The ACT English section gives you 35 minutes for 50 questions, of which 40 are scored. ACT reports the scored questions in three categories: Production of Writing (38–43%), Knowledge of Language (18–23%) and Conventions of Standard English (38–43%) — so grammar and punctuation are well under half of what counts. There is no penalty for wrong answers.
Advice about ACT English often describes a test that no longer exists: 75 questions, 45 minutes, and a heavy diet of grammar rules. The enhanced ACT changed the section in 2025, and the numbers are different now.
The changes matter for how you practice. The section is shorter, it carries questions that do not count, and more than half of what is scored is about writing — purpose, organization, word choice — rather than commas.
Here is how the section is built according to ACT's own published pages, followed by the punctuation rules that a grammar question is most likely to rest on.
ACT lists the English section as 50 questions, 40 of them scored, in 35 minutes (checked 4 October 2026). That is 42 seconds per question on average, reading included — an average, not a rule for every item.
The ten unscored questions are field-test items. ACT's design framework describes them as one extra long passage or two extra short ones, added to a scored core of five passages: three long passages of ten questions and two short passages of five (Design Framework, February 2026, checked 6 September 2026). ACT does not publish where the extra passage sits in a given test, so treat all fifty questions as if they count.
There is no penalty for a wrong answer. Never leave a question blank.
On paper, questions refer to underlined portions of the passage and many offer NO CHANGE as an option. Some questions ask about a paragraph or the passage as a whole rather than one underlined phrase.
ACT reports three categories. Production of Writing (38–43% of scored questions) covers the purpose and focus of a piece of writing: developing a topic, organizing it, and judging whether a sentence belongs. Knowledge of Language (18–23%) covers precision and concision in word choice and consistency of style and tone. Conventions of Standard English (38–43%) covers sentence structure and formation, punctuation and usage.
Read those percentages carefully. Grammar and punctuation — the part most students drill — account for well under half of the scored questions. A student who knows every comma rule but cannot say whether a sentence supports the paragraph's main point is leaving most of the test unprepared.
The design framework also lists question types ACT retired: idiomatic usage questions, sentence-structure questions with NOT in the question, and reordering entire paragraphs. Every item now carries an explicit question. Placing a single sentence, dividing paragraphs, and judging openings and conclusions remain.
ACT does not publish how many questions test each rule, so no honest guide can rank them by frequency. What can be said is that each rule below turns on a single test you can apply in seconds.
Two complete sentences cannot be joined by a comma alone. Join them with a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a connecting word such as and, but or so. If you cannot tell whether a side is a complete sentence, read it aloud on its own.
A semicolon needs a complete sentence on both sides. A colon needs a complete sentence before it; what follows can be a list, an explanation or a single word.
Information that could be lifted out without changing the sentence's core meaning is set off on both sides — two commas, two dashes or two parentheses, never one of each. Information that identifies which one you mean takes no commas at all.
No single comma between a subject and its verb, however long the subject is. And it's always means it is; the possessive is its.
The figures below come from ACT's published pages and design framework.
| Point | Figure |
|---|---|
| Questions | 50, of which 40 are scored |
| Time | 35 minutes |
| Scored passages | 5: three long (10 questions) and two short (5 questions) |
| Unscored field-test material | One long or two short passages; total of 6 or 7 passages |
| Production of Writing | 38–43% of scored questions |
| Knowledge of Language | 18–23% of scored questions |
| Conventions of Standard English | 38–43% of scored questions |
| Wrong answers | No penalty |
Start with ACT's free official practice tests, which show the current format exactly. Use them for timing and for the feel of real passages.
When you miss a question, name the reason before you read the explanation: a rule you did not know, a rule you knew but did not apply, or a writing question you answered by ear. The three need different fixes.
Practice whole passages, not isolated sentences. Production of Writing questions — up to 43% of what is scored — depend on what comes before and after the underlined portion, and that skill does not develop on one-line drills.
Fifty, in 35 minutes. Forty are scored; the other ten are unscored field-test questions.
No. A wrong answer costs nothing, so answer every question.
No. Conventions of Standard English — grammar, usage and punctuation — is 38–43% of scored questions. The rest is Production of Writing and Knowledge of Language.
ACT does not publish where the field-test passage sits in a given test, so treat every question as if it counts.
Rules change. Where a figure or a procedure can move, the issuing agency’s current published instructions win over anything here.
