How to get a 36 on the ACT English Section

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​The english section is the one with the most questions (75 questions in 45 min).

Find patterns when doing practice tests; these are the top three that I noticed: 

 - repetition or redundancy problems. Usually the right answer is the shortest answer (example: short and brief vs brief). The ACT hates repetition so there’s always a lot of it; sometimes the answer is even “DELETE the underlined portion”

 - comma splice (comma used to separate two complete sentences). Instead, use a period, semicolon, or a comma with a conjunction.

 - dashes have to be paired when isolating a clause at the middle of a sentence.
 
Make sure you know how to distinguish complete sentences vs sentence fragments as well as essential vs nonessential clauses.

Know your punctuation usage: mainly apostrophes, dashes, colons, semicolons, and commas. 

With questions about inserting sentences or changing topic/concluding sentences, look at transition phrases.

For transition word questions, look at the relationship between the two sentences that the transition word connects.

Skim over each passage but still make sure you understand the main idea because sometimes the passage ends with a question about the content. 

​For questions where you choose the word that fits best, I usually just did it by sound or whatever sounded best.