Vocabulary

Vocabulary is the number one killer of perfect scores on both the ACT English Section. We cannot overstate the importance of this. Unfortunately, it is the thing that we, as tutors and those helping you, can do the least about.

Students just don’t read as often as they once did (15-20 years ago). We find that students often avoid reading for so long, turning to shortcuts on the internet instead of doing the legit reading. Vocabulary is the number one killer of perfect scores on the ACT English section. We cannot overstate the importance of this. Unfortunately, it is the thing that we, as tutors and those helping you, can do the least about.

Students just don’t read as much as they once did (15–20 years ago). We find that students often avoid reading for too long, turning to shortcuts on the internet instead of doing the legit reading.

Sometimes this is done out of laziness, but not always. Some students have a host of extracurriculars to manage on top of an already challenging course load. Managing sports, church, AP Classes, test prep, and maybe, just maybe, carving out some time for your social life. It’s a tedious balancing act.

We get it. Sometimes life is just too busy to read books. However, avid readers struggle the least with this section of the ACT.

But even if you’re not an avid reader, there’s hope!

There is some strategy we can apply. First, check out the chapter on Commonly confused words. That’s a place to start.

Next, note this: When you are taking the ACT exam, do not spend much time on vocabulary questions.

You either know it or you don’t; you’re not suddenly going to learn what a word means. Follow the following steps if you get a vocabulary question and you don’t know the word:

1. Read the question. If you don’t know the word, look at the answer choices.
2. Eliminate the wrong answers that don’t make sense.
3. Quickly pick one of the remaining ones for your answer choice. If you dwell on it, you’re only losing time without increasing the chance you get the answer choice.

Avoid the “hard words” trap!

For whatever reason, students often select words they don’t know as an answer choice. This happens even when they do know what the word in the question means, and they also know the word that is the correct answer choice.

The thinking appears to be something like, “Well, this one answer may be right, but it’s not what I expected. This other word I don’t know might be MORE right…” so they pick it. Don’t fall into this trap. If one of the answer choices appears to work, pick it over a word you don’t know. The ACT likes to give really difficult words as answer choices just to tempt you.

Complicated doesn’t mean correct. So, don’t get tempted into choosing exotic, fancy words you don’t know.

Sometimes this is done out of laziness, but not always. Some students have a host of extracurriculars to manage on top of an already challenging course load. Managing sports, church, AP Classes, test prep, and maybe, just maybe, carving out some time for your social life. It’s a tedious balancing act.

We get it. Sometimes life is just too busy to read books. However, avid readers struggle the least with this section of the ACT.

But even if you’re not an avid reader, there’s hope!

There is some strategy we can apply. First, check out the chapter on Commonly confused words. That’s a place to start.

Next, note this: do not spend much time on vocabulary questions.

You either know it or you don’t; you’re not suddenly going to learn what a word means. Follow the following steps if you get a vocabulary question and you don’t know the word:

1. Look at the question, if you don’t know the word, look at the answer choices.
2. Eliminate the wrong answers that don’t make sense
3. Quickly pick one of the remaining ones for your answer choice. If you dwell on it, you’re only losing time without increasing the chance you get the answer choice.

Avoid the “hard words” trap!

For whatever reason, students often select words they don’t know as an answer choice. This happens even when they DO know what the word in the question means, and they also know the word that is the correct answer choice.

The thinking appears to be something like, “Well, this one answer may be right, but it’s not what I expected. This other word I don’t know might be MORE right….” so they pick it. Don’t fall into this trap. If one of the answer choices appears to work, pick it over a word you don’t know. The ACT likes to give really difficult words as answer choices just to tempt you.

Complicated doesn’t mean correct. So, don’t get tempted into choosing exotic, fancy words you don’t know.