Essai’s Guide to the Best Resources for ACT Prep

If you are studying independently for the ACT and your scores in the different sections are fluctuating quite a bit, then the answer is not to take more practice tests. It is important to identify the section(s) in which your scores are not consistent and learn the rules/formulas/skills for that particular section. If you simply carry on taking tests from Crackact without “knowing your stuff” then your scores will often be at the mercy of luck.

Good preparation takes luck out of the picture. This post is meant to help you do exactly that. Below are the books and resources that we recommend for your fluctuating scores in individual sections. Additionally, we will not just be pointing you in the direction of resources, but advising you on how to use these resources to gain control over your scores.

Best ACT Reading Resource: UWorld

We think a 30 day subscription to UWorld for $29 can make a world of difference to your score. The Uworld content is very good and, more importantly, the ways in which you can use it are very helpful. Uworld can operate on tutor mode (it explains a question every time you submit an answer) and on an untimed mode. 

How do we recommend you use UWorld? 
Start by trying to increase your accuracy. Do single passages, untimed, tutor mode; when you get something wrong or unsure of an answer, read the explanation that UWorld provides. Do this until you are consistently getting 90% correct: more than 6 in a row. 

Then take off the tutor mode wheels, and start doing two passages untimed, then three, then four. The point here is to develop your own method of answering these questions, becoming very familiar with the questions, and developing your reading stamina. Always make sure to go back over the questions you got wrong – Uworld’s explanations will help you avoid making the same mistakes next time.

Once you are comfortable with doing multiple passages in a row and consistently getting 90% correct, we recommend you start paying attention to time. Try doing one passage timed, then two, then three, then four. Don’t worry too much if your accuracy slips slightly: aim to get one more question done accurately in time each time, and you’ll soon be doing all four passages in time with accuracy!

Best ACT English Textbook: (ACTing English: The Essai Guide to ACT English)

ACTing English is a great guide that equips you with all the tips and tricks you need to master the English Section. 

The textbook takes you through all the concepts you need to know to tackle the English section in a lucid manner. A shining feature of the book are the scaffolding exercises. These are step-by-step questions that force the student to use simple rules rather than intuition when answering ACT English questions. The book isn’t dreary to look at either, with plenty of fun visuals and illustrations included in each chapter.

With nearly a thousand questions including two full tests, the book has enough practice materials to help you raise your score - on average, students who use our English material see a 12 point improvement!

How do we recommend you use ACTing English?
We recommend working methodically through the book. Each chapter begins by teaching a set of related concepts: we recommend you make your own notes based off the teaching material. The teaching is followed by scaffolding exercises focussed on that particular skill. If you struggle with the scaffolding exercises, make sure to go back over the notes on that concept. At the end of each chapter, ACT-style multiple-choice questions test your ability to apply the concepts you’ve learned. The multiple-choice questions will include questions on concepts from previous chapters, so make sure you keep revising what you’ve already learnt.

Once you’ve worked through each of the chapters, you should be good to go. Once you’ve revised the concepts, have a go at the two mocks at the end of the book. Make sure to review your mistakes and brush up on any weak areas after the first mock, then have a go at the second mock. After all that, you should be good to go!

*While this is a book that we have published, we still firmly believe that it is the best sure-fire guide to the ACT English.

Best ACT Math Textbook: (Ultimate Guide to Math ACT: Richard Corn)

After being updated in 2018, Richard Corn’s Ultimate Guide to Math ACT quickly reclaimed its spot as the best ACT Math textbook. It explains each concept that you need to know for the ACT in depth and does not include any extra information. 

The book also moves through pre-algebra and basic algebra before moving on to advanced topics, providing students with a strong foundation to tackle the more difficult concepts towards the end. When used in conjunction with full Math tests, this book is your best bet to conquer the Math section.

How do we recommend using Ultimate Guide to Math ACT?
If you struggle with math in general, or you are unsure which areas you are weak in, then we recommend working through the book methodically from start to finish. The book will guide you from the foundations of math needed for the ACT through to the more difficult concepts.

If you already have a good sense of specific areas where you struggle (e.g. coordinate geometry), then focus on those chapters. Still take the time to look over the whole book – there might be something you didn’t even know you didn’t know! 

Best ACT Science Textbook: (FTLOAS: Michael Cerro and Prepscholar Guide to ACT Science)

For the Science section, we recommend either For the Love of ACT Science by Michael Cerro or the Prepscholar Guide to ACT Science. 

For the Love of ACT Science is a tried and tested guide that set a new benchmark for ACT Science Textbooks. The book helps you identify different question types and provides specific strategies to help you tackle them. It also includes two full science tests and sectional tests that only include question types that you’ve learned how to solve.

Prepscholar Guide to ACT Science does not include any practice tests, but makes up for it by listing multiple strategies to students for attempting questions - not just one restrictive approach. 

Both books include a list of science facts that you would need to know for the ACT. These books demystify the Science section by identifying patterns in a section that is seemingly random.

