Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of your fire alarm. The siren is blaring through the house with a high-pitched beeping noise. You jump from your bed and start towards the door, but before you get there you stumble on something on the way.

Lucky for you, in this hypothetical scenario, there wasn’t fire. If this happened, though, you would probably begin to memorize the layout of your room better, just in case the issue came up again.

This hypothetical situation is a lot like studying for the ACT® English test. The better you know the layout, the better you will do on the test. If you have a good grasp of the rules of grammar, punctuation, and rhetoric, you are going to do a lot better than if you don’t understand the rules that govern written English.

This guide exists to prepare you for the treacherous terrain of the ACT® English test and help answer the question of “How to get a 36 on ACT® English?” Keep reading to get an in-depth overview of the test and key components that you will need to master to score the perfect 36.

As a bonus, we’ve included a section on ACT® writing as well – you just have to get to the end to find it.

What do They Test?

The ACT® English section is designed to test two areas of English Language skills. The first area is Usage and Mechanics, which tests grammar, syntax, punctuation, and proper use. The second area focuses on Rhetorical Skills, which tests style, organization, and strategy.

If you can’t already tell – one section of the test is going to be easier to study for than the other. Usage and Mechanics is a set of rules that you can learn. Those rules are laid out in a later section, but they will take some amount of memorization and practice to familiarize yourself with how they work.

Rhetorical Skills, on the other hand, is going to be more difficult. It requires you to understand more abstract ideas like the style of a piece. Understanding the distinctive features that make up an author’s style, or the reasoning behind those features, is much more complicated than just memorizing a set of rules.

Even though Rhetorical Skills might push you further, there are still strategies that you can practice to ensure you maximize your point totals. Sometimes it doesn’t matter so much that you know the right answer on the test, as long as you can determine the wrong answers. We will keep that in mind as we talk about the structure of the test.

Test Structure

Knowing what is on the test is important, but you must also keep in mind the overall structure of the test. It, like the rest of the ACT®, is set with a specific time limit. That limit can determine how you answer the questions and the way that you study.

The test has 75 multiple choice questions to be answered over the course of 45 minutes. Working out the math, which means you will have less than half a minute to respond to each question, and that is after you have to subtract time to read the passage.

There are five sections, each with a single passage. The passages will have some lines underlined, and these highlighted sentences or words targeted in the questions.

Each section of the test has a specific amount of items geared towards the skills and knowledge on the test. The breakdown looks something like this:

As you can see, each of the sections breaks down into a specific number of questions. You might find, during your studying, that you are struggling with a particular section of the test. Understanding the breakdown can help you to adjust the way you test to give those questions the maximum time possible.

The test is relatively straightforward in its structure. All we have to do now is talk about how to get a 36 on ACT® English. You can do it, and you should do it. Let’s talk about why?

The Value of 36

Earning a 36 may seem impossible, but don’t be fooled. You can earn a 36. Thousands of students have done it before, and thousands of students will score 36 in the future. The goal is to help you become one of those students.

For many students getting a 36 seems “extra”, and you might be thinking, “I don’t know if I will need a 36”. For many students, a 36 isn’t necessary to achieve their goals. The average ACT® score is 20, and most schools do not require students to score 36. As a result, many students don’t worry about scoring 36.

You are different. You aren’t looking to get into any school. You are here, reading this article, which means that you are seeking to become excellent. The reality is that a 36 isn’t just useful, but necessary.

Depending on your goals, there is a very real possibility that a 36 on the English portion of the ACT® is what you need to gain admission to the college of your choice.

For many of the top universities, a perfect ACT® score is competitive. Yale University, one of the top three in the world, is an excellent example of the competition that the ACT® creates.

At Yale the average ACT® score of admitted students is 33, the 25th percentile is 31, and the 75th percentile is 35.

What does this mean?

Most students at Yale score a 35 or below on the ACT®, but you don’t want to be an average applicant. A 36 will set you apart. It will place you in the top 25 percent of students that are applying to the school.

Scoring a 36 is not only possible but for many students wanting to attend a top ten school, it is necessary. The breakdown of scores at Yale is similar to other top ten schools. When you apply to these schools, a 36 on the ACT® can show that you are a cut above, and help make up for weaknesses in your application.

