ACT English: Strategy & Drills
Full file, combining the de-AI edits with the updated drill title format: “`htmlAfter 20+ years of ACT tutoring, I’ve seen students approach the English section in a lot of different ways. The ones who do best go in with a specific mindset: they treat the section like proofreading work rather than a quiz. This guide walks through how the section is structured, the habits that drive improvement, and how to use these drills. For full content review and complete practice tests, check out my book Barron’s ACT Premium Study Guide. First, the strategy.
How the ACT English Section Works
The ACT English section is 50 questions in 35 minutes, organized around multiple passages with questions embedded in the text. That’s about 42 seconds per question on average, enough time to read carefully if you stay disciplined. Questions refer to underlined (paper) or highlighted (digital) portions of each passage, and many offer NO CHANGE as one of four answer choices. There are three official reporting categories. Conventions of Standard English (grammar, usage, and punctuation) accounts for about 52–55% of the section. Production of Writing (organization, development, and rhetorical purpose) accounts for about 29–32%. Knowledge of Language (precision, concision, style, and tone) accounts for the remaining 15–17%.
One thing shapes how you should approach every question on this section: you can’t answer most of them correctly without reading the surrounding passage carefully. The underlined portion isn’t standalone. It’s part of a sentence, a paragraph, and a passage, and the correct answer often depends on context that comes before or after.
The Right Mindset: Think Like a Proofreader
The most useful frame for ACT English is to think of yourself as a proofreader reviewing a draft. Good proofreaders don’t skim and don’t rush. They read carefully, catch every error, and make deliberate decisions about every change.
That’s the approach ACT English rewards. Speed-reading and skimming won’t help you on this section; thoroughness will. Read every word of the passage, including the parts that aren’t underlined. The context around each question is often what determines the right answer.
Most students can finish ACT English within the time limit without rushing. The bigger risk than running out of time is moving too fast, feeling confident, and missing questions through carelessness. Use the full 35 minutes. Students who feel like they’re doing well because they’re moving fast are often the ones making the most careless errors.
The Biggest Mistake I See on ACT English
The most common error I see is students reading up to the underlined portion and answering based on what comes before it, without ever reading what comes after. This costs the most points on punctuation questions, where the right mark depends on the structure of the full sentence, and on transition questions, where the right connector depends on the relationship between what comes before and what comes after the underlined word.
The fix takes discipline: always read the complete sentence before evaluating any answer choice. For Rhetorical Skills questions about adding, deleting, or relocating material, read the full paragraph. Never evaluate an answer choice based on partial context.
What ACT English Actually Tests
The grammar and usage tested on ACT English reflects conventions that English-language professionals broadly agree on. There are no tricks, no obscure rules, and no debatable style preferences. Every question has a defensible correct answer based on standard written English: the kind of grammar and punctuation that appears in professional writing, textbooks, and published journalism.
This is worth knowing because it should give you confidence. You’re not being tested on pet peeves or edge cases. If you know the fundamentals cold, you can answer every Usage and Mechanics question with certainty.
The punctuation concepts that show up most often and are worth mastering thoroughly: commas (with introductory clauses, appositives, and items in a series), semicolons (joining independent clauses), colons (introducing a list or explanation), dashes (setting off parenthetical information), and apostrophes (possessives and contractions, including its vs. it’s and their vs. they’re). If you’re not completely comfortable with any of these, that’s where to focus your prep.
Four Things That Move Your ACT English Score
1. Treat NO CHANGE Like Any Other Answer Choice
A lot of students are biased against picking NO CHANGE. It feels like they must be missing something, or like the test must be trying to trip them up. That bias gets students to change correct answers into wrong ones.
NO CHANGE is one of four answer choices. Evaluate it the same way you evaluate the others: does it follow the rules of standard written English? Does it make sense in context? If the answer is yes, choose it without hesitation. There’s nothing suspicious about an underlined portion that happens to already be correct.
2. Always Read Enough Context
I covered this above, but it’s worth restating because it’s the most common error on this section. Students don’t read enough of the surrounding passage before committing to an answer. Make a habit of reading the complete sentence for Usage and Mechanics questions, and the full paragraph for Rhetorical Skills questions. This one habit will save you more points than any other adjustment.
3. Watch for Repetition and Irrelevance
ACT English frequently tests whether students can recognize writing that’s redundant (saying the same thing twice) or irrelevant (introducing information that doesn’t belong in context). When an answer choice repeats information already stated in the passage, or when it introduces a detail that has nothing to do with the surrounding paragraph, it’s wrong because of the imprecision, not the length.
At the same time, don’t reflexively pick the shortest answer. Some passages need additional description to be clear, and longer answers sometimes provide necessary information that shorter ones cut. Evaluate each question on its own terms. The right answer includes the information that needs to be there and nothing else.
4. Decide on Your Answer Before Looking at the Choices
This habit is especially important on Rhetorical Skills questions, but it applies across the section. Before you look at the answer choices, take a moment to think about what the correct answer should look like. Ask yourself what punctuation mark belongs here, what transition fits the logical relationship between the surrounding ideas, or whether a particular sentence should be included or cut.