How do we recommend using FTLOAS and Prepscholar Guide to ACT Science?
With both these books, we recommend working through them methodically from front to back. That way you will avail yourself of all the skills needed to tackle the Science section, plus be able to try out a variety of strategies (in the case of the Prepscholar Guide) for answering questions in the Science section.

We recommend that you note down the various strategies and then apply these systematically in three untimed Science sectional tests. Using these two books in tandem might help a lot; FTLOAS has questions from all the different question types, while the Prepscholar Guide is heavier on the strategies. You can use the strategies learnt in the Prepscholar Guide and apply them to the questions in the FTLOAS.

The Colon

Everyone knows how to use a colon, right? Or maybe not.

The most common misconception is that colons are just about lists, but that’s being unfair to the colon: it can do a lot more than just list things.

Unsurprisingly, the colon is quite similar to a semicolon. Remember, with a semicolon, there must be an independent clause (subject and conjugated verb) on either side of the semicolon. In other words, the semicolon is interchangeable with a full stop.

FORMULA: IC ; IC. = S + CV ; S + CV.

The colon is a little bit different, however. Just like a semicolon, a colon must have an IC before the colon. But unlike the semicolon, you can have pretty much anything you want after a colon: an IC, a phrase, a list, even just one word. While the semicolon is wedded to independent clauses, the colon is a bit more willing to play the field.

FORMULA: IC : Anything. = S + CV : Anything.

Even if there is a bit more wiggle room with the colon, you still need to be careful how you use it. It must be preceded by an independent clause, but that independent clause must also be a complete thought. Have a look at the example below:

EXAMPLE: They passed by villages and cities, such as: Mirzapur, Sirsa, and Allahabad.

This is an incorrect use of a colon. We do have a subject (They) and conjugated verb (passed) before the colon, but we do not have a complete thought. Why? Well because you can’t finish a clause with such as because it leaves you with an incomplete thought –you’re expecting something else to happen.

Another way of putting it is to say that what is before the colon must be able to stand on its own. Ignoring what comes after the colon, imagine putting a full stop instead of the colon: if that makes sense, you could use a colon; if not, then you can’t use a colon.

Let’s have a look at some examples of correct colon usage:

IC : IC
They walked to the river bank: the boatman’s vessel lay nestled among the reeds.
S + CV : S +   CV

On the boat, Tanvi and Ganesh hid under a blanket: Horatio might be searching for them.
S +       CV                   : S + CV

IC : Phrase
The boatman, Dilip, heaved off slowly from the bank: the beginning of their river journey.
S             + CV                                           : Phrase

IC : List
Flocks of birds flew overhead in the dawn light: storks, cranes, and a few stray flamingos.
S       + CV                                    : List

IC : Word
Dilip started the boat engine, overwhelming the boat with one smell: diesel.
S +   CV                                                                                                : Word

Patience is a virtue, Virtue is a grace, Grace is a little girl who smashed her ACT

But I did so badly…
Some variant on this phrase is the most common thing we hear at essai when students come to do an ACT or SAT diagnostic test. And it’s entirely understandable – most students who come to us are doing well at school, with good grades, and they assume that standardised testing will be no different. If I’m getting 90% at school, why did I not get a 32 or a 1450 on my diagnostic?

A Misunderstanding
The central misconception that students (and parents!) have is that these tests are basically IQ tests: if you’re smart, then you can waltz in and ace them. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way; both the ACT and College Board explicitly say that these tests are tests of college readiness, not about how smart you are. Being college ready is not the same thing as doing well in school exams – being college ready involves a wide range of skills, from reading comprehension to English grammar, that you probably don’t get taught much at school.

More than that, students who come to essai for diagnostics do not “do so badly”. The essai average diagnostic score for the ACT is 22. Compare this with the fact that the US average ACT score is 21. So (essai) Indian students are already up on their US peers before they even start the course.

An average ACT diagnostic report.

… and I want to do so well.
Not only do students arrive expecting their diagnostic scores to be much higher than they are, but also they assume that a few short weeks of work will get them their 36 or 1600. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work that way. Take the ACT. Going from a diagnostic of 20 to a real ACT score of 30 is like going from a 55% student to an 85% student. You wouldn’t expect that to happen overnight at school, so why expect these tests to be any different?

So how do I get a 36?
Getting a high score on these tests is not like memorising a textbook: it’s more like learning an instrument. At the moment, you know how to play a few scratchy notes on the violin, but do you know how to read the music and play the tune? Probably not. These tests are about learning skills, not knowledge. What’s more, you’ve probably picked up some bad habits along the way. Memorising material for tests at school can help hide those bad habits, but standardised tests expose the cracks; we have to break down those bad habits before we can build up the skills essential to getting the ACT or SAT score that you want and deserve.

The Honest Truth: You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
What’s an appositive? How do I find the equation of an hyperbola? How do I identify a scientist’s assumptions? These are questions (and answers to them!) that won’t even cross your mind at school. But these are all things you need to know if you want that high ACT or SAT score. And learning these things takes time: a lot of time.

