The ACT® test is a standardized achievement examination for college admissions in the United States produced by ACT, Inc. (originally American College Testing Program). [1] It was first administered in Fall 1959 as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test. Some students who perform poorly on the SAT find that they perform better on the ACT and vise versa.[2] In February 2005, an optional writing test was added to the ACT, mirroring changes to the SAT later that year. All four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. accept the ACT but the weighting that they put on it in comparison to the SAT varies by the university and generally by region.[3]
Function
ACT says that The ACT® assessment measures high school students' general educational development and their capability to complete college-level work with the multiple-choice tests covering four skill areas: English, mathematics, reading, and science and the optional Writing Test measures skill in planning and writing a short essay.[4]
Colleges use The ACT and the SAT Reasoning Test because there are substantial differences in funding, curricula, grading, and difficulty among U.S. secondary schools due to American federalism. ACT/SAT scores are used to supplement the secondary school record and help admission officers put local data — such as course work, grades, and class rank — in a national perspective.
Use
The ACT is more widely used in the Midwestern and Southern United States, while the SAT is more popular on the east and west coasts. Use of the ACT by colleges has risen as a result of various criticisms of the effectiveness and fairness of the SAT.
In three states, Colorado, Illinois, and Michigan, the ACT is administered to all high school juniors as a standard to measure schools and the students; in 2008, Kentucky will join the list.
Format
The required portion of the ACT is divided into four multiple choice subject tests: English, reading, mathematics, and science reasoning and are always in that order. Subject test scores range from 1 to 36; all scores are natural numbers. The English, mathematics, and reading tests also have subscores ranging from 1 to 18. The "composite score" is the average of all four tests. In addition, students taking the writing test receive a writing score ranging from 2 to 12, a "combined English/writing score" ranging from 1 to 36 (based on the writing score and English score), and one to four comments on the essay from the essay scorers. The writing score does not affect the composite score. Sometimes the test includes an experimental section that may be a short version of any of the four major sections. The experimental section is used to normalize questions for future administrations of the ACT and does not count toward the final score. The experimental section is most often found on the June offering.
The math section covers pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, and elementary trigonometry.
The English section covers usage/mechanics and rhetorical skills.
The reading section measures reading comprehension in four passages concerning one each prose fiction, social science, humanities and natural science, in that order.
The chart below summarizes each section and the average test score based on graduating high school seniors in 2006.[5] [6]
| Section | Questions | Time (Minutes) | Average Score | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 75 | 45 | 20.6 | usage/mechanics and rhetorical skills |
| Mathematics | 60 | 60 | 20.8 | pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, and elementary trigonometry |
| Reading | 40 | 35 | 21.4 | reading comprehension |
| Science | 40 | 35 | 20.9 | interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problem-solving |
| Optional Writing Test | 1 essay prompt | 30 | 7.7 | writing skills |
Score percentiles
Of the graduating high school class of 2006, there were 1,206,455 students who took the ACT, this comprises 40% of the graduating class.[7] The average composite score was a 21.1. Of this class, there were 517,563 males, 646,688 females and 42,204 with an unreported gender who took the test.[8] Nationwide, 216 students who reported that they would graduate in 2006 received the highest ACT composite score of 36.[9] This means that only one out of about every 5,500 test takers will receive a perfect score (a 36). This is the 99.98 percentile.
The percentiles that various ACT composite scores for ALL seniors (rather than college-bound) taking the ACT in 2006 correspond to are summarized in the following chart.
| Percentile | Scores (Out of 36, 2006) |
|---|---|
| 99+ | 34-36 |
| 99 | 32-33 |
| 98 | 31 |
| 97 | 30 |
| 95 | 29 |
| 92 | 28 |
| 89 | 27 |
| 86 | 26 |
| 81 | 25 |
| 76 | 24 |
| 70 | 23 |
| 63 | 22 |
| 56 | 21 |
| 48 | 20 |
| 40 | 19 |
| 33 | 18 |
| 25 | 17 |
| 19 | 16 |
| 13 | 15 |
| 8 | 14 |
| 5 | 13 |
| 2 | 12 |
| 1 | 1-11 |
Test availability
The ACT is offered four to six times a year, depending on the state, in the United States, in September, October, December, February, April and June and is always on a Saturday.
Candidates may either take the ACT assessment or the ACT assessment plus writing.
The ACT costs $29 and $43 with the writing.
Candidates whose religious beliefs prevent them from taking the test on a Saturday may request to take the test on the following Sunday. Such requests must be made at the time of registration and are subject to denial.
Students with verifiable disabilities, including physical and learning disabilities, are eligible to take it with accommodations. The standard time increase for students requiring additional time due to learning disabilities is 50%.
Score comparison with SAT
Although there is no official conversion chart, the College Board, who administers the SAT, released an unofficial chart based on results from 103,525 test takers who took both tests between October 1994 and December 1996 (in earlier years, ACT scores were deleted after a certain time period at some community colleges or they were just never reported to ACT in Iowa. Therefore, these statistics are not entirely valid.) here. Several colleges have also issued their own charts. The following is based on the University of California's conversion chart.[10]
| SAT (Prior to Writing Test Addition) | SAT (With Writing Test Addition) | ACT Composite Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1600 | 2400 | 36 |
| 1560-1590 | 2340-2390 | 35 |
| 1520-1550 | 2280-2330 | 34 |
| 1480-1510 | 2220-2270 | 33 |
| 1440-1470 | 2160-2210 | 32 |
| 1400-1430 | 2100-2150 | 31 |
| 1360-1390 | 2040-2090 | 30 |
| 1320-1350 | 1980-2030 | 29 |
| 1280-1310 | 1920-1970 | 28 |
| 1240-1270 | 1860-1910 | 27 |
| 1200-1230 | 1800-1850 | 26 |
| 1160-1190 | 1740-1790 | 25 |
| 1120-1150 | 1680-1730 | 24 |
| 1080-1110 | 1620-1670 | 23 |
| 1040-1070 | 1560-1610 | 22 |
| 1000-1030 | 1500-1550 | 21 |
| 960-990 | 1440-1490 | 20 |
| 920-950 | 1380-1430 | 19 |
| 880-910 | 1320-1370 | 18 |
| 840-870 | 1260-1310 | 17 |
| 800-830 | 1200-1250 | 16 |
| 760-790 | 1140-1190 | 15 |
| 720-750 | 1080-1130 | 14 |
| 680-710 | 1020-1070 | 13 |
| 640-670 | 960-1010 | 12 |
| 600-630 | 900-950 | 11 |
References
- ^ "About ACT: History". Retrieved October 25, 2006.Name changed in 1996.
- ^ "Chapter 1". Cracking The ACT (2007 edition ed.). The Princeton Review. pp. Pages 11-12. ISBN 9780375765858.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help); Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ All U.S. colleges accept ACT (URL accessed March 18, 2007.)
- ^ The Test. (URL accessed June 05, 2007).
- ^ http://www.actstudent.org/testprep/descriptions/index.html
- ^ http://www.act.org/news/data/06/pdf/National2006.pdf
- ^ http://www.act.org/news/data/06/states.html
- ^ http://www.act.org/news/data/06/pdf/National2006.pdf
- ^ 2006 ACT High School Profile Report. (URL accessed September 26, 2006).
- ^ University of California Scholarship Requirement. (URL accessed June 26, 2006).