Once you read the answer choices, it gets very hard to think independently. The choices are designed to be plausible, and once you’ve seen them, they start influencing your thinking whether you want them to or not. The students who answer most accurately are the ones who commit to an answer before the choices have a chance to pull them off course.
How to Use These Drills
Keep in mind that on the real ACT, you’ll encounter longer passages with 5–10 questions each, which means you have to hold more context in your head as you work through a full essay. The drills below use short, focused excerpts on purpose. Each drill isolates a specific skill so you can get comfortable with it before applying it to full-length passages. Once you’re scoring well on these drills, move to complete ACT English passages (available in Barron’s ACT Premium Study Guide) to simulate real test conditions.
The drills below are organized by skill type. Each drill is five questions with a full explanation for every answer choice.
Approach each drill the way you’ll approach the real test: read carefully, use full context, and think before you look at the choices. After you finish a drill, read every explanation, including the ones for questions you got right. When you miss a question, figure out specifically what went wrong. The errors usually fall into a few categories: not reading enough context, getting fuzzy on a grammar rule, or letting an answer choice pull you off your initial instinct. Each kind of mistake has a different fix.
For full ACT English instruction, including content review, worked examples, and complete practice tests, see Barron’s ACT Premium Study Guide.
ACT English Drills
Focused 5-question drills covering every ACT English topic. Pick a drill and start practicing.
Punctuation
Sentence Structure
Transitions and Connectors
Topic Development
Organization and Cohesion
Conciseness and Redundancy
Frequently Asked Questions About ACT English
How many questions are on the ACT English section, and how long is it?
The ACT English section has 50 questions and a 35-minute time limit, giving you about 42 seconds per question. This enhanced format has been in place for National online testing since April 2025 and National paper testing since September 2025. The previous version had 75 questions in 45 minutes, so if you’re using older prep materials, double-check that the practice tests reflect the current format.
What topics does ACT English cover?
ACT English tests three official skill areas. Conventions of Standard English (roughly 52–55% of the section) covers grammar, usage, and punctuation: commas, semicolons, colons, dashes, apostrophes, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, and pronoun usage. Production of Writing (roughly 29–32%) covers rhetorical decisions like transitions, adding or deleting sentences, organization, and whether a passage achieves a stated purpose. Knowledge of Language (roughly 15–17%) covers style and tone, which means choosing precise wording, avoiding redundancy, and matching the style of the surrounding passage.
How is the ACT English section scored?
Your raw score is the number of questions you answer correctly (there’s no penalty for wrong answers, so always guess if you’re unsure). That raw score is converted to a scaled score from 1 to 36. The enhanced ACT also embeds a small number of unscored experimental (field test) questions throughout the section. You won’t be able to tell which questions are experimental, and they won’t affect your score, so just treat every question as if it counts. ACT also reports three separate reporting category scores alongside your overall English score: Conventions of Standard English, Production of Writing, and Knowledge of Language. These breakdowns can help you target weak areas in your preparation. Your English score is one of three sections (along with Math and Reading) used to calculate your ACT Composite. Science is optional and not part of the Composite.
What is a good ACT English score?
The national mean ACT English score is 18.6, based on the most recent official ACT data. A 24 is at the 81st percentile, and a 28 is at the 90th percentile. For highly selective colleges, competitive English scores are typically in the low-to-mid 30s, though expectations vary by school. For a fuller breakdown of what ACT scores mean for college admissions, see What Is a Good ACT Score for College Admissions?
How hard is the ACT English section?
ACT English is one of the more learnable sections on the test. The rules it tests are consistent and finite. There’s no creative writing, no vocabulary, and no ambiguous style questions. If you understand the grammar and punctuation concepts cold and you read carefully enough to use context, you can answer every question correctly. The difficulty for most students isn’t the content; it’s the habits. They read too quickly, don’t use enough surrounding context, and second-guess answers that were right the first time.
How is ACT English different from the SAT Reading and Writing section?
Both tests cover grammar and editing, but the format is quite different. ACT English presents long passages with questions embedded at specific points in the text, so you edit the passage as you read through it. The SAT Reading and Writing section uses short, standalone passages with one question each. ACT English also includes more rhetorical strategy questions (transitions, organization, purpose) than the SAT. If you’re deciding which test to take, see SAT vs. ACT: Which Test Should You Take?
How much can I improve my ACT English score with practice?
Meaningful improvement is very achievable on ACT English, often more than on Reading or Science. Students scoring in the mid-teens can realistically reach the mid-20s with focused grammar review and consistent drill practice. Students already in the mid-20s can push into the low 30s by tightening their habits, particularly by reading full context before answering and resisting the urge to overthink. The ceiling on improvement depends largely on how systematically you work through your weak areas.
How should I use these ACT English drills?
Work through the drills in the skill areas where you’re weakest first. Do each drill under timed conditions (about 3.5 minutes for 5 questions) to simulate real pacing. After finishing, read every explanation, not just the ones for questions you missed. When you get something wrong, name specifically what went wrong: a wrong punctuation rule, not enough context, or distraction by a wrong answer choice. Each error type has a different fix. Once you’re scoring well on drills in a given topic, move to full ACT English passages to practice holding context across a longer section.