ACT (exam)

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The ACT , better known as the American College Testing Program or American College Test , is an American performance test for university entrance qualification that was created in 1959 as a competitor to the College Board's Scholastic Aptitude Test ( SAT ) , which is also such a test. Reflecting the changes in the SAT in 2005, the ACT has also offered a writing test since February 2005. Almost every college accepts and treats ACT and SAT equally.

ACT Inc.

Originally founded as the American College Testing Program Inc. , ACT Inc. changed its name to its current name in 1996. The individual letters no longer have a specific meaning. The company was restructured in 2002 and received the Departments "Education" (Education) and "Workforce Development" (workforce training) . Both are overseen by their own boards of directors. Every single state in the USA has its own society due to the sometimes great differences in educational policy; however, the entire company is uniformly supervised by its own board of directors.

In 2005, ACT International was also founded. It consists of ACT Education Solutions GmbH and ACT Business Solutions BV. The former helps students from all over the world who plan to study at English-speaking institutions to improve their knowledge of the English language. The latter is aimed at the employees of international companies with the same aim.

acceptance

US states in which the SAT or ACT is primarily taken.

The ACT is typically used for university admission, but sometimes it is used for placement in a class. The vast majority of universities treat the ACT and the SAT equally. In the past, coastal universities tended to favor the SAT, but that has changed over the past few decades. Even Harvard University admissions officers recognize both tests as equivalent. Because of this, more and more students on the East and West Coast are choosing the ACT.

format

The standard format of the ACT consists of 4 multiple choice subtests: English Skills, Reading, Maths, and Scientific Reasoning. These are rated with a natural number from 1 to 36. The final result of the exam is the average of the results of the subtests. In addition, students who have also decided to take a test in writing will receive a grade with a natural number from 0 to 12 and some comments regarding their essay . The result of the test in writing is not included in the overall result.

Knowledge of the English language

The first part of the exam consists of a 45-minute test on grammatical and rhetorical knowledge of the English language. The total of 75 questions in this section consist of tasks on the syntactic correction of a sentence, the logical order of the sentences in a paragraph and the intention of the author.

mathematics

The English test is followed by a 60-minute math test. It consists of a total of 60 questions, each with 14 on tasks from the field of (pre-) algebra , 10 tasks from the field of elementary algebra, 9 tasks from advanced algebra, 14 questions about simple geometry , 9 questions from analytical geometry and 4 exercises from the field of trigonometry . The ACT allows a non-graphical pocket calculator for these tasks.

Read

This 35-minute subtest consists of 40 questions about the understanding of 4 texts, each with one from the areas: prose ( short story or novella ), social sciences ( history , economics , psychology or political science ), humanities ( art , music or architecture ) and natural science ( Physics , biology or chemistry ).

Scientific reasoning

This is followed by a 35-minute test with 40 questions about the 3 sub-areas: graphic representation , interpretation of research results and contradicting opinions.

Write

The optional sub-test in writing consists of a 30-minute essay on a social issue. This essay is then assigned a number of points from 1 to 6 by two specially trained proofreaders (0 is only used for empty forms, essays which were not written in English, missed topics or unreadable essays). These are then added and thus result in a total number of points for the test in writing from 0 to 12. However, if the two correctors contradict each other by more than one point, a third party decides.

Availability

The ACT is offered 4 to 6 times per year in the United States, depending on the state. One test takes place every Saturday in September, October, December, February, April and June.

Should a participant not be able to take the test on a Saturday because of his or her beliefs , he or she can submit an application to take the test on the following Sunday.

Participants with proven physical or mental disabilities are given the opportunity to extend the exam time (standard is 50%).

Outside the USA

Outside the United States, ACT Inc. may issue different versions of the test. In some cases, the same test is performed over and over again. In 2007, for example, several students in Chile were able to achieve an above-average total score of 30 or more because they had taken the same test several times. So far, ACT Inc. has shown no response to this incident.

Statistics and comparison with the SAT

Total points awarded at ACT 2005

In 2007, 1,300,599 graduating students in the United States took the ACT (approximately 42%). The average total number of points was 21.1. The highest possible score of 36 was achieved by 314 students.

So far there is no official conversion table for the results of SAT and ACT. The following table is based on a Princeton Review publication :

SAT ACT total score
2400 36
2340 35
2260 34
2190 33
2130 32
2040 31
1980 30th
1920 29
1860 28
1820 27
1760 26th
1700 25th
1650 24
1590 23
1530 22nd
1500 21st
1410 20th
1350 19th
1290 18th
1210 17th
1140 16
1060 15th
1000 14th
900 13
780 12
750 11

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