Hey there! Are you wondering which content area you should focus on for a quick point increase on the Digital SAT or ACT? You’ve found the right article. Because transition words are a major area for improvement for almost every single student that I encounter in my elite tutoring practice.
After all, every ACT and SAT contains questions testing transitions, but students tend to overestimate their grasp of the topic—at least, this topic as it’s tested by the two big college admissions exams.
So, this post builds on last week’s complete transition word list.
Now, while that list detailed every single transition word/phrase that’s appeared on an SAT or ACT, today’s post tells you how to actually cash in on your knowledge of that list.
That’s right: I’m bringing you the two best strategies I’ve developed for approaching these questions. With just these two hacks in your back pocket, you’ll be ready to efficiently and accurately answer any transition word problem that comes your way, and snag the precious points they contain!
Article Contents
A. How to identify a transition word question on the SAT and ACT
i. What’s the difference between soft and hard transition words?
B. Strategy #1: identify the category first
C. Strategy #2: eliminate any answers that come from the same subcategory
D. Conclusion
What do transition word questions look like on the SAT / ACT?
Transition word questions appear in the form of a passage or sentence with an underlined word (or merely a blank), where the answer choices (the ones that aren’t “no change,” that is!) are all transition words. Which you’ll be able to recognize as such, of course, once you’ve studied my list.
Here’s an example of what the question stem and answer choices on a transition word question might look like on the current (2026) version of the ACT:
12. Which transition word is most logical in context?
A) No Change
B) Essentially,
C) However,
D) Furthermore,
Here’s an example of what the question stem and answer choices on a transition word question might look like on the Digital SAT:
23. Which choice completes the test with the most logical transition?
A) As a result,
B) Essentially,
C) However,
D) Furthermore,
Once you’re primed for it, it’s not too tricky to realize that you’re in the transition-word zone here! So once you’ve become aware of that fact, what do you do about it?
A key distinction: hard vs. soft transition words
It’s important here that you already be familiar with the difference between what I call soft and hard transition words. In brief, soft transition words (like FANBOYS) change a clause from independent to dependent, while hard ones do not. For a fuller explanation of this distinction, check out last week’s post.
If what you’re dealing with is a hard transition word, you’d read the sentence that contains the transition word and the sentence before it. If it’s a soft transition word, you’d read both clauses within the same sentence.
SAT & ACT Transition word strategy #1
My first piece of advice for this question type? Pick your category (Continue, Contrast, Cause-and-Effect) BEFORE you read the answer choices!
Here’s what I mean:
First, cross out the transition word that’s underlined in the question (if it’s the ACT’s English section).
Next, read the two sentences/clauses that are connected by the transition word.
Then, identify the category of transition word that has to go in between the sentences. DECIDE if the two thoughts continue, contrast, or signify a direct cause-and-effect relationship!
Eliminate all answer choices that don’t fall into that category.
Select your specific answer from the remaining choice(s).
When you begin by determining which category you’re dealing with, you cut out a lot of time that would be wasted in going through each answer choice one by one, plugging it into the sentence, and seeing if it works. You’ll save time AND maintain accuracy.
How to answer SAT & ACT Transition questions: trick #2
If two answer choices fall into the same sub-category of transition word (“emphasizes” or “indicates the result/effect” or “indicates sequence of time,” etc.—see the Table of Contents to my word guide for the full list), then BOTH of those answer choices are wrong!
Sometimes you have two answer options that mean the same thing and are in the same category. “Therefore” and “thus” are good examples—there’s no way to choose between them, which tells you that they’re both INCORRECT. It’s like trying to pick between “red” and “orange” when the answer you’re looking for isn’t even supposed to be a color in the first place.
After all, if one of those answer choices were correct, that would mean its equivalent would also be correct…and the SAT and ACT never offer two correct answers to the same multiple-choice question! So you can quickly cross out BOTH of those options. Now you’re deciding between just two answers—which makes for a much faster solving process as you finish the question!
Conclusion
So, that, my friends, is how you can ace Transition Words and Transition Word Questions. But of course, this is just a trailer-style intro to the topic. If you need something more like the full feature film—i.e. a way more thorough understanding, and/or specific examples to work through—with regard to this and every other topic on the SAT or ACT, let’s work together!
Or, if “together” isn’t your preferred way to study, I’ve released two resources—a digital course for the SAT, and an ebook for the ACT—that bring you all the Reading and Writing/English content and strategy you need to ace either test. Work through the course or ebook at whatever speed you want—and even repeat them, if you’d like! Once purchased, they’re yours to consult forever.