Yes, it takes a while
Essai’s test prep programmes, whether for the ACT or the SAT, recognise that students want and expect to do well. That is precisely why our programmes generally last six to nine months. We know that sounds like a scarily long time – but we also know you need that much time to build up the skills necessary to ace these tests. It requires a wholesale change in mindset.

You might have heard of kids who say they got a 34 in the ACT after a week’s worth of prep. And yes, those students do exist, but most often they will have started with a very high diagnostic, or they won’t admit how much prep they really put in. We all want to make our own lives look easy, but the reality is that, for most of us, it takes time. That’s where essai steps in to help; we give you the time and attention you need to reach your desired score. And that’s why almost every student who comes to us with a diagnostic of 22 or higher leaves with a real ACT score of 30 or more.

ACT English: The Semicolon

https://www.montreuxriviera.com/en/P976/freddie-mercury-statue

In the ACT, two independent clauses can be joined together using a semicolon. This is the only way in which we can use a semicolon in the ACT.

The formula is: IC ; IC.

(Refresher: an Independent Clause = Subject + Conjugated Verb)

In high school, you are often taught that a semicolon is used to connect any two things that are related, whether they are phrases or clauses. This is NOT correct. A semicolon can ONLY be used to join two independent clauses. In the ACT, the relationship between the clauses does not matter. All that matters is that there must be an independent clause on each side of a semicolon.

Look at the examples below:

Tanvi avoided the question; Ganesh gratefully accepted the food.
S + CV ; S + CV

The man asked where they were going; Tanvi said they needed to get back to Delhi.
S + CV ; S + CV

The man said he had a boat; he could take them up the Ganges.
S + CV ; S + CV

Tanvi jumped at the opportunity; Ganesh grumbled that he wanted to sleep first.
S + CV ; S + CV

In the ACT, if you are not sure whether it is an IC; IC sentence construction, there is an easy way to check. Before the semicolon, there should be a subject (S) and a conjugated verb (CV); after the semicolon, there should be a subject and a conjugated verb.

IC ; IC = S + CV ; S + CV

Have a go at the questions below to see if you’ve got the hang of it. Answers to be revealed tomorrow.

The most famous statue of Freddy Mercury is situated in the beautiful Swiss town of Montreux; placed [1] on the edge of the lake at the end of the Place du Marché. Freddy never got to see the statue himself, however, he spent many peaceful years of his life in Montreux, gazing out at the tranquil waters of Lac Léman.

1. A. NO CHANGE
   B. Montreux placed
   C. Montreux, placed
   D. Montreux: placed

2. A. NO CHANGE
   B. himself however he
   C. himself; though he
   D. himself; however, he

ACTing English: Non-Essential Appositives

An appositive is a word or phrase that comes after the primary noun of a sentence: it is a-positioned next to it. It is important to know when the appositive is essential or non-essential: determining this will determine the presence or absence of commas (something the ACT cares a lot about!). Detecting this is also important as it ensures that you don’t add a single, lonely comma as a pause after the primary noun. 

Let’s look at the sentence below and our flowchart that helps you determine whether an appositive is non-essential. 

Claudius, the old man,  gave Tanvi and Ganesh his address.
↓
Appositive (following the primary noun, Claudius)
↓ (Look to the left of the appositive and answer the following question:)
Is the subject (Claudius) of the sentence a specific detail?
↓
Yes (in the context, there’s only one Claudius).
↓
Would we still know who gave Tanvi and Ganesh his address if we got rid of the appositive?
↓
Yes.
↓
Therefore, the old man is a non-essential appositive.

The appositive is non-essential in nature. We know that Claudius gave Tanvi and Ganesh his address.  Any other information about him will be additional information and not necessarily required for the sentence to make sense. Accordingly, the appositive (like any non-essential information) is bracketed off by commas.

Now it’s your turn! Comment with your answer choice and we’ll reveal the answer tomorrow:

Once upon a time, King Arthur the famous British knight [1] drew a sword, Excalibur [2] from a stone.

1. A. NO CHANGE
   B. time King Arthur the famous British knight,
   C. time, King Arthur, the famous British knight,
   D. time, King Arthur, the famous British knight

2. A. NO CHANGE
   B. sword Excalibur
   C. sword Excalibur,
   D. sword, Excalibur,

December ACT Results

The Essai Olympiad the night before the December ACT: brownie (literally!) points to the winners!

A very happy new year to you all! We have an exciting year ahead of us here at essai, with lots of students taking tests in the next few months, and our 12th graders on tenter-hooks waiting to hear back from colleges.

But first we wanted to take you back to December last year: yet again, essai’s students performed brilliantly in the December ACT. We had a total of 30 students taking the December test, our largest cohort yet.

Overall, our students scores went up 7 points from their diagnostic scores, with almost 40% of students improving by 8 points or more. And a big shout out to two students in particular, who achieved a whopping 12 point improvement from their diagnostics.

Starting from an average diagnostic score of 24, our students scored an average of 31 in the December ACT. While essai aims to focus on score improvement, we were delighted to see over 60% of our students score 30 or more. Even more impressively, over 25% scored 34+, and two students scored a perfect 36.

