The Very Easy ACT English Test
The ACT English Test is quite easy. Many of our students have started training with low grammar skills, but finished with high scores that exceeded their targets. Many of our students have jumped to near-perfect ACT English Test scores in just a month of training with us. As long as you are motivated, have a positive attitude, follow directions and are open to critical feedback, you can excel!
Student-Interface is Super Friendly
The ACT English Test is very student-friendly. Passages and questions are quite straightforward and seem to flow effortlessly. There are neither huge surprises nor curveballs. For example, unlike the SAT Writing and Language Test, the ACT English Test does not contain any questions with supplementary material, such as tables, charts, or maps. If students already have a decent grammar foundation, then ACT English Test answers will often feel quite obvious. Over training we observe how students become much more at ease with taking this test. Students often feel relieved after practice and say the ACT English Test is not as daunting as they thought. Again, the ACT is not out to trick students. Since grammar rules cannot change, there really is no way to distort questions! Thus, students should feel confident with performing well and completing this test with ample time to double check answers.
ACT and SAT grammar test comparison. The SAT Writing and Language Test has two supplementary material questions that incorporate charts, tables, or maps. Supplementary material can complicate test questions and negatively impact time management, but ACT English Test students do not have to worry about these questions. Created by: Presidio Education® English Faculty, 2019.
ACT English Test vs. SAT Writing & Language Test
| Test | Sections | Passages | MCQs | SMQs | Total Questions | Time |
| ACT | English Test
(Section 1) |
5 | 75 | 0 | 75 | 45 Minutes |
| SAT | Writing & Language Test
(Section 2) |
4 | 44 | 2 | 44 | 35 Minutes |
Build a Basic Grammar Foundation
Grammar may not be the most exhilarating part of learning English, but having a strong grammar foundation is completely necessary. Unfortunately, many high schools neither focus on teaching linguistics nor grammar. Therefore, many high school students often lack a strong grammar foundation, which is often reflected in writing assignments. However, students should not feel discouraged at all! Students should find grammar training painless because grammar rules do not change. Once rules are learned, all students need to do is practice to uphold strong muscle memory!
Remember these Key Questions
Again, the ACT English Test does not have any scary surprises nor overly challenging questions. If you paid attention during your ACT English Test training, then there is nothing to worry about! We teach students to remember a few key questions that will come up. For example, in American English writing conventions, students are often taught to avoid writing serial commas, unlike in British English. Still, because serial commas are technically allowed in standard American English, they appear several times on the ACT English Test. There will also be several vocabulary-related questions, which require students to judge tense and context. Vocabulary questions are designed to evaluate if students can place the most appropriate word in context of the passage. This does not necessarily mean that other answer choices will not make any sense, but that there is only one answer choice that is most appropriate.
Slightly Interpretational Questions
Without sounding contradictory about how the ACT English Test is super easy because English grammar rules do not change, the ACT English Test does offer two slightly interpretational questions that are not truly grammar-related. Again, these questions are nothing to fear as long as you have solid training!
Placement questions simply ask students to place a phrase or sentence somewhere in a paragraph, or to move a whole paragraph within the whole passage. This really is not about grammar, but about evaluating how sentences and paragraphs flow smoothly into each other. Students must pay attention to chronology of events when reading passages. When placing sentences or paragraphs into particular locations to see how they read, you should read a little bit of the previous and following sentences and paragraphs to gain more accurate context. Though some students only read passage sentences if they refer to questions, they forget that all sentences are there for a purpose, even if certain sentences do not have any underlined words that refer to passage questions.
Relevance questions ask students whether certain phrases or words should be kept or deleted, or even if the author accomplished a particular goal. For relevance questions, the first and second answer choices will either start with “yes” and “yes” or “kept” and “kept”, while the third and fourth answer choices will either start with “no” and “no” or “deleted” and “deleted”. This means students need to read in context to gauge what adds value to the passage. Instead of reading all four answer choices, if you read the passage carefully, you should already have determined if the answer will be a positive or negative. This means that you would have already increased your success rate to a 50/50 chance between the first and second answer choices or between the third and fourth answer choices! Keep in mind, if you have to read all four answer choices, then that implies you did not read the passage well and are letting the answer choices sway your reading comprehension.
Need ACT English Test Help?
Although students have the potential to score near-perfect to perfect ACT English Test scores, they still need training with grammar, time management and test taking. Review our student pages to read how our ACT English Test graduates performed. For those interested in our ACT training, please complete our Private Class Registration Form on our Private Classes page or contact our Customer Service Team for more information. Thank you and good luck ACT students!