The Challenge of Perfection

To earn a 36, you must score a 75 raw score. A 75 raw score means that you must get every single question right. Take a look at the chart for how the raw scores on the test translate to scaled scores:

Notice that if you miss a single question, you will drop to a 35. The score system leaves no room for error.

That structure is rigid. There is no place for a mistake. So, how can people get a 36 when there is no forgiveness on the test? A 36 is possible because each question has only one right answer.

The Right Answer

Every question has only one correct answer. Every question has three incorrect answers.

When you come across a question that seems like it has two possible answers, don’t be tricked into guessing. Realizing that there is only one right answer to every question allows you to overcome that trap.

We’ve been taught, in our English classes, that most questions have many valid answers. The texts that we read in English classes are often complicated, dealing with topics like inequality or coming of age. When writing an essay or participating in discussions in English, class teachers don’t dismiss ideas as wrong.

In those classes, we often look for the question that is the most right, because no single answer can apply in all situations. That is not how the ACT® works.

The design of the ACT® acts as an equalizer so that any student can do well. Therefore, the answers are not subjective, and the questions all have a single correct response.

The key to scoring a 36 on the ACT® English section is to find the right answer for every question. Let’s go over a few strategies that can help when finding the right answer.

“How to get a 36 on ACT® English” in Five Strategies

Strategy 1: Memorize the Usage and Mechanics Rules

The rules for usage and mechanics make up half of the ACT® English section. The best way to study for Usage and Mechanics is to examine all parts of grammar.

Grasping the concepts contained within the subject of usage and mechanics can be difficult for many students. It’s hard for the same reason that students struggle with math. Despite being a part of English, grammar rules, and functions actually, share many similar concepts to math.

The rules are often complex. Depending on the particular mechanic or usage, there could be anywhere from 3 to 10+ rules associated with the specific part of grammar.

Consider commas. Commas are probably the most used punctuation after periods. However, if you asked around, you would find that most people are hazy on the rules of commas. Commas come with a myriad of uses and standards – below is a short list of the possible uses and standards associated with commas:

1. Use commas between independent clauses when used with coordinating conjunctions.
2. Use commas after introductory phrases, clauses, or words.
3. Use two commas in the middle of a sentence to indicate that there is extra information inside.
4. Commas shouldn’t surround essential information.
5. Use commas between words in a list or series.
6. Use commas between two or more adjectives assigned to a noun.
7. Use commas to separate a phrase at the end of the sentence that references other information in the sentence.
8. Use commas between places, dates, addresses, and titles.
9. Use a comma in a dialogue between the prose and the speech.
10. Use commas to prevent confusion.

That is ten rules. Ten. That is crazy. There are so many grammar rules that exist, most likely you don’t know them all, but you need to know them for the ACT® English. That means you will need to memorize the rules for each part of usage and mechanics. Before we get into ways you can remember the rules, let’s review the concepts covered for usage and mechanics in the ACT® English.

The parts of usage and mechanics break down like this:

• Punctuation:
  • Commas
  • Periods
  • Colons
  • Semicolons
  • Dashes
  • Apostrophes
• Agreement:
  • Pronoun Number Agreement
  • Subject/Verb Agreement
• Idioms and Homophone Usage:
  • (Examples: affect/effect, either… or, to/two/too)
• Parallel Construction
• Comparison/Description
• Precision
• Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences
• Pronouns:
  • Pronoun Choice
  • Pronoun Case
• Verb Form:
  • Tense
  • Conjugation
• Modifiers

It seems like a lot, but don’t let it overwhelm you. You already know some of the rules and concepts, and you have time to learn the others. Even if you only have two weeks before your test, you can drill and practice to memorize in many ways that will help you max out your scores.

The first step, before you begin memorizing, is to ascertain your weakness in usage and mechanics. You can find a test to identify your weaknesses here.

