What is the ACT?
According to the official ACT website, the ACT exam "measures the knowledge, understanding, and skills that you have acquired throughout high school." The best preparation for the test, according to the test makers, is "a sound, comprehensive, high school education." Right.
The truth is that like the SAT, the only thing the ACT really tests is how good you are at taking the ACT. Students who do well on the ACT do so not because they gained more "knowledge, understanding, and skills" in high school, but because they understand what the ACT really tests and possess specific strategies for beating the exam.
What does the ACT look like?
The ACT is extremely predictable. Each time the exam is administered, it contains the same sections, the same content areas, and often even the same questions. There are five sections that make up every ACT:
Section
Length
Number of questions
English
45 minutes
75
Math
60 minutes
60
Reading Comprehension
35 minutes
40
Science
35 minutes
40
Writing
30 minutes
1 essay
When is the ACT given?
The ACT is given 5 times each year. Below are the exam dates and deadlines for this year's tests, which you can register for at www.act.org. Note that the September 15, 2007 test date is only available in a limited number of cities and the February 9, 2008 test is not scheduled in New York.
Exam Date
Registration Deadline
September 15, 2007
August 10, 2007
August 24, 2007
October 27, 2007
September 21, 2007
October 5, 2007
December 8, 2007
November 2, 2007
November 15, 2007
February 9, 2008
January 4, 2007
January 18, 2008
April 12, 2008
March 7, 2008
March 21, 2008
June 14, 2008
May 9, 2008
May 23rd, 2008
* late fee applies
More FAQS on the ACT
Each section of the ACT is scored out of a possible 36 points, with your final score being an average of your scores on all the sections. Note that because each section contains more than 36 questions, your raw score will always be scaled to the 36-point system. Unlike the SAT, there is no guessing penalty on the ACT. This means that each question that you answer correctly counts for one point, while questions you leave blank or answer incorrectly count for zero points.
The ACT is important for the same reason that the SAT is: because college and universities say so. At a growing number of colleges, admissions officers use applicants' ACT scores as one of the primary criteria in making their admissions decisions. At most schools, it accounts for between 20-40 percent of admissions decisions and is the single most important factor in admissions next to high school grades.
At Ivy Insiders, we know the ACT better than anyone. With a curriculum designed by perfect scorers and instructors with average ACT scores of 34, our sole goal is to give you what we wish we had when we were preparing for the SAT and ACT—a program that delivers real results. In three years of courses, we have helped student improve by an average of over 4 points on the ACT (see Comparisons).
The best time to get ready for the ACT is the summer before you plan to take it, when you don't have to worry about school and when you have plenty of time to study for the test without distractions. Most students begin preparing for the ACT during the summer before their junior year of high school and take the test for the first time during the fall of that year.
Not at all. The earlier you start to prep, the more ready you will be when you take the test. In recent years, more and more students have decided to take a prep course as early as freshman year for this exact reason.
If you aren't satisfied with your scores, the summer going into senior year is the perfect time to get ready for one last test in September. Students participating in Ivy Insiders ACT courses improve an average of 4 points, enough to make a huge difference on your college admissions options in the fall.
You can take the ACT as many times as you want. Unlike the SAT, the ACT Corporation let's you choose what scores you have sent to colleges. That means that you could take the ACT 15 times and colleges would only see your highest score (not that we recommend this).
- Before discussing the differences between the ACT and SAT, it's important to recognize two ways in which the two tests are similar.
1. Both the SAT and ACT are standardized, meaning they have the same content each time they are administered.
2. Both the SAT and ACT test only a tiny subset of the content areas that they claim to cover. This means that the best way to beat both exams is to get ready for them directly, not to learn more about general subjects.
- There are also two important ways in which the ACT and the SAT differ from one another:
1. The ACT is more content-based, meaning the questions try to test what you've learned in high school more than "how you think." For this reason, many people find the ACT questions to be easier and more straightforward.
2. The ACT has more of a time crunch than the SAT. Many students find that while the SAT feels "harder," it is actually more difficult to get done with the ACT sections in the time allotted.
- In terms of content, the ACT and SAT share many of the same general topics (e.g., ACT English = SAT Writing, ACT Passage-based Reading = SAT Critical Reading, etc.). However, the specific structure of each exam and actual question types on the two tests differ dramatically. The ACT also has one section that is totally absent from the SAT—Science Reasoning.
The simple answer is that you should take both. Though some schools prefer one test over the other, most will accept either. That means that if you take both tests, you can simply use your best score between the two. This is especially useful since many people find that their performance diverges markedly between the exams. For example, faster test-takers sometimes find that they do better on the ACT, while students who like puzzles and brainteasers often find the SAT to be easier. Taking both exams ensures that you can figure out which test you're best at. It may not be the one you expect.
If you know that you only want to take one test, the best thing to do is find out which one most people take at the schools that you think you'll apply. A rough rule of thumb is that schools on the East and West coasts will tend to prefer SAT scores while schools in the South and the Midwest tend to go for the ACT.
To learn more about the ACT or to sign up for an upcoming test date, visit the ACT website at www.act.org.
