ACT English Strategies to Raise Your Score Fast The five ACT English strategies that move scores most reliably are: mastering clause joins and sentence structure, locking in the core punctuation rules, applying the “shorter is better” heuristic on wordiness questions, reading passage context before answering Production of Writing questions, and running focused timed drills with an error log. Start right now with this 15-minute drill: pull one ACT English passage, set a timer, answer all 15 questions, then review every wrong answer and write down the rule you missed. Your 5-tactic checklist: Clause mastery: Identify whether each underlined portion creates a run-on, fragment, or correct join. Punctuation rules: Know when a semicolon, colon, comma, or dash is the right choice. Shorter is better: When two answers mean the same thing, pick the shorter one. Passage-level logic: Read surrounding sentences before answering organization or transition questions. Timed drills + error log: Practice one passage per session and record every mistake by rule type. The ACT English section gives you 45 minutes for 75 questions across 5 passages, and the rules it tests are finite and repeatable . Tha