Here at essai, we pride ourselves on our English programme (we’re currently finalising a textbook, so watch this space!). In December, students improved their English scores by 11 points, from an average of 22 to an average of 33. One student even scooped a huge 20 point improvement! And over half of our students scored 35 or more in English.

The other sections of the test also went very well for our students. 65% scored 30 or more in Math, and 3 students scored a 36 in Math and Reading. In Science, almost half of our students scored a 30 or more, with seven achieving a 36.

All in all, a huge congratulations to all our students. For many of you, December marked the end of your ACT journey with essai – enjoy the feeling of being done! For some of you, another attempt still looms ahead, and we look forward to helping you to get there. And for those pondering taking the ACT, we encourage you to come down to essai and check it out! You can find more about our ACT programme here.

October ACT Results

A large group of students from essai took on the ACT on October 12th: most of them for the first time. A big congratulations to all of them: essai’s October results were our best yet. 

As we’re sure most of you are aware, the ACT is scored out of 36. Students receive sectional scores in English, Math, Reading, and Science, which combine to give the students a composite score.

At essai, we always look first and foremost to score improvement. Overall, our students improved their composite scores by 8 points (a 35% improvement), from an average diagnostic score of 22 to an average score of 30 in the ACT. 6 students improved by 10 points or more (averaging a 55% score increase), including three students taking the ACT for the first time.

That is not to say we’re not interested in the actual composite scores as well! 70% of our students scored 30 or more, and 4 students achieved scores of 33 and above, with our top scorer getting a 35.

Our students’ English scores were a particular highlight, with an average improvement in English of 13 points. 70% of students scored 34 or above in English, which was fantastic; one student even managed a 36.

While English was particularly strong, our students also performed well across the board: over half achieved above 30 in Math. In Reading and Science, several students reached scores of 34 or above.

All in all, we’re very proud of all of our students.

Special Accommodations for Testing

http://montgomeryparents.com/index.php/2018/04/15/college-years-special-accommodations-act/

It’s an accepted fact that each student’s brain works in a different way. And it’s an accepted fact that ‘Standardised Testing’ is designed to test the ‘standard’ student.  So why isn’t it an accepted fact that some students require special accommodations to be able to fulfil their potential in the ACT or SAT?

At essai, we’ve found that there is a real lack of knowledge surrounding the process of applying for and testing with special accommodations. There also seems to be a great deal of unfounded prejudice and rumour being spread amongst students and parents. To counter this, we’ve put together a myth-busting cheatsheet to clarify the process.

Note: This guide is ACT specific – get in touch if you’d like to know more about SAT testing accommodations.

1. Why might a student need special accommodations?

   • They have significant problems concentrating for even a short period of time

   • They struggle to read or comprehend text

   • Their reading or comprehension speed is very slow

   • They have a medical condition which impacts on their test-taking

   • They have a speech and language processing difficulty

   • Their teachers or tutors have expressed concern in the past

   • They have a visual impairment

   • To see a comprehensive list of the eligibility criteria, see this document published by the ACT, go to: https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/6368-ACT-Policy-for-Documentation-Web.pdf
     

2. But what if the student has never received extra time or support at school before?

   • If there is any suggestion that a student might benefit from special testing accommodations, it's essential to undergo an assessment sooner rather than later.

   • Don’t leave it until the last minute; sometimes reports can take a while to produce

   • Simply contact a professional (we recommend the specialists at the London Learning Centre in Vasant Vihar) who will conduct an assessment on the student
     

3. How does a student apply for special accommodations?

   1. Apply as early as possible to ensure that the appropriate arrangements can be made

   2. The student must be able to prove their need for accommodations (see the link to the ACT guideline above for a detailed description of the required documentation)

   3. When registering online for the test, the student must select the ‘Testing with Accommodations’ option

   4. Then it will be possible to specify which accommodations are required (different depending on the student’s assessment report). Select "Center-Based Testing" if you the student can take the ACT with 50% extended time in one session via computer-based testing, or select "Special Testing" if the student needs accommodations other than 50% extended time in one session and/or need to take the ACT with paper and pencil

   5. When the registration has been completed, the student will receive an email with information about how to work with their school to arrange the special testing requirements. Be sure to forward this to the appropriate staff member, along with a completed ‘Consent to Release Information to ACT’ form.

   6. The school staff member will have to complete the rest of the application and organisation process. You should receive confirmation of the allowances granted within one month of submitting the request. Be sure to stay in close contact with the school staff member to ensure that everything is running smoothly, and that the deadlines are met.

4. What does special accommodation actually entail?

   • Rather than taking the test on the official test date, there is a three-week window in which a student with Special Accommodations can arrange to take the test.

   • A student may be given 50% or more extra time, and may have the option to take the test over multiple days

   • If taking the test over one day, the student will have a 15 minute break after the Math test, and a 5 minute break before starting the written section.