Once you know what your weaknesses there are a few ways you can study for your usage and mechanics:

1. Write Down the Grammar Rules on Flashcards: You can find the grammar rules here. On one side of a flashcard you will write down the particular usage or mechanic (like a comma) and a sentence that shows the rule used. On the other side of the flashcard, you write the rule. You will need to go through the flashcards by looking at the examples and reciting the rule to yourself.
2. Work on Correction Worksheets: Download some copies of correction worksheets here or drill on khan academy. Memorizing the rules is useful, but learning through correcting errors will also provide the opportunity to grow. Correcting improper usage and mechanics may be difficult, but it will give you practice that mirrors the test.
3. Identify the Grammar Rules You See in Life: One simple solution to learning the rules of grammar is to look for them in the texts you are already reading. This type of practice is the most accessible. Despite the ease of access, it can be difficult to train yourself to notice grammar in the things you read every day. It will require careful observation and consistent reminders to yourself.

Those three strategies should help you keep on top of the grammar section of the ACT® English.

For more on “how to get a 36 on ACT® English” check out our next strategy that focuses on rhetorical skills

Strategy 2: Begin to Notice Rhetoric

Rhetorical skills are the second section. The key to maxing out your score on the Rhetoric section is to notice it in your everyday life. First, you need to understand the exam, though. The Rhetorical skills on the exam cover five broad categories:

• Tone: The attitude of the author on the subject of the piece.
• Cohesion: The coherence of paragraphs, sentences, and phrases.
• Purpose: Understand why a text exists.
• Formality: Determine the style of the text.
• Congruence: Determine if a sentence fits.
• Transitions: How to connect different thoughts together.

Rhetoric is trickier than grammar. Grammar has a set of clear rules to memorize. Rhetoric, while it does have some objective and distinctive traits, usually relies more on inferences and experience to understand.

Some parts, like tone, are typically easy for students to identify. If you know words to describe the attitude, you match a word to the feeling portrayed by the author.

Others, like cohesion or congruence, require that you understand more of the nuance of writing. That only comes with focused reading. To prepare for the ACT® English, you will need to read texts (assigned or for pleasure) and focus on identifying where each of the tested parts of rhetoric come into play.

Some readings that will show the distinct parts of rhetoric are speeches and essays. If you have the chance, read some of those texts, and identify how the author uses each of the different parts of rhetoric.

You can work on some of the ACT® English practice questions we have on the Albert.io website.

The key to strategy two is consistently analyzing texts to find those rhetorical devices and strategies that authors use.

Strategy 3: Practice for Perfection

Part of any winning strategy is practice. We practice for almost every activity. We spend endless hours shooting free throws or playing a particular measure from a piano concerto attempting to make it perfect. The old saying is “practice makes perfect” for a reason. It’s true.

If you want to know “how to get a 36 on ACT® English”, the first part is to realize that it means you will need to practice until you are perfect. It means long hours of commitment to studying and reading to improve your skills.

As a culture, we don’t like to think about practice as something you do before a test. We like to treat tests like an either, or situation: either you know the material, or you don’t. That isn’t true. You can practice for a test. You can improve your skills and knowledge through repetition and practice.

When you practice for the ACT® English, you should use the materials and tools provided in strategies 1 and 2. Using those strategies by themselves will not be enough. You must commit your time and energy to the practice.

Time

When you commit your time, it means you are setting aside those precious hours every week. You are attempting to earn 36 on the ACT® English section. You will need to study approximately 40 hours in total to raise your scores from a 32 to a 36.

40 hours divided over five weeks works out to 8 hours a week. That is a massive commitment, but this test is a huge part of your college admissions package. You have to devote the time necessary to get your 36.

When you set time aside to study, you must study fruitfully. Study time is easily wasted. When you study and practice, make sure you unplug: turn off your cell phone, don’t listen to distracting music, shut down the T.V., and log out of your social media. If you spend just one hour a day fully focused on beating the ACT® English, you will be one step closer to scoring 36.

Energy

Along with your time, you will need to commit energy to practice. That means full focus every time you sit down to work. Many students fail to practice because they don’t focus their energy on the test when they practice. It is easy to be distracted, or to fail to try your hardest when you know that the exam won’t count. That isn’t useful. You can’t go into your practice situations halfheartedly.

When you take your practice tests, treat them as if they are the actual ACT®. Give yourself the right amount of time for the test, and put in the energy necessary to finish in that time-frame. If you don’t put the energy of a real testing situation into your practice, you will never reach your full potential.

