ACT (examination)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The ACT, formerly the ACT Assessment, is a college-entrance achievement test produced by ACT, Inc. It emerged in 1959 as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test, now the SAT Reasoning Test. ACT originally stood for American College Testing, but was officially changed to just ACT in 1996.[1] In February 2005, an optional writing test was added to the ACT, mirroring changes to the SAT later that year. Every 4-year college and university in the U.S. accepts and treats the ACT and SAT equally.[2]
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[edit] Acceptance
The ACT is typically used for college admissions, but some colleges also use it for course placement. The vast majority of colleges treat the SAT and ACT the same. In the past, universities on the east and west coasts tended to prefer SAT scores over ACT, but that has changed in recent decades. Now, even Harvard admissions officers, as reported in a New York Times story, admit that they don't prefer one test over the other, and more students on the east and west coasts are discovering the ACT.
[edit] Differences between SAT and ACT
The ACT is "designed to assess students' general educational development and their ability to complete college-level work"[3], while the SAT Reasoning Test is "a measure of the critical thinking skills needed for academic success in college."[4]The difference between the two is often described as one of "achievement" vs. "aptitude": the ACT seeks to measure what students have learned during high school, while the SAT is meant to evaluate innate ability. Whether the two tests succeed in assessing different things is a matter of debate.
The Princeton Review, a test-preparation company, believes that the ACT is a fundamentally better test than the SAT. The Princeton Review indicates in its book Cracking the ACT that it favors the ACT because it finds the ACT exam questions less ambiguous and more knowledge-based.
The ACT comprises four subject tests — English, mathematics, reading, and science; and an optional writing test (essay); the SAT includes critical reading, mathematics, and writing sections.
The SAT also has a guessing penalty of 1/4 point deducted for every incorrectly marked multiple choice answer, while the ACT does not have any kind of a guessing penalty.
With a few exceptions, the ACT does not test for vocabulary.
The math component of the ACT includes trigonometry, a topic that is not included in the SAT Reasoning Test.
[edit] ACT organization
The ACT is administered by the private, not-for-profit organization ACT, Inc., whose national headquarters are located in Iowa City, Iowa. E.F. Lindquist and Ted McCarrel, faculty members of the University of Iowa, founded the organization--originally American College Testing--in 1959 (ACT does not have any affiliation with the university). The name was changed to ACT in late 1996. In addition to the ACT, it provides dozens of other assessments in education and workforce development fields. At this time, ACT is advocating at the state level for the use of its examination as a high school assessment.
[edit] Use
The ACT is more widely used in the midwest 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.
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[1]. 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[2]. Nationwide, 216 students who reported that they would graduate in 2006 received the highest ACT composite score of 36[5]. This means that only one out of about every 5,600 test takers will receive a perfect score.
[edit] Format
The ACT is divided into four subject tests: English, reading, mathematics, and science. Subject test scores range from 1 to 36. 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.
The math section covers pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, and trigonometry. The english section covers usage/mechanics and rhetorical skills, while the reading section covers social studies and arts/literature.
The chart below summarizes each section and the average test score based on graduating high school seniors in 2006.
| 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 trigonometry |
| Reading | 40 | 35 | 21.4 | social studies and arts/literature |
| Science | 40 | 35 | 20.9 | interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problem-solving |
| Optional Writing Test | 1 essay prompt | 30 | 7.7 | writing skills |
[edit] Score Percentiles
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) |
|---|---|
| 100 | 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 |
[edit] 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 here. Several colleges have also issued their own. The following is based on the University of California's conversion chart.[6]
| 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 |
[edit] Notes
- ^ About ACT: History (URL accessed October 25, 2006.)
- ^ All U.S. colleges accept ACT (URL accessed March 18, 2007.)
- ^ ACT Information System. (URL accessed August 27, 2006).
- ^ SAT Program. (URL accessed August 27, 2006).
- ^ 2006 ACT High School Profile Report. (URL accessed September 26, 2006).
- ^ University of California Scholarship Requirement. (URL accessed June 26, 2006).