   • The student may be allowed to take a pen-and-paper version of the test

   • The student may be authorised to use highlighter pens or other testing aids
     

5. But it’s a really long test already, won’t I get too tired if I have extra time?

   • You don’t have to use all your extra time; you can choose to move on early if you are testing in a private setting

   • If you put in enough practice then your stamina will vastly increase

   • You can work slowly and steadily to prevent fatigue

   • IT’S WORTH IT!  It may feel tough at the time, but it can really make a difference to your score (and your future)
     

6. Won’t colleges be reluctant to accept students who need special accommodations?

   • None of the colleges will know unless you choose to inform them!

   • All the information you supply to the ACT is strictly confidential
     

According to the ACT, around 5% of test-takers are provided with some sort of special accommodation. That’s 1 in 20! It DOES NOT mean that there is anything ‘wrong’ with the student, or that they are less intelligent than their peers. It makes no sense at all not to seek assistance if you suspect it might be required. It’s not ‘cheating’: it’s adapting the test remove the invisible hurdles and to make it fair for each student.

Six Easy Pieces

This is part of a blog series by Nicholas Henderson on the Do’s, Don’ts, and Dangers of the US college application process.

When it comes to applying to American universities, it is tempting to think that each college will consider the nuances, special circumstances, and unique complexity of each applicant’s character, history, and potential. They will see the real you. They will understand your specific strengths. They will generously understand your limitations.

This is false.

In reality, the application process is highly proscriptive, in which certain kinds of information are valued far more than others. The result is that each college will only get to know certain aspects of each applicant – aspects which reflect the institutional priorities of American colleges. It’s an imperfect system with many holes and pitfalls. But the upside is that knowing which information is important – and knowing how, where, and when to emphasize this information – will leave you a greater chance to communicate your individual message, meaning, and motivation. It’s a game, and like any game, you can win or you can lose: it all depends on knowing how to play by the rules.

What follows are the Six Easy Pieces of any US college application. This is all the data each college receives about any applicant, so take heed: your very future depends on it.

1.     School Grades. These are by far the most important metric for colleges, which will look for the rigor and relevance of your courses, as well as your informal rank (the first pool of candidates you’ll be compared against are other people from your school). The simple fact is that no amount of profile-building and ACT scores will offset poor grades. So study hard.

2.     Test Scores. It’s a sad truth that American colleges care about test scores. A lot. A few years ago, tier-one private colleges Emory and Claremont McKenna got in trouble for falsifying their student scores (pretending they were higher than they actually were); to this day, incoming student ACT/SAT score remain one of the biggest components of the all-important college rankings.

3.     Letters of Recommendation. You have the option to submit two academic LORs, one counselor/principal LOR, and up to two external LORs for each college. These are a great chance to showcase your strengths and explain your weaknesses, while corroborating the other aspects of your profile to create a unified and coherent whole.

4.     Activities List. On the Common Application portal, you’ll have the chance to submit short descriptions of ten activities, and it is important you have ten things to write about. This is meant to give the colleges a picture of what you’ve been doing outside the classroom since grade 9 (the way your school grades/LORs give colleges a picture of what you’ve been doing inside the classroom since grade 9). You’ll be asked to rank your activities in term of numbers of years committed, number of weeks per year involved, and number of hours per week engaged.

5.     Common Application Essay. This is the fun part of the application. The Common Application essay (650 words) is a chance to showcase your quirks and questions, your habits and hobbies, and your outlook and opinions. Most Indian students make two common mistakes: they brag too much (save that for the LORs!) or they stay too strictly biographical (save that for the Activities List!). Great Common Application Essays are risky, bold, provocative, and memorable. Above all, they are personal, and they are real.

6.     Supplemental Essays. This is the challenging part of the application. Almost every college will ask you to write a few additional pieces, which invariably will require you to discuss “why do you want to come to this college?” and “why do you want to study your subject?” Being able to answer these by pointing to selected extracurricular and academic activities from your profile – in conjunction with sophisticated and specific discussion of intended college major – is the key to a compelling, coherent, and creative supplemental essay.

Contact us here for more info about Essai's college counseling services.

The ACT's two most common comma traps

Punctuation questions are at the heart of the ACT English section. If you know what you're doing, they are quite straightforward. But they are full of traps, ready to catch the inattentive student. So it's a good thing to know where these traps are set most frequently.

The two most common traps are: 1. comma separating the subject and verb; 2. comma in front of a prepositional phrase.

Commas are meant to separate clauses or items in a list, so commas are totally meaningless in the two places above: subject and verb are the heart of any clause, so don't separate them; prepositional phrases can cluster without any punctuation since they don't affect the number of clauses - they just make clauses bigger and add information.

An example for trap number one would be: He, went home. 'He' is the subject doing the verb 'went'. This duo is at the heart of any clause. The two should never be separated.

An example for trap number two would be: He went, to school. The prepositional phrase 'to school' does not alter the number of clauses; it is an extension of the clause started by 'he went'.

This is by far the most common trap in the ACT English section. So watch out, and don't get tempted to put in a comma before such a phrase even if it reflects a pause you would make when speaking. 

Contact us here for more info about ACT prep with Essai.

Appositive, are you essential or not?

