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English · Style & Word Choice

Hard Style & Word Choice Drill

15 hard-difficulty ACT English questions on Style & Word Choice. Each question is on its own page with a worked answer explanation, the underlying rule, and a quick study tip.

Hard English Style & Word Choice

All 15 questions

  1. 1 Eliminating Wordiness The committee made the decision to come to a conclusion to approve the proposal. Hard
  2. 2 Removing Redundant Words The lecture began at exactly 9 a.m. in the morning on the first day of class. Hard
  3. 3 Idiomatic Word Choice The new policy will have a significant affect on staffing decisions next quarter. Hard
  4. 4 Choosing the Most Precise Word The hiking trail goes through dense forest before opening into a wide alpine meadow Hard
  5. 5 Maintaining Academic Register In her recent paper, the geneticist got down to the question of how mutations accum Hard
  6. 6 Eliminating Wordiness The committee made the decision to come to a conclusion to approve the proposal. Hard
  7. 7 Removing Redundant Words The lecture began at exactly 9 a.m. in the morning on the first day of class. Hard
  8. 8 Idiomatic Word Choice The new policy will have a significant affect on staffing decisions next quarter. Hard
  9. 9 Choosing the Most Precise Word The hiking trail goes through dense forest before opening into a wide alpine meadow Hard
  10. 10 Maintaining Academic Register In her recent paper, the geneticist got down to the question of how mutations accum Hard
  11. 11 Eliminating Wordiness The committee made the decision to come to a conclusion to approve the proposal. Hard
  12. 12 Removing Redundant Words The lecture began at exactly 9 a.m. in the morning on the first day of class. Hard
  13. 13 Idiomatic Word Choice The new policy will have a significant affect on staffing decisions next quarter. Hard
  14. 14 Choosing the Most Precise Word The hiking trail goes through dense forest before opening into a wide alpine meadow Hard
  15. 15 Maintaining Academic Register In her recent paper, the geneticist got down to the question of how mutations accum Hard

How to use this drill

Open the questions one at a time. Read the prompt, decide on an answer before scrolling, then check the explanation. The point of a drill is not to "get the question right" — it's to internalize the rule so you can apply it cold under timed conditions on test day.

If you're missing more than a third of the questions in this set, drop down a difficulty tier and rebuild from there. If you're getting all of them quickly, jump up a tier and try a mixed drill across subtopics.

What "Hard" means here

Hard questions are designed to separate strong test-takers. They typically require multiple rules applied in sequence, or careful elimination among answers that all look plausible. Expect to see these appear later in real ACT sections; even strong test-takers miss a couple per test.

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