund form which is “singing”.
Be careful of run-on sentences. In everyday writing, common mistakes such as comma splices might also jump out as mistakes in the ACT English test. A sentence becomes a run-on if it is comprised of a comma splice wherein two independent clauses are combined with only a comma. If an independent clause can stand on its own as a sentence, then it has a complete thought. Adding a conjunction rectifies a comma splice. The same happens when one of the clauses is made to be dependent or when a comma is changed into a semi-colon.
Be aware of subject-verb agreement. If a subject is singular, it has to be connected with a verb that is singular. In the same way, plural subjects have to be followed by plural verbs. Generally, errors in subject-verb agreement are easily spotted if the subject and the verb are next to each other. The tricky part is when they are not, specifically if prepositional phrases are placed in between them. If you want to do away with this dilemma, take the prepositional phrase out and figure out if the subject and verb agree with each other now that they are side by side. Don’t confuse the object of the prepositional phrase as the subject.
Be particular about pronoun- antecedent agreement. The noun that the pronoun replaces in a sentence is known as the antecedent. To check for accuracy, you can mark the pronoun with an arrow that points back to its antecedent. See to it that they agree in gender and number. As examples, the pronoun “they” may refer to the antecedent “students”, and these are plural, while the pronoun “her”, which is singular may refer to the feminine antecedent “Jane” which is singular.
Make sure that ideas from current and previous paragraphs are included in transitional sentences. There are items in the ACT English test wherein you will be required to choose the most fitting opening or closing sentence in a paragraph. You’ll want your sentences to create a smooth transition by incorporating ideas in your sentences from the current, previous or following paragraphs. Your goal here is to connect two ideas, that’s why ideas from the surrounding paragraphs have to be considered.
Be One Step Ahead, ACT English Can Be Tricky
Because the ACT English test can be tricky, you have to watch out as well. While you carry on with the necessary prep, be one step ahead by being armed with tips about how to approach the questions. You can always do practice tests, but be keen about the structure, context and meaning of the items in the test. Well-equipped with smarts, skills and confidence, you can ace your English ACT test and pursue your desired higher learning in the college of your choice.