Finding Real Study Materials

Practice is only useful if it mirrors the test. You will want your practice materials to be as close to the test as possible. ACT® keeps a tight lock on the tests, so there are only five free tests. The official tests are here:

2015-2016   2014-2015    2011-2012     2008-2009    2005-2006

There is also a digital test that you can check out here.

Those tests will be your best shot at finding out accurate scores on the ACT®. They should be used as benchmarks to gauge your progress. You should examine the amount of time you have left until the test, and space the tests out evenly. If you have ten weeks until the test, you should take a practice test every two weeks. That way you can keep track of an exact score and chart your progress.

Those practice tests are not going to make up the bulk of your study materials. You will need to use other training materials to improve your skills in between the tests. Some excellent materials for the test are on the Albert.io website. You should also check out practice books or articles online for free.

Regardless of the materials, you use to drill the skills you will want to pick materials that are similar to the test. Read reviews before you purchase any books, and find websites that are highly rated by online communities.

Just Keep Practicing

Above all, keep practicing. Whatever schedule you set for yourself, keep to it. Whatever way you decide to practice, use it. There is little gained by sitting idle and waiting for the test to arrive. If you want to score 36, you will need to practice the test to perfection.

Strategy 4: Plug the Leaks

A practice schedule is important, but all the practice in the world won’t make any difference without focus. It is important that you learn where you have weaknesses, and compensate.

If you imagine your testing ability as a boat, every weakness you possess has the potential to spring a leak. Too many leaks and your boat will capsize. That is why you need to work on filling the holes. You must practice to correct and compensate for your weaknesses to have any chance at scoring 36.

Diagnosing your weaknesses isn’t easy. It will require you to begin to think seriously about the way you process information. If you find that there is a particular skill you lack or fundamental knowledge you haven’t learned, you can push to change before the test.

Ask the Right Questions

As you go through the officially released tests, you should keep track of the items that you didn’t know for certain. Marking all of the items that were not a 100% certainty will allow you to go back and ascertain the reason why you were confused even if you get the question right by chance.

Knowing that you couldn’t narrow down the correct answer is important because it should lead to some deep thinking. You should ask questions like:

• Why was this choice right?
• Why were the other choices incorrect?
• What about the choices I couldn’t rule out confused me?
• Why did I think those wrong answers could be correct?
• What rule or reasoning exists to prove the right answer?

Asking these deeper thinking questions will help you to go further in figuring out your weaknesses and making changes before you take your next test. As you test, always go deeper with the questions you ask, stopping at “what is the right answer” will never be fruitful.

Determine the Explanation Yourself

Beyond the questioning strategy, you will want to stop reading the answer explanations for the questions you drill. Instead, seek to figure out and explain the choices yourself. Nearly every test and program provide detailed explanations for why certain a choice is correct and why other choices are not, don’t read those until after you have already explained it yourself.

Part of the growth process is struggling with difficult concepts to come out stronger. Reading the explanations doesn’t challenge you to learn, and it means less focus on understanding the reasoning behind the choices. If you take the time to explain why one choice is correct and the others are not, you will learn much more about the test’s construction, and the specific skills tested.

So, don’t read the explanations until after you have already explained the choices yourself. Then read the explanations provided to ensure that they give similar responses to the ones you created. The logic should be similar in each, and as your explanations get closer to the ones provided, you can keep track to see if your scores improve.

Common Weaknesses

Some weaknesses are common among students. Here are the top three to avoid.

1 – Misreading the Question

One of the easiest mistakes to correct is misinterpreting the question. Testing situations often put students under pressure, leading to simple mistakes.

When you read the question, pay attention to the vital details mentioned. Questions on the ACT® give away major clues to finding the correct response.

You must read the questions thoroughly so that you don’t miss any valuable information. Pay attention to those very specific words like not. Students overlook test items that use the word not, which can lead to mistakenly answering with the wrong choice. If it asks you to pick the option written incorrectly, you might accidentally select one of the three that is correct by mistake.

Always read the question closely to glean information.

2 – Over or Under Choice of “No Change”

One of the choices on many of the grammar questions is “no change” which means that the chosen sentence has no grammatical issues. Students have trouble figuring out when that is the correct choice.

