200 Words to Know Before the ACT
1.
2.
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Accord
Advocate
Affect
Afflict
Allege
Apparent
Appeal
Appoint
Approach
Apt
Ascertain
Assail
Assent
Assert
Attitude
Attribute
Bent
Beseech
Bestow
Boast
Bolt
Brook
Campaign
Canon
Cardinal
Cede
Chamber
28. Circumstances
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
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38.
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41.
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50.
Cite
Coast
Commission
Commit
Compel
Concept
Concern
Conduct
Confer
Consider
Conspicuous
Constant
Constitute
Contempt
Contend
Contract
Contrive
Convention
Convince
Court
Cower
Credible
51. Crew
52. Decree
53. Delicacy
54. Dense
55. Derived
56. Despair
57. Device
58. Dispatch
59. Disposition
60. Distinction
61. Dwell
62. Earnest
63. Elaborate
64. Endow
65. Engage
66. Ensue
67. Entertain
68. Entreat
69. Establish
70. Esteem
71. Evident
72. Exalt
73. Exert
74. Exertion
75. Exploit
76. Extravagant
77. Facile
78. Fancy
79. Fare
80. Financial
81. Flag
82. Flourish
83. Formal
84. Forsake
85. Frontier
86. Frustrate
87. Furnish
88. Gale
89. Generate
90. Grant
91. Gravity
92. Grove
93. Harried
94. Heed
95. Humble
96. Humiliate
97. Illustrious
98. Impel
99. Impose
100. Inclined
101. Indication
102. Insist
103. Inspire
104. Instance
105. Institute
106. Intend
107. Intimate
108. Intrigue
109. Issue
110. Jet
111. Justify
112. Keen
113. Kindle
114. Knight
115. Labor
116. Latitude
117. League
118. Level
119. Liberal
120. Lofty
121. Majority
122. Malice
123. Manifest
124. Merit
125. Minute
126. Mode
127. Modest
128. Multitude
129. Muse
130. Notion
131. Notwithstanding
132. Novel
133. Obtain
134. Oppress
135. Ordain
136. Partial
137. Passage
138. Perish
139. Perpetual
140. Persist
141. Philosophical
142. Pious
143. Plead
144. Plus
145. Policy
146. Pomp
147. Practice
148. Predecessor
149. Proceedings
150. Project
151. Property
152. Provoke
153. Purse
154. Rail
155. Range
156. Reflect
157. Render
158. Resource
159. Retort
160. Rider
161. Sanction
162. Satire
163. Scale
164. Scarce
165. Scheme
166. Siege
167. Skill
168. Slay
169. Sob
170. Stake
171. Steep
172. Stock
173. Straight
174. Sublime
175. Substantial
176. Suffrage
177. Suspended
178. Temper
179. Territory
180. Theory
181. Throng
182. Tide
183. Toil
184. Tour
185. Tract
186. Tread
187. Undertake
188. Undertaking
189. Utter
190. Vacate
191. Vain
192. Venerate
193. Venture
194. Vex
195. Wander
196. Warrant
197. Wax
198. Weigh
199. Wont
200. Yield
Common Sentence Errors—Review this for the English Portion of the ACT
Run-on Sentences
Run-on sentences happen when a writer joins two independent clauses without correct
punctuation. An independent clause that stands alone must end with a period, question mark, or
exclamation mark.
Sentence Fragments
Fragments are phrases, subordinate clauses, or a combination of the two. The length of a
sentence can be misleading. A sentence can be just two words (She sits.) while a sentence
fragment can be thirty words long.
Subject/Predicate (Verb) Agreement
To make sure that you don’t have distractions that keep you from keeping the agreement
consistent between the subject and predicate, get rid of the distractions. Distractions are often
prepositional phrases or other phrases stuck between the subject and verb. Always locate the
true subject and the verb. Do they agree? This is the true test.
Placement of Modifiers
Modifiers should always be as close as possible to the thing/things they are describing. This
keeps the sentence from being confusing to the reader.
Parallel Sentence Structure
Parallelism is simply making sure that the structure of the grammar matches throughout the
sentence. This especially applies to a list of nouns, verbs, phrases in the sentence. Look at the
sentence to see if the structure shifts. If it does, there is faulty parallelism. For a sentence to be
correctly written, the structure should not shift.
Combining Sentences
Experienced writers know that it is sometimes important to combine several short sentences into
one longer sentence. This makes the writing more interesting and keeps the reader’s attention.
This improves the style value of the writing.
Varying Word Order
In the same way that combining sentences can improve the style of a piece of writing, so can
varying word order. Writers often start a sentence with a subject and then move on to the verb.
However, switching the order from time to time keeps things interesting for the reader.
Reading Strategies—Reminders for the
Reading AND Science portions of the ACT
(TIMING IS EVERYTHING FOR THESE PASSAGES—
THIS IS HALF OF THE ACT TEST!)
 The reading and responding to each passage should take about 8
minutes total.
 First, scan the passage in 2 minutes. This means that you read only
the first sentence of each paragraph. Now you have a general idea
of the passage.
 Next, take 1 minute to read each question to get an idea of what
information you’re trying to find in the passage.
 Finally, take 4 minutes to play detective and find the answers to
the questions.
 With 1 minute left over, go back and re-check your answers.
 Please do not attempt to read every word of the passages. You
simply will not have time.