All About The ACT

Just when you think you've earned your way into college with all of that hard work and good grades, here come the college prep tests. The American College Test (ACT) has been around for years and is one of the more widely used measures of a student's academic aptitude. You may ask what do we mean by "aptitude?" The ACT is a test that measures a student's competence or ability to perform on the college level, in comparison to every other Joe and Jane who are hoping to score well and go to a top college.

The SAT and ACT are two of the more widely accepted aptitude tests, also known as intelligence tests. There are some differences between these two and it's a good idea to figure out which may be the better fit for you.

The ACT is a curriculum-based aptitude test, which means the scoring should indicate a prospective student's academic standing to a college. The SAT is geared more toward a vocabulary, or verbal curriculum, while the ACT offers an opportunity for math gurus to showcase their skills. If you like trigonometry then the ACT is probably your ticket. Also the ACT is 45 minutes shorter than the SAT, which is good for those of us who can't stand sitting still for long periods. And the SAT "penalizes" for wrong answers, while the ACT does not include incorrect selections in your final scoring. How do you like that?

Some people go into their college prep test without taking a practice test. This seems to go against everything you've learned in high school. Would you take your World History test without studying, or at least trying to discover what the test is all about? A practice test will do this for you, so you might take one.

The ACT has four different sections, each being multiple-choice sections in four different subjects: Math, English, Science, and Reading. Students are offered one hour to complete the sixty Math questions - one minute per question. This part of the aptitude test covers subjects like pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry. Easy, right? Test takers have 45 minutes to finish the English section, which poses 75 vocabulary-related questions to the students. This also tests usage skills and critical reasoning skills, or your ability to understand given information. The Science section includes 40 multiple-choice questions and you have 35 minutes to figure out all the right answers. This part deals with aptitude skills in data representation, research summaries and conflicting viewpoints.

The last section, the Reading section, is 35-minutes long and consists of 40 multiple-choice questions that measure your abilities with prose fiction, social studies, humanities and natural sciences. Not a problem, huh?

Make sure to ask when the ACT test registration deadline is and also mark the ACT test date on your calendar, so you don't miss it. You should really take an ACT practice test to try to improve that ACT test score. Good luck!