How Often Is NO CHANGE the Right Answer on ACT English

How Often Is NO CHANGE the Right Answer on ACT English SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips On the ACT English section, in the majority of questions, the first answer choice is â€Å"NO CHANGE." The â€Å"NO CHANGE† answer choice indicatesthat the underlined word or phrase is correct. Sometimes, students are hesitant to select â€Å"NO CHANGE† because they think that there should be an error. In this article, I’ll explore the frequency of correct â€Å"NO CHANGE† answers to give you an idea of how often the â€Å"NO CHANGE† answer will be the right one. Furthermore, I’ll let you know how to use this information. For this article, I analyzedthe answers from four published official ACT tests. Basic ACT English Format There are 75 total questions on the ACT English section, each of which has four answer choices. If the correct answers are distributed evenly among the answer choices, â€Å"NO CHANGE† should be right 25% of the time it appears as an option. Let's look at the answers from the four different tests I used. Test-by-Test Breakdown of "NO CHANGE" Frequency Test #1 # of questions w/ "NO CHANGE" option # of correct "NO CHANGE" answers % of "NO CHANGE" answers correct 56 21 37.5% Test #2 # of questions w/ "NO CHANGE" option # of correct "NO CHANGE" answers % of "NO CHANGE" answers correct 64 17 26.6% Test #3 # of questions w/ "NO CHANGE" option # of correct "NO CHANGE" answers % of "NO CHANGE" answers correct 50 17 34 Test #4 # of questions w/ "NO CHANGE" option # of correct "NO CHANGE" answers % of "NO CHANGE" answers correct 59 17 28.8% Frequency of NO CHANGE on All Tests Test # Frequency of "NO CHANGE" correct % of "NO CHANGE" 1 21 37.5 2 17 26.6 3 17 34 4 17 28.8 Analysis: Each test had a percentage of â€Å"NO CHANGE† answers that was higher than expected. The % of NO CHANGE answers ranged from 26.6% to 37.5%. So how can knowing this information benefit you when you take the ACT? How Should You Use This Information? Only use this as a rough guide. The % of â€Å"NO CHANGE† answers varies from test to test. Keep in mind that in ACT English the simplest answer is often the best answer. NO CHANGE may be correct more often than expected because the incorrect answers make unnecessary additions to the underlined phrase. â€Å"NO CHANGE† should always be correct between around 25 and 40 percent of the time. If the percentage of your â€Å"NO CHANGE† answers is not in this range, you have most likely made mistakes and need to review the questions you’re unsure about more closely. Surprisingly, the percentage of No Change is at least 1/4 and often more. So guessing randomly actually is NOT necessarily the best thing to do - when in doubt, try guessing NO CHANGEas it's more likely to be correct! What's Next? As I previously mentioned, in ACT English, the most concise answer is usually the best answer. Learn more about this rule in my article on wordiness on the ACT. If you want a more general guide, read about all the grammar rules covered on the ACT. For those of you primarily studying for the ACT online, I highly recommend checking out this post on the best ACT prep websites. Want to improve your ACT score by 4 points? Check out our best-in-class online ACT prep program. We guarantee your money back if you don't improve your ACT score by 4 points or more. Our program is entirely online, and it customizes what you study to your strengths and weaknesses. If you liked this English lesson, you'll love our program.Along with more detailed lessons, you'll get thousands ofpractice problems organized by individual skills so you learn most effectively. We'll also give you a step-by-step program to follow so you'll never be confused about what to study next. Check out our 5-day free trial: