In addition to The Official ACT Prep Guide, which is provided free of charge to our new students, this is my number one recommendation for students seeking a supplemental ACT prep text. The Complete Guide to ACT English, by Erica L. Meltzer, has proven indispensible to my work as an ACT prep tutor. English is the easiest area in which to make vast improvements! All it involves is learning and applying the rules of grammar.
What makes Meltzer’s ACT English guide so great?
First of all, she knows the test inside and out. Expertise is always my first requirement when searching for a teaching tool, and Meltzer proves hers on the page. The comprehensive volume is laden with insight on precisely what’s tested time and again.
Meltzer breaks the English content down into a series of topics, beginning with punctuation and grammar and moving on to rhetoric. After addressing each subtopic in detail, Meltzer provides ACT format exercises designed to test students’ mastery of the topic. Cumulative reviews are interspersed throughout the text to ensure retention.
The Complete Guide to ACT English, by Erica Meltzer
Using Meltzer’s book, I’m able to comprehensively teach each grammar topic, as well as provide students with targeted practice. Perhaps they’re struggling with dangling modifiers. No problem. I’ve got an array of modification-error questions at my disposal to help students master the concept. Because Meltzer cross-references The Real ACT Prep Guide, I’m able to point students to real ACT questions designed to test these weak spots; after this targeted practice, students are able to spot grammar errors from a mile away.
I’ve helped students raise their English scores by several points, and I owe part of that success to Meltzer. I can’t recommend this book enough! For those interested, she’s also got an ACT Reading guide, an SAT Reading guide, and an SAT grammar guide, all of which are stellar.
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