Details of tests ACT consists of?

Exam: ACT Test - American College Testing: English, Math, Reading, Science, Writing

The ACT stands for “American College Testing”, is a standardized assessment test meant for senior secondary school. It is meant for the assessment of achievements and admissions in college in United States conducted by ACT. Firstly it was conducted by Everett Franklin Lindquist in November 1959, making it a competitor for SAT (College Board’s Scholastic Aptitude Test). Originally ACT comprises of four exams Natural Sciences, Social Studies, Math’s and English. After in 1989 test for Social Studies was replaced by Reading test which had Social Studies as its part and Science Reasoning test replaces the Natural Sciences test, after the change paper focused more on problem solving skill of the students. In the month of February there was the introduction of a writing test that was made optional to the students; the changes were similar to the changes that SAT made in the month of March, same year. It is proposed that from 2015 spring, in ACT there will be computer based test which will include Constructed Response Questions without hampering the earlier format. The schools that are not prepared for the computer based testing will continue to have the paper based test. There is gradual rise in the no. of ACT test takers in comparison to SAT since the test is introduced, and in 2011 for the first time ACT crossed SAT in terms of no of test taking students. The individuals are provided scores on scale ranging from 1-36, and after that an average of the scores of four subjects are provided which is known as Composite Score.

Test Sections and Format of Test

The Act test comprises of four sections English, Reading, Mathematics, and Science. The scores of the test subject wise range from 1-36. All the sections except science consist of sub scores that range from 1-18. You should not confuse with sub scores, it will not make subject score of the tests. An average score of all the four subjects is provided. The students who sits for the optional test i.e. the writing section makes a score ranging from 2-12 and a total of English and Writing section score ranging between 1-36, calculated on the basis of scores of individual subject tests. The score of the writing test does not hamper the composite score. The format of the test is, multiple choice questions, correct answer gives you one point while wrong ones neither awards you point nor make you lose any of your point gained i.e. there is no negative marking. So the student should answer each and every question without fear of oozing there scored mars. If a student scores less in the test he/she can retake the test to have increase in their score. The statistics shows that 55% of students improve their Act scores, 22% remain where they where earlier, while 23% see decrease in their earlier scores.

The subject English comprises of 75 questions to be completed in 45 min. which covers questions from skills of usage, rhetorical, and mechanics. The test contains 5 passages with different sections which are underlined on one page and the next page contains correct options of the underlined sections in which the student have to mar the correct one. Specifically the focus is on the mechanics and usage of commas, modifiers, apostrophes, fragments, and coons. In addition to this the section has questions based on rhetorical skills is.

The subject Mathematics comprises of 60 min containing 600 questions ranging from algebra, pre-algebra, pane geometry, trigonometry, and coordinate geometry. For this section students can use normal calculator that don’t allow advance calculations of algebra and trigonometry. It is only in this section that there are five options for a question instead of four choices.

The Reading section consists of 40 multiple choice questions to be completed in 35 min. students have to answer 4-10 passage that ranges from, humanities, and realm of prose, natural sciences, and social science.

The subject Science reasoning consist of 40 questions which has to be completed in 35 minutes, there are five to seven questions which are to be answered from seven passages. Three passages are from data representation which follows 5 questions, 3 passages from research summary following six questions and at last 1 passage is from conflicting viewpoints followed with 7 questions. The students have to answer the question on the basis of the passage given above.

The Writing section is optional that is student want to give they can, otherwise they can give the four subject test. Students have to take this section after the entire subject test is competed. This section is to be completed in 30 minute. Students should write the essay in accordance to the prompt given, because the score of the writing section will hamper the score of English section. If you score well in the writing section, the score of the English section remains same, but if you score badly the final score of the English section will decrease. So the student should be precise and to the point to the asked prompt.

The ACT test provides students their average composite scores depending upon which they will be able to take admission in various colleges and universities. The ACT organization prompts students that the ranges of scores are just rough guidelines that can help you in admissions, as the admission policy differs from college to college. So the students should prepare we and according to the syllabus and subject areas of the test. They should answer each question carefully to score good though there is no negative marking. As it’s the Act score that is accepted by all the four yr. colleges, universities in U.S. so prepare well, sit for the test, and score good.

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