Mighty Oak Guide to Mastering the 2016 ACT Essay: For the new (2016-) 36-point ACT essay

Fantastically brief yet thorough explanation of what is different about the new ACT, how to use this with old materials, how to break up your time for organizing and actual writing, how to avoid losing careless points (even going so far as to explain how NOT to erase mistakes because of the sensitive scanner), what to prioritize, and the strategy for attacking the essay. This book provides 13 additional essay prompts that are nicely categorized by subject area. It provides only one sample essay, but that essay illustrates everything the authors suggest. Some colleagues say that this is just a decent supplement because it's so short and helpful only to the extent it provides practice essay prompts. But, my students and I LOVE it. Short, sweet, and very helpful in getting that high score.

Aristotle said "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." Students looking to prepare for the new ACT essay know they must write essays. To write essays, one needs essays prompts. To have prompts, one needs this book.The dearth of prep options for the ACT Essay was not ameliorated by the release of the New Real ACT Prep Guide. The authors of this book say as much: "Unfortunately, the updated version of the book (released on Jan 20, 2016) changed only the cover art and publisher. Not one of the practice tests inside was updated to reflect the new essay format. What's worse, the book still includes a chapter of advice for the old-style essay, which is sure to confuse and mislead unsuspecting students."The level of detail and attention given to accurately replicating and anticipating future ACT essay prompts is astounding. It contains helpful pedantic goodies, such as useful vocabulary, transitions and proverbs which any student would be wise to use. In my experience teaching standardized tests, I rarely come across prep resources that precisely distill the intricacies of test-taking into a handful of potent, salient points. (That's what tutors are for, right?) But, this book does just that.I would highly recommend this book to:1) students wishing to prep or polish their ACT essays2) parents of said students3) instructors of said students

My daughter wrote the following review for this book:Before reading this guide, I had many doubts about how to write an ACT essay, especially with the new changes. I couldn't think of new ideas or examples, but one tip in this book really helped with that. This was easy to read, concise, and well organized. I knew exactly how to format and write the essay after reading the whole guide. Right now I am practicing with the 12 realistic prompts at the end. Without Mighty Oak, I couldn't have had the confidence in my ACT writing as I do now.

When I first went through this book, I learned some new techniques in writing my ACT essay. I ended up using almost everything I learned in my essay, but my writing score only went up by one point (my previous writing test I did absolutely no practice for). The book was also very short at only about 32 pages and more than half of them were practice prompts.

I am test prep instructor based out in Dallas.I was looking for some good material for the new enhanced essay section as resources in this space are very limited.This book is apt and very appropriate with simple and straight forward instructions on how to crack the essay.The strategies on this book will definitely help the students boost the grade and the essay prompts are exceptionally designed.Highly recommed this book to all ACT test takers and test prep instructors.

worth to buy because of the recent changes in ACT writing. I bought it one week before the June test for my son, he quickly read through it and did two sample writings. He ended up doing quite well in the real writing test. so I think this book is worth it.

Excellent range of topics .... current

I read most of my son's booklet when it arrived and found it concise and incredibly valuable. The skills for essay writing are well explained and extremely helpful for anyone explaining or debating complex concepts. I am convinced this book teaches skills that will continue to be used by students in college and lifelong. This is a quick easy read and well priced compared to other materials . I intend to recommend it to all students preparing for the ACT.