Some students choose to air on the side of caution, rarely choosing the “no change” option. While it is a good idea to look for grammatical errors on the test continually, it is not a good idea to see them where they don’t exist. “No change” will be the correct answer about 25% of the time, so that means you shouldn’t avoid it.

The flip side of this problem is students find no errors too often. If you are reading quickly and not thinking clearly – you might fall susceptible to this mistake. It is easy to skim a sentence and not see the error, so always make sure you re-read before picking “no change.”

3 – Too Many Commas

A comma splice is when you put a comma where it doesn’t belong. The comma splice is a common error on the ACT® English because students read the sentences out loud to determine the errors. When they read, the students pause more often than is dictated by the grammar. This reading habit leads to placing commas where they don’t belong.

Take this sentence for example:

Lily walked up to the house and took a long, hard look into the darkness of the surrounding forest.

This sentence has far too many commas. If we remove the commas, the sentence still works:

Lily walked up to the house and took a long hard look in the darkness of the surrounding forest.

The best remedy is to learn the comma rules. Once you know them, you will be less tempted to insert unneeded commas.

On the test, if all else fails, you can use the next strategy to narrow down to the right answer.

Strategy 5: One Answer to Rule Them All

The key to strategy five is remembering that there is only one correct answer to each question. No matter the appeal of the other choices, there is an obvious or apparent error in those choices. If you can rule out the three wrong options, it will give you the ability to choose the right answer every time.

Here is a sample question from the Albert.io website. Let’s find the issues present in three of the four choices:

Passage: “We all have lots of stuff. I have clothes, music, posters in a bedroom that I consider mine. Likewise, my grandmother had a houseful of stuff. But a much more expansive variety of stuff…”

Question: The writer is considering a revision at this point. Which of the following revisions, if any, provides the most to the progression of the paragraph?

A – No Change

B – But she owns a much more expansive variety of stuff than do I.

C – But much more expansive stuff

D – But she owns a much more expansive variety of stuff.

The underlined section of text is a sentence fragment. The subject is found in the sentence before. This sentence, when used in the paragraph, acts as a means to inject impact into the passage – that is one of the few explanations for why the author would use a fragment. Let’s analyze each answer and find the right one.

Answer A – Too Wordy

Answer A is incorrect. It is one of the 75% of instances when the “no change” choice is wrong. The sentence fragment, if left as is, is wordy. The “impact” is diluted by the use of words like “variety.”

Answer B – Incorrect Grammar

Answer B is incorrect. Choice B doesn’t follow the rules of standard written English. It is the end of the choice, “…than do I.” that is incorrect. Instead of “than do I” it should only say me. If the option were in the correct form, it would read, “But she owns a much more expansive variety of stuff than me.”

As a side note, if the sentence had been grammatically correct, like the version we revised, it would have been too wordy like the first.

Answer C – Correct

Even though answer choice C is a fragment (all the choices are fragments), it is the shortest and has the most impact of all the options. The phrasing brings the most attention to the point of the fragment.

To get this answer correct, you would have to ascertain that the fragment was on purpose and that answer C helped with that purpose. This revelation is a tall order, but if you think it through you can get it right.

Answer D – Useless Information

Choice D is grammatically correct, but it provides too much useless information to provide the punch needed for an impact. The fact that the answer choice refers to the grandmother as “she” when the reader should infer that from the passage.

Narrow it Down

When you work through every question, you need to work on narrowing down the possible choices. Every question has just one correct answer. You are looking for what is wrong with the other three choices as much as you are looking for what is right about the right one.

Bonus Strategy: Bubbling for Time

One last helpful strategy for the test revolves around bubbling. The traditional way to bubble a test is very time-consuming. Students will move back and forth between the test booklet and answer sheet after every item.

The physical act of moving, first your eyes and then your hand, from the test booklet to the answer sheet takes a lot of available time. If it takes you 3 seconds to move from the test booklet to the answer sheet and bubble in the answer, and you do that for 70 questions, it will take you a total of 3:30 just for bubbling.

