ACT (examination)
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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.<ref>About ACT: History (URL accessed October 25, 2006.)</ref> In February 2005, an optional writing test was added to the ACT, mirroring changes to the SAT later that year. Almost every college in the U.S. accepts and treats the ACT and SAT equally.<ref name=newsweek>Can the ACT take down the SAT? (URL accessed December 3, 2006.)</ref>
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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"<ref>ACT Information System. (URL accessed August 27, 2006).</ref>, while the SAT Reasoning Test is "a measure of the critical thinking skills needed for academic success in college."<ref>SAT Program. (URL accessed August 27, 2006).</ref>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. One important policy difference is that the ACT does not allow any calculators with algebra systems.
[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 1997. 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 southeast United States, while the SAT is more popular in the northeast and the west coast. Use of the ACT by colleges has risen as a result of various criticisms of the effectiveness and fairness of the SAT.In two states, Colorado and Illinois, the ACT is administered to all high school juniors as a standard to measure schools and the students; in 2007, Michigan will join the list.[1], as will Kentucky in 2008.
[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.
There are 60 questions on the ACT math section, which must be completed in 60 minutes. The math section covers pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, coordinate geometry, geometry, and trigonometry.
The average score is around 21. For students who took the test in recent years, any composite score over 30 or 31 is in the 99th percentile. Nationwide, 216 students who reported that they would graduate in 2006 received the highest ACT composite score of 36<ref>2006 ACT High School Profile Report. (URL accessed September 26, 2006).</ref>. More students received perfect scores on the SAT, although this could be because more took it.
[edit] Score comparison with SAT
Although there is no official conversion chart, several colleges have issued their own. The following is based on the University of California's conversion chart.<ref>University of California Scholarship Requirement. (URL accessed June 26, 2006).</ref>
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SAT (Prior to Writing Test Addition),
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SAT with Writing Test Addition,
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ACT Composite Score
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[edit] Notes
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