ACT English Boot Camp

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BOOT CAMP CURRICULUM – ACT ENGLISH READ THE WHOLE SENTENCE Most mistakes are made because you don’t see the big picture. Instead of looking at just the words, look at the sentence. When you are looking for mistakes at the end of the sentence, you can find key information at the beginning of the sentence.

READ THE WHOLE PARAGRAPH When questions ask about a sentence, don’t treat the sentence like a ball floating in the middle of the swimming pool. They are part of a larger passage. Read the paragraph and search for the other things floating around it. There is surrounding information that may be important to understanding the meaning of the sentence.

READ THE WHOLE PASSAGE There are some questions that deal with the entire paragraph and the meaning as a whole. Having said that, don’t start out reading the entire passage. You will run out of time if read the passage and then work the questions. Wait until you run across a question that requires you to browse over the entire passage or asks questions about the main ideas of the passage.

READ ALL THE CHOICES Look over all of the choices first in the answers. Sometimes they will give you information you need to find the right answer. In addition, it can save you time reading the passage or large chunks of it. It can also tell you exactly where to look for the answer in the passage saving you precious time.

ELIMINATE AND GUESS 1. Use similarities among the answers to eliminate choices A) Therefore B) As a result, C) In Contrast D) Additionally Therefore, as a result, and additionally are all transitional words which continue an existing thought, whereas, in contrast makes it plain that the thought is going in a different direction. Since there is only one right answer, this glaring difference shows there is a good chance that the right answer is in contrast.

PACE YOURSELF You have 35 minutes to answer 44 questions, or roughly 48 seconds (ACT is 45 minutes to do 75 questions – 36 seconds per question). It is wise to assume that some passages and some questions will

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BOOT CAMP CURRICULUM – ACT ENGLISH be more difficult for you, so that you may wish to complete others that are easier and to return to the more difficult ones before the test ends. Occasionally, stop to check the time, to be sure you are working at a good pace and will have time both to complete the test and to review your work. Some test prep materials tell you to answer the questions on your test booklet and transfer those answers to the answer document from the book. This is a time suck! Do not do this! When you come to the answer place it directly into the answer document and move on – just make sure you bubble the correct answer to the question you are working.

DON’T HESITATE TO COME BACK TO QUESTIONS If you are having difficulty figuring out the answer to a question, let your subconscious mind take over while you consciously move on to other problems. While you are working through the other problems, your subconscious mind will likely piece together what makes the most sense on the problem you skipped. Then, with fresh eyes, you can come back to the question you previously skipped, and it will likely seem much easier than before. DO NOT LEAVE ANY QUESTIONS UNANSWERED!!!!

TRY TO “HEAR” AS YOU MOUTH SILENTLY One of the best ways to edit a paper is to hear what is written as opposed to reading it only visually. Mouthing what is written will help you pick up on a variety of things, such as necessary pauses for punctuation, parallel phrasing, and proper idiom usage. Hearing the words will help you tap into your intuitive knowledge about what sounds right in the English language.

You simply need to answer the question correctly; there is no need to justify why you have chosen your answer. Do be careful that while hearing it, you are not too casual in your tone.

While the writing you find in the passages will be more formal, it will not be stuffy.

For example, it will say, "The teacher tried to stop the fight," as opposed to "The teacher endeavored to terminate the belligerence."

CONSIDER RELEVANT CONTEXT You must consider the context surrounding potential grammar issues to analyze a number of possible problems, such as logical transitions, tense agreement, and tone consistency.

Sometimes you may need to read quite a bit beyond what is highlighted in the question so that your answer will be consistent with what follows. When in doubt about whether a selection is consistent with the rest of the passage, take the time to check it out.

CONSIDER READING THE PASSAGE ONCE BEFORE ANSWERING QUESTIONS WHEN RUNNING ACROSS MAIN IDEAS OF A PASSAGE © Copyright 2025 Capstone College and Career Advising LLC.

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BOOT CAMP CURRICULUM – ACT ENGLISH With 48 seconds per passage, you should have plenty of time to work through the problems. Rather than having time at the end of the Writing and Language test to double-check and possibly do nothing, you can instead use your time to read the passage with an eye on its overall flow and meaning. This will enable you to do well on questions involving big-picture analysis of the passage and proper transitions.

THINK ABOUT THE MEANING Many writing errors involve small-scale issues, like punctuation and subject-verb agreement. Other errors will involve large-scale issues, like conforming to a given writing objective or making an appropriate transition. As a result, it is essential that you focus not only on looking for minor grammar errors but also carefully consider how you can make the meaning of what is written as logical as possible.

ANTICIPATE - TRY TO CREATE YOUR OWN ANSWER BEFORE LOOKING AT THE CHOICES All of the choices on the ACT test will be well written, and many will be quite persuasive. Prior to jumping into the choices, do your best to come up with a general idea of what you think the answer should be. This will put you in control rather than letting the test control you. If you are having trouble developing an idea for an answer, use the differences among the choices to pinpoint the type of error in question. That way, you can at least narrow down your thoughts before making a decision.

MAKE SMART GUESSES There is no penalty for guessing on questions as there was in the past. So be certain you have filled in an answer for every question. Instead of picking a random answer, keep the following tips in mind: • NO CHANGE can be a viable answer and guess. Before considering a NO CHANGE questions, ask yourself the questions.

- Does the text sounds right as is? Then ask: - Does one of the answers fix something you missed?

- Does one of the answers make the sentence better by making it more concise?

•

Once you have made a thoughtful decision, don't second-guess. Read the context, consider the answers carefully, and pick the best option. If you have done these things, be comfortable picking your answer and moving on.

REALIZE THAT THESE ARE GRAMMAR RULES NOT GRAMMAR PREFERENCES

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BOOT CAMP CURRICULUM – ACT ENGLISH You have likely had a teacher who has had certain "pet peeves" about how you should write your essays. Maybe you have had a teacher who insisted you use only the formal third person voice in your essays; maybe your teacher marked off points for starting sentences with "but" or "because."

The ACT does not care about such things. Any issues you encounter will be clear problems. The answers will be based on widespread English practice, not the personal preferences of particular editors.

READ THE SENTENCES BEFORE AND AFTER THE UNDERLINED PART Often times an underlined part of the passage will appear to say one thing, but without proper context, it could take on a completely different meaning. For example, “The bark seems normal to me.”

The conclusion seemed obvious. (insert sentence) We spent a great deal of time inspecting the tree.

I didn’t understand why my friend was so scared! (insert sentence) I thought the dog seemed very playful.

It is always good to ready the sentence before and the sentence after to make sure you understand the proper context. Remember, we are looking for more than just grammar and punctuation.

IDENTIFY THE TOPIC As you can tell in the last strategy we discussed, it can be very important to identify the topic of a passage or paragraph first. This helps you quickly find the context for which the underlined portions of those passages and paragraphs are.

ASSIGN WRITING AND ENGLISH BOOT CAMP PRACTICE 1 and 2 https://www.capstoneadvising.com/bootcampenglish1 https://www.capstoneadvising.com/bootcampenglish2

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