You will need all the time you can get on the exam. To save time on bubbling the best advice is to change your strategy. Instead of moving back and forth between the booklet and the test, only mark the correct answers on the test booklet. After about ten answers you should bubble in on the answer sheet. If you memorize a series of solutions like ABDCBBADCA you can save yourself time in the way that you bubble and cut down on making mistakes.

Find out what type of bubbling strategy works best for you and go with it. The time you save in bubbling the best way will be invaluable towards getting a perfect score on the ACT® English.

Go and Score 36

There are the five strategies to help you score a 36 on the ACT® English. If you work hard on each of these strategies, implementing them in your daily study and practice, you will have an excellent shot at getting the 36.

Review the tools often, come back to this guide any time you need a refresher. Make the adjustments necessary, and keep focused on your goals.

Remember to check out the Albert.io website for more blog posts and study help. As promised, there is a short guide to scoring a 12 on the ACT® Writing below.

ACT® Writing

The ACT® Writing section is an optional section of the test. The top colleges, the same ones that care about your 36, will look for a score on the ACT® Writing. Opting for the writing exam adds 40 minutes onto your testing time, so be prepared for a longer test.

Two raw scores of 6 added together to create the scaled score. If one reader scores the essay at 5 and another at 6, you end up with 11. You have 40 minutes to plan, write, and revise your essay. If you do it right, you can score a 12 and make yourself that much more marketable to a top tier university.

The essay presents a prompt and some relevant background information. The prompt will ask you to write an argumentative essay – including a well-developed thesis and supporting evidence.

Let’s take a look at the rubric to highlight a few important points that distinguish the score of 6:

A few foci for a score of 6 from within the rubric:

• You must engage various viewpoints or perspectives on the issue addressed.
• You must use context insight fully to discuss the issues and perspectives.
• You must analyze the complexities presented in the matter.
• Evidence must be used to support claims and connect them to the larger context.
• Skilled reasoning needs to prove how evidence supports your claim/thesis.
• You need to organize your essay to work strategically (think 5 paragraph essay and Shaffer paragraphs)
• Transitions need to strengthen the cohesion between the ideas and paragraphs.
• Word choice and language should be skillfully chosen and add to the overall impact of the essay.

These ideas are not very different from any other high-profile essay you will be writing. If you have taken an AP® English course or done work in a high-level English class, you should already possess many of the skills necessary to score a six on the ACT® English. However, there are a few strategies that we can go over that will help you ensure the 12.

Strategy 1: Make a Plan

You won’t be able to anticipate the types of writing assigned on the ACT® Writing test, but you can still work on the plan ahead for the exam. Along with the official practice prompts found on ACT®.org, the internet is full of prompts for argumentative essays. The best way to prepare for the exam is to use those prompts to plan out essays.

You don’t have to write the essays. Instead, work on your planning abilities. Many students fail to do their best on the exam because they are not ready for the rigors of writing a long and complicated essay. The best tool you have, regardless of the topic or requirement, is the ability to outline a high-quality essay quickly.

The time spent drafting shouldn’t be more than 2 minutes, but the power of having a well thought out essay cannot be overstated. You should practice outlining on at least two essays a day for the five weeks leading up to your test. The act of planning will become second nature with practice, and that can make up for ignorance of a topic.

A good outline should look like this:

• Introductory paragraph
  • Thesis Statement: What you are going to prove, how will you prove it, why does it matter?

• Reason 1
  • Evidence: Anecdotal, Fictional example, Or Analytic

• Reason 2
  • Evidence: Anecdotal, Fictional example, Or Analytic

• Reason 3
  • Evidence: Anecdotal, Fictional example, Or Analytic

• Concluding paragraph
  • Call to action

You’ll notice that the outline follows the standard five paragraph format. If you find that you have extra time, you can expand each of the reasons into a series of paragraphs using multiple pieces of evidence, but the time pressure may make that too difficult to complete.

You should find two argumentative prompts per day, and work out an outline for each prompt. The prompt will not be complete without a short sentence that explains the focus of each paragraph. Instead of only writing “introductory paragraph” you would write a short sentence that explains what that section would cover.

