ENGLISH
The ACT English Test is not a grammar test or a test of how well you write. Instead, the ACT tests your editing skills—your ability to fix errors in grammar and punctuation and to improve the organization and style of five different passages.
You have to answer 75 questions in 45 minutes. You have to know and understand grammar rules. You have to analyze phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and whole passages
Good writing should be in complete sentences.
Everything should be consistent.
The meaning should be clear .
The best answer, free of any errors, will be the most concise.
Even when you can’t figure out what type of error a question is really testing, apply the 4 C’s, and you’ll be able to eliminate answer choices.
You don’t need to memorize your grammar textbook to prep for the ACT. But it’s a smart move to review the most common grammar rules tested on the ACT English Test. You can expect to encounter grammar questions about the following topics (to name a few):
subject-verb agreement
pronoun agreement
adjectives and adverbs
comparisons and superlatives
punctuation
conjunctions
The answer choices are your clues to identifying what the question is really asking. Do any of the words or punctuation change? Pay attention to what changes versus what stays the same in the answers to figure out what the potential error is.
Your ear is pretty reliable at raising the alarm for outright errors and clunky, awkward phrasing. Always verify what your ear is telling you by checking the answers to identify the topic and confirm there is no error. If something sounds off, investigate further, but remember to be careful for errors your ear won’t catch.
To go from good to great on the English test, you can’t just fix a question in your head and then find an answer that matches. Instead, after you’ve identified what’s wrong, eliminate all the choices that do not fix the error.
NO CHANGE is a legitimate answer choice. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that all questions have an error that you just can’t spot.
Resources: https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/act-english-tips and https://blog.prepscholar.com/8-act-english-tips