There are a number of questions in the ACT English section that test your understanding of appositives. But what, exactly, is an appositive? To answer that, we first have to understand what the word 'apposition' means. 'Apposition' really just means 'putting something in close proximity with something else'.

In our case, these two 'somethings' would be a name and a phrase, i.e. a bunch of words. So the definition of an appositive is 'a bunch of words that is put next to a name in order to give additional information about the name'. It also works the other way around: an appositive is a name that is put into close proximity with a bunch of words in order to give additional information about the bunch of words.

To be more concrete, we could take the phrase 'the great English writer' and put it into apposition with the name 'William Shakespeare' to make provide more information about William Shakespeare. 

What can be tricky is to understand whether the appositive in question is essential or non-essential. The status of the appositive is important because it determines whether the appositive in question will need to be set off by commas or not. The general rule is: Only non-essential appositives need to be set off by commas. People get very confused about this. What's essential? What's non-essential? Is that not something subjective? So let's try to get some clarity right from the start. 

How do we determine whether an appositive is essential or not? In fact, it's quite easy. You just need to think whether the phrase that goes with the name excludes any other name. If it does, the appositive will be non-essential.

What does that exactly mean? That's where the confusion can start. But no need for that at all. Let's go back to the example about Shakespeare. What you need to ask yourself is: does the phrase 'the great English writer' exclude anyone else than Shakespeare? The answer is obviously no. There are many great English writers; Shakespeare is only of them, so the appositive offers vital clarification of a quite vague phrase. In other words, the appositive is essential.

How, you might ask, can we make 'William Shakespeare' an non-essential appositive? We simply need to find a phrase that is more narrow in scope. How can we narrow it down to good old William? A example would be to use the phrase 'the author of Hamlet'. There is only one author of Hamlet. There can be no other name in apposition than 'William Shakespeare'. Here, the name becomes non-essential. Used in a complete sentence, the correct punctuation would be 'the author of Hamlet, William Shakespeare, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon'. The name needs to be set off by commas.

It's important to understand that it does not matter whether you know who the author of Hamlet was. The only thing that matters is that the phrase obviously narrows down the possible options to just one (there can be only one author), making the appositive non-essential. 

Considering this concept of limitation, you always have to look out of superlatives (i.e. forms like best, greatest, etc.) since they automatically exclude any other option. If we were to start the sentence with 'the greatest Elizabethan playwright', the name 'William Shakespeare' would automatically come between commas.

The important fact is that it really doesn't matter whether you would agree with the statement that Shakespeare was the greatest playwright of the period. In the context of the sentence, there can be only one name since there can obviously be only one 'greatest'. In the sentence 'the greatest Elizabethan playwright, William Shakespeare, was born in Stratford-upon-Avon' the name will therefore come between commas.

You can also replace the name and make the sentence 'the greatest Elizabethan playwright, Christopher Marlowe, was murdered under mysterious circumstances'. The name still comes between commas; the appositive is still essential. Some people might disagree, but the appositive doesn't care. 

This leaves us with three rules of thumb:

1. If you go from unspecific phrase to name, the name will not need to be set off by commas.

The author (unspecific) William Shakespeare wrote great tragedies.

2. If a sentence starts with a name (i.e. the most specific thing there is) and then phrase (less specific than a name) give more information about the name, the phrase will be non-essential and therefore need to be set off by commas.

William Shakespeare (very specific), a prolific writer of plays (less specific), remains today a very mysterious character.

3. If a very specific bunch of words comes before a name, the name will come between commas.

The greatest of all English tragedies (very specific), Hamlet, was written sometime between 1599 and 1602.

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The big three in the ACT English - part 3

This post completes the set of three basic grammar skills. After this, you'll know exactly what to focus on when dealing with the ACT's grammar questions. The number of grammatically really important words is actually very small: subjects, conjugated verbs, and conjunctions. Confusion about grammar arises mainly if you don't know which words to look for when looking for the right answer. This post is all about eliminating words that make sentences look more complicated than they are.

The last basic skill is find the preposition and its prepositional phrase. This is important not mainly because prepositions are important, but because they don't really matter and just clutter sentences. If you lose your way in grammar, prepositional phrases will probably be the reason.

First of all, let's clear up a very common misunderstanding about prepositions: they are not called prepositions because they indicate position, but because they are prepositioned to other words (i.e. put in front) with which they form a prepositional phrase. The name preposition is purely a structural description; it tells you where these words stand, not what they mean or do.

There are indeed prepositions that indicate position (i.e. in, at, on, under, etc.), but some of the most common ones are very different: of, with, from, for, to, etc. 

So, by definition, prepositions can't be used on their own: they need something to lean against. They will always be part of a prepositional phrase, which is a bunch of words to which the preposition adds more precise meaning by creating a specific relationship with another word outside the phrase. Not complicated at all. Let's have a look at an example.

Let's take 'the car' and 'my father'. Just like that, we don't know anything about the relationship of these two. But if we add a preposition, the relationship becomes clear. E.g. the car of my father, or the car for my father. 'My father' has become part of a prepositional phrase that clarifies the relationship with 'the car'. The important thing to understand when thinking about grammar is that the words in the prepositional phrase will never really do anything in the sentence, nor is anything going to be done to them directly. In short, words in a prepositional phrase are neither going to be the object nor the subject of a sentence. 