Let’s look at an example prompt that you can find here:

Essay Task: Write a unified, coherent essay about the increasing presence of intelligent machines. In your essay, be sure to:

• clearly state your perspective on the issue and analyze the relationship between your perspective and at least one other perspective.
• develop and support your ideas with reasoning and examples.
• organize your ideas clearly and logically.
• communicate your ideas effectively in standard written English.

Your perspective may be in full agreement with any of those given, in partial agreement, or completely different.

The focus of this essay will be on the impact of the increasing presence of intelligent machines in society. A good outline would look something like this:

• Intro: Discuss the reality of automation in our society, and the possibility of a singularity in the future.
  • Thesis:
    • What: Humanity should embrace the evolution of artificial intelligence and ensure society’s preparation for a post-work system.
    • How: Examine automation as well as predictions of the next 20 years, discuss the current system of society and how it will need to be amended, argue for the embrace of arts and religion to keep human life meaningful – refute perspective one (given in the prompt).
    • Why: If we do not prepare for the coming rise of artificial intelligence our society will face a massive upheaval that could result in suffering and the loss of life.
  • Reason 1: Automation currently exists and is becoming more prevalent in society.
    • Evidence: The rise of automation in places like Target and McDonalds. The future of automation as self-driving cars become routine. Jobs lost as a result.
  • Reason 2: Society is not currently ready to handle the massive amount of people out of work as a result of automation.
    • Evidence: As society has changed our education system has not. When factory workers lost their jobs, those jobs weren’t replaced. Slowly there has been a decrease in the middle class, and an increase in poverty. Without a change in the system, the consequences would be catastrophic.
  • Reason 3: Using Art and Religion we could live a more fruitful and meaningful existence as humans.
    • Evidence: Increased automation doesn’t have to lead to suffering. Technology has the power to bring people together, and there could be more time devoted to developing art, entertainment, and spirituality in lieu of utility and jobs.
    • Refutation: Discuss why perspective 1 from the prompt is wrong, and how technology can lead to more connection if we embrace it as a society.
  • Conclusion: Society must embrace the development of advanced technology. If society adapts correctly, it will mean the end of need and poverty as we know it, but if done incorrectly it will mean an increase in suffering. Therefore we should embrace the changes, and prepare as a society to invest ourselves in making life more meaningful.

That is a very detailed outline for the essay. Your outline shouldn’t be as detailed as this one, but it should still include all of the parts. You should have a short sentence in each part so that you know what you’re planning to write when you sit down to do the essay.

Work to make your essay as detailed as possible, and practice your planning. That way you can be clear in your writing, and won’t get stuck trying to figure out what should be in the next paragraph.

Strategy 2: Be Nice to Your Reader

This strategy is essential to doing well. You must make your writing easy to read. There are three essential things that you can do to make it easy for your readers to understand your writing, and therefore grade your essay faster.

Think about it, your readers will have about three minutes to read your writing and they are reading about 500 essays in the entire session. The easier you make it on them, the more they are going to like you. As objective as we want to believe the test is, essay grading is still subjective. If they like you because you make their job easy, they might be more likely to give you a 6 over a 5 if your essay falls somewhere in between.

Legibility

You need to make your writing legible. The better your hand writing, the less you cross out, and the better your grammar and spelling, the easier it will be to understand what you are saying. If your writing is messy, and the reader has been reading essays all day, you might end up getting a much lower score than you deserve.

It is very easy to write off and essay that is difficult to read, than to give it more time and effort. You need to put in the effort to make it easy to read. So work on your legibility.

Five Paragraphs

You should follow the five-paragraph format for an argumentative essay. One of the reasons for following the format is that it is standard. Being standard means that it will make reading faster, and it can help a reader understand your points much more succinctly. Utilize the format and help your reader process.

Clear Thesis and Reasons

The last point is that you need to have a clearly established thesis in your essay, and then your reasons need to prove the claim made in your thesis. If your claim, warrants, and evidence work together in a coherent way, it will be much easier to read your essay. Work on establishing a clear connection between your thesis, reasoning, and evidence to gain some extra favor in the eyes of your reader.

Work Hard and Score High

So that is the guide for how to get a 36 on ACT® English and How to get a 12 on ACT® Writing. Use these strategies to ensure that you do well on the test and get the perfect score that you deserve.

If you have any questions or any other study strategies, let us know in a comment below.

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