by Erica L. Meltzer | Apr 26, 2026 | ACT English/SAT Writing, Blog, Grammar (SAT & ACT)
One of the most important principles of effective teaching is to keep students focused on whatever it is you want them to learn. When you see that statement written out so directly, it seems so intuitive and obvious that it hardly bears consideration; however, it can be surprisingly challenging to put into practice, particularly when it comes to standardized tests, whose passages and questions contain both relevant and irrelevant information—and sometimes a good deal more of the latter than the former. As a test-prep tutor, you are responsible for helping students learn to identify what is relevant information and, just as importantly, ignore what it is not.
Both SAT and ACT questions may appear to be testing one thing when in fact they are testing something else; alternatively, they may appear to test multiple concepts when in fact they are really focused on only one. Students are, of course, routinely coached on how to spot “distractor” answers, but from a teaching perspective, it is just as crucial not to bog students down with explanations and concepts that are only tangential to what’s being tested. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Nov 1, 2025 | ACT English/SAT Writing, ACT Reading, Books
The Complete Guide to ACT English, Fifth Edition, and The Complete Guide to ACT Reading, Third Edition, are now available from Amazon.
The books are now aligned with the enhanced ACT and the 2025-2026 Official Guide.
Please note: While there are some minor content updates in both guides, and in the case of the ACT Reading book, a (short) new chapter, the majority of the edits were fairly superficial. As a result, there is no major disadvantage to using the current versions–if you are studying from the current books already, you do not need to purchase new ones.
You should, however, make sure to take practice tests from either the 2025-26 guide or the official “Preparing for the ACT” booklet in order to familiarize yourself with the timing and style of the updated exam.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Oct 19, 2025 | ACT English/SAT Writing, ACT Reading, Books
As of 10/19/25, the release of the updated versions of The Complete Guide to ACT® English and The Complete Guide to ACT® Reading has been tentatively scheduled for November 1st.
Revisions on both books are now complete, and the manuscripts are currently being prepared for publication.
Although the content changes are relatively minor, they are significant enough to require new editions numbers: the English book will be the fifth edition; the Reading book will be the third edition.
The books are aligned with the 2025-26 Official ACT Prep Guide and the new version of the test.
An announcement will be posted when the books are available for purchase. As always, I appreciate everyone’s patience. Book updates, no matter how small, involve many moving parts and are never an entirely straightforward process, but both guides are on track for release in the next couple of weeks.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Aug 2, 2025 | ACT English/SAT Writing, ACT Reading
As you may know, the ACT is following the SAT in making changes to its exam this year (in-school testing changed were rolled out in the spring of 2025; Saturday testing will be affected beginning in September).
In addition to the fact that a digital option is being made more widely available, the Science section will become optional, and the English and Reading sections will be shortened. The English test will be reduced from 75 to 50 questions, with the time decreasing from 45 to 35 minutes; the Reading will go from 40 to 36 questions, with the time increasing from 35 to 40 minutes.
However, aside from some minor stylistic alterations, e.g., the phrasing of certain question types, the actual substantive content of the exam will not change.
So to respond to the queries that I have been receiving:
1) Yes, I will be updating both the ACT English and Reading books. I’m tentatively planning to release them sometime late fall, most likely by November. Because the changes will be relatively minor, I am planning to keep the edition numbers the same.
2) If you are planning to sit for the ACT before then, the current versions of the books will still cover everything you need to know for the exam. You should, however, be sure to work with the most recent version of the Official Guide for full-length practice tests.
I will post book updates as the become available.
by Erica L. Meltzer | Apr 7, 2024 | ACT English/SAT Writing
In my recent post on the timing of the Math section on the digital vs. the paper-based SAT, I alluded to the striking difference in proficiency levels in Math vs. English set by the College Board (530 vs. 480). My colleague Mike Bergin left a comment suggesting that I look a bit deeper into the discrepancy, and I realized that although I’ve mentioned it a number of times since the cutoffs were introduced eight years ago (it’s amazing how time flies!), I’ve never really explored the issue—which turns out to have just as much to do with the state of higher education as it does with college-admission tests.
But first, some background: When the SAT was redesigned in 2016, the College Board introduced College Readiness “Benchmarks” for both English (Reading/Writing) and Math, comparable to those that had long existed for the ACT. Those scores (Math, 22: Science, 23, English: 18, Reading: 22, with the latter two rolled into a single ELA benchmark of 20) were intended to indicate that a student would have a “50% chance of earning B or higher grade and approximately a 75-80% chance of earning a C or higher grade in the corresponding college course or courses.
The SAT/ACT concordance charts appear to have been last updated in 2018, and to the best of my knowledge they are still being used. Unfortunately, they do not list correspondences between ACT English/Reading and SAT Writing/Reading on a 36 vs. 1600 scale. It is reasonable, however, to assume that these scores would be roughly in line with the overall concordance. (more…)
by Erica L. Meltzer | Apr 30, 2022 | ACT English/SAT Writing, Blog, Grammar (SAT & ACT)
I recently encountered someone who, after many years of hearing tutors advise students to “pick the shortest” answer on ACT English and SAT Writing, decided to see how often that option actually was correct. After going through a bunch of ACTs, she discovered that the shortest answer was in fact correct only a relatively small percentage of the time. She was quite incensed about this fact, and took it as evidence that students should not be encouraged to select their answers based on length.
Now, for a tutor who advises a blunt, just-pick-the-shortest-answer-if-you’re-not-sure approach, this is a reasonable criticism.
Otherwise, however, I think it misses the point.
Fundamentally, “shorter is better” is a general guideline; it is not intended to be an ironclad rule for choosing answers. If the shortest answer were indeed always correct, even just on rhetoric questions, then SAT and ACT grammar would be far too easy to game, and many more students would receive high scores than is actually the case. (more…)