So we know that 'my father' will not do anything in either of the examples above. If we complete the examples to a full sentence with a verb, the verb is never going to go with 'my father. E.g. the car of my father really needs servicing. Who needs servicing? Not the father, the car does. A full sentence for the second example would be 'I bought the car for my father'. Here a subject 'I' has been added, which agrees with the verb bought.

This fact becomes a vital skill when you are dealing with confusing long sentences, such as 'the team of players from the most prominent South American football nations at the International tournament in Spain were disqualified due to a doping scandal'.

This sentence contains a mistake in subject verb agreement, but it is made difficult to pick up on because of the long string of prepositional phrases: of players from the most prominent South American football nations at the International tournament in Spain. The basic sentence without prepositional clutter is 'the team were disqualified'. Were? No, obviously not; the verb needs to be was. Your ear might take the players to be the subject, which makes the sentence sound sort of ok if you are not attentive, but this is not possible: 'the players' is part of a prepositional phrase: of players. The players are grammatically not important; they are not doing anything. 

When combined, the three basic skills become a powerful tool to solve any ACT grammar questions with surgical precision. More importantly, these skills will also turn you into a better and confident writer who knows how to put together sentences that can cope with the scrutiny of any university professor. So, if you develop a good grasp of these three basic skills, you don't just learn something for your ACT English score but also for your academic career ahead and, ultimately, for life.

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The big three in the ACT English - Part 2

To really rock the any punctuation question of the ACT grammar section you need to know your dependent clauses from your independent clauses. That's not really hard, but frequently people do not focus on the right thing when trying to determine to which of the two types a clause belongs.

As a little recap from the last post, a clause is a unit of meaning that contains both a subject and a conjugated verb. So 'they run' is a clause. 

Now, is this clause dependent or not? Can it stand on its own, or does it need completion by another clause? The answer is yes, it can stand alone. You might want to say that 'they run' is not enough information to stand on its own - that we don't know who is 'they', or that we don't know where or why they run - but as a unit containing a subject and a verb that goes with it, it is a complete thought able to stand on its own.

The important thing to understand is that all clauses are born free and independent. What can make them dependent is the use of conjunctions. This is why conjunctions are extremely important words. Conjunctions are words that create joints between clauses and determine the type of clause at the beginning of which they stand.

Understanding this is important since it drastically reduces the number of words you focus on when determine the type of a clause: one; only the first word counts. If the clause does not begin with a conjunction, the clause will automatically be independent, as in the example 'they run'.

If a clause is headed by a conjunction, the clause can be either dependent or independent. 

When a clause is headed by one of the FANBOYS conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), the clause will always be independent. E.g. they run, but he doesn't. Both clauses are independent; the comma could easily be replaced by a full stop without any sense that something is left incomplete. As far as punctuation is concerned, it's important to remember that FANBOYS will always be preceded by a comma. So the formula to remember is CLAUSE COMMA FANBOYS CLAUSE.

A common mistake consists of doing the same thing but leaving out the FANBOYS. This is called a comma splice. Never pick an option that has the structure CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE, the comma splice formula.

There is a another type of conjunction, called subordinating conjunction (Sub), which always makes the clause to which it is joined independent. Common Subs are after, when, because, if, although. 

Whenever a clause begins with one of these, an independent clause will need to follow in order to complete the thought. If I just say 'when they run', everyone is going to wait for me to finish the sentence - the thought is incomplete, the clause dependent - and say something like 'they get very hungry'. 

Now, for punctuation, the order in which dependent and independent clauses follow each other is key to deciding whether the two clauses need to be separated by a comma or not.

When a sentence opens with a dependent clause that is followed by an independent clause, the two will always need to be separated by a comma. Always follow the formula SUB CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE. E.g. because they run, they are fit.

If the dependent clause comes second, no comma is needed. The formula is CLAUSE SUB CLAUSE. E.g. they are fit because they run.

So there are only a handful of formulas you need to know in order to totally rock any clause and punctuation question:

CLAUSE (INDEPENDENT)

CLAUSE COMMA FANBOYS CLAUSE (INDEPENDENT + INDEPENDENT)

CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE !!! COMMA SPLICE: DON'T DO THAT

SUB CLAUSE COMMA CLAUSE (DEPENDENT + INDEPENDENT)

CLAUSE SUB CLAUSE (INDEPENDENT + DEPENDENT)

Determining the type of clause is really very easy. You only need to look out for the first word in the clause; that's all. That's the power of conjunctions. 

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The big three in the ACT English - part 1

When you deal with the English section of the ACT, there are three basic skills that can get you to make decisions fast and accurately. These are: 1. find the conjugated verb and identify its subject; 2. find and identify the conjunction; 3. find and identify the prepositional phrases. 

Whenever you struggle with a pure grammar question (i.e. not one where the test asks you to arrange sentences or something similar), these three basic skills will get you on the right track. They help you to focus on the right words and replace educated guesses by informed decisions. It's all about understanding that there are not that many grammatically important words in a sentence.

In this post we'll have a look at the first basic skill, which is the most important of them all: find the conjugated verb and identify its subject. In any question on punctuation or clauses (i.e. one that gives you options between forms such as walk, walking, or to walk), this will help you find the right option with speed and confidence.

The first thing you need to know is that verbs fall into two different categories depending on whether or not they are joined to a subject, i.e. someone or something doing the verb. When a verb form is directly linked to a subject it is called conjugated. 'I walk' and 'he walks' are conjugated forms. See how the form of the verb changes as it changes person from I (first person) to he (third person). Now, in English the change does not always show, i.e. walk can be a conjugated form with you, we, and they, but this should not prove too much of an obstacle in finding which verb form is directly done by the subject of a sentence. Since a clause contains always only one conjugated verb, and the number of clauses in a sentence has a lot to do with how many commas will be needed, finding the conjugated verb is a very important skill when dealing with punctuation questions.

What will go a long way in helping you identify the conjugated verb is a good knowledge of the other type of verb forms: the unconjugated forms. There are two different types of unconjugated forms: the infinitive and the participles.

The infinitive is the base form of the verb and usually always has a 'to' before it. See how when I say 'to walk' you would not be able to tell who is walking. The reason is simple: the form is not conjugated; it has no subject, so how should we know.

There are two different participles: present and past. The present participle is the form that always ends in -ing. I cannot say 'I walking'; the participle can only be used together with a conjugated form. 'I am walking' works because there is the conjugated form 'am' of the verb 'to be'. 

The past participles are forms like gone, done, swum, run. These, too, can never be used alone. You cannot say 'I gone' or 'she swum'. You need a conjugated verb: 'I have gone' and 'she has swum'. Note how the form of 'to have' changes from the first to the third person, proof that it is indeed conjugated, while the form 'gone' will never change, i.e. you can use it with 'I' (I have gone) and with 'she' (she has gone). 

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Sentences, clauses, and phrases

These are three essential words for anyone who has something to do with grammar, especially for the ACT. But many people get very confused about them. What are they exactly, and how do we use them precisely?

The most important of the three is without doubt the clause. A clause is a unit of meaning built around a conjugated verb, i.e. a verb that is used together with a subject. 'Walking around in the park', for example, is not a clause. Who's walking in the park. Well, I couldn't tell; you couldn't either, and there's a good reason for it: there's no conjugated verb. That's the trick. Similarly, 'my uncle's big beautiful house at the end of the road' might contain quite a lot of words, but there is nothing going on. There is no verb. What's up with the house? Not clear at all. This is not a clause either. It´s not about quantity; it's all about the verb, and someone doing the verb. So, 'he walks' is a clause. We know who is doing what.

A sentence can contain just one clause followed by a  full stop. 'He walks' therefore is both a clause and a sentence. A sentence can also contain many clauses joined together, e.g. he comes home after he finished work, but his kids have not yet arrived. This sentence contains three clauses containing three conjugated verbs: comes, finished, have. So the sentence is a larger unit than the clause.

Finally, a phrase is just a bunch of words. Phrases come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. There is the noun phrase. 'The car', 'my friend's really fast car', and 'the astonishingly realistic replica of the 1950s Chevrolet' all count as noun phrases. Making big subjects with a lot of information is one of the main jobs of the noun phrase. 

One of the most important types of phrases is the prepositional phrase. It helps putting in more information into a thought without opening a new clause. Prepositional phrases are for example: in the room, at the office, for my dad, etc. When things get complicated it's mostly because of clusters of prepositional phrases. Consider the sentence 'she managed an exciting project for her boss at the art fair in Delhi during the summer of 2016'. Most of this sentence is just a load of prepositional phrases. 

There is one other, less important but very interesting, type of phrase: the verb phrase. It consists of all the verb forms in a sentence and any added prepositions used together with the verb. The addition of prepositions to change the meaning of a verb is one of the great features of the English language. Consider, for example, the verb 'to tell'. On its own it just means 'to say something', but if you add the preposition 'off', it means to scold; as in the sentence 'dad again told me off for coming home late'. Verbs joined to prepositions are called phrasal verbs. 

If you ever get confused about clauses, phrases, and sentences, just look out for the conjugated verb. Is something happening or not? How many actions are happening? Sentences can contain an infinite number of conjugated verbs. Clauses always contain only one. Phrases do not necessarily contain a conjugated verb.

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Oh comma, my comma

The ACT is full of questions concerning the necessity and placement of commas. It wants to know whether you are aware that commas are not about pauses but about clauses. If, a, comma, was, just, about, pauses, then, we, could, put, them, anywhere. A pause in a sentence is often a matter of personal preference; it is a matter of what you might intend to emphasise. This is a part of speech; it is not a part of grammar. There are rules concerning the placement of commas; a comma is not a pawn in the game of the sentence. 

Lesson one: Commas possess culture. Please use them with care.

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