ACT Facts

So, here is everything you ever wanted to know about the ACT test. The ACT, originally stood for American College Testing and was first administered in 1959., in 2014 1.84 million high school graduates took the test.

It is divided into 4 sub-sections; English, Reading, Mathematics, Science Reasoning, plus an optional Writing test. Each sub-section is graded on a scale of 1-36. The sub-scores are averaged together to produce a number, which ACT calls a Composite score. English, Mathematics, and Reading are further divided into subscores which are graded on a scale of 1-18. The optional Writing test is graded from 2-12, and a combined score from English and Writing graded 1-36 is also computed. The Writing score does not impact the Composite score. Each question that is answered correctly receives 1 raw point and there are no penalties for incorrect answers or guesses.

In addition to the ACT, the testing service offers the EXPLORE test which is available to 8th and 9th graders and the PLAN test which is available to 10th graders. These tests allow students the opportunity to become familiar with the ACT. They can also be used as a tool for placement and consideration of high school courses and provide early insight into how competitive a student will be for college admission. PLAN and EXPLORE are not available in all areas. Typically, the are offered to all students in a given grade within a given school or district. You generally can’t just “sign up” to take these tests the way you can with the ACT.

Nearly all colleges will consider ACT scores as part of the college admissions process. Most any school that requires a standardized test for admission purposes will accept the ACT for that. The ACT Corporation views the test as indicator of a student’s potential success in a entry-level college courses.

I generally a recommend a student who is sitting for a ACT test to take the writing portion. Many colleges require it. So, if you don’t take the writing and end up applying to a school that requires it, you’ll need to retake the ACT with Writing, essentially making the first first attempt meaningless. Some colleges will super-score the ACT as well. This means If, say, your best English and Reading scores were from a October test and your best Mathematics and Science Reasoning scores were from the February test, you can combine these best sub-scores from two different test dates to produce a new Composite. Each college has different policies on super-scoring so it is best to do your homework there.

The test is offered six times a year in September, October, December, February, April, and June. The fee is $39.50 without Writing, and $56.50 with it. The test generally begins at 8am on a Saturday. English is 45 minutes, Mathematics is 60, Reading and Science Reasoning are each 35 minutes. The Writing portion is an additional 45 minutes. Factoring in breaks and administration time, non-Writing students are usually dismissed around 12:15 and Writing students around 1:00. Registration is done through the website at actstudent.org.

High School Matters

         By the time a student reaches high school, families become so focused on credits, GPAs, and whatever the next step is beyond graduation that we often forget how valuable the knowledge presented in class really is. School staff is certainly guilty of this as well. The fact is, the education we receive prior to high school graduation serves as the foundation for everything else we do in life. Sure, we’re probably going to learn the skills that provide us the income we need to live after high school, and that education is enormously important.However, so much of our knowledge that we use outside of our career comes from grade school.

I was reflecting on this the other day when I was talking with my young daughter and telling her the names of all the major bones in her body. I only know them, and so much more about the rest of the human body, because of the anatomy and physiology class I took in the 11th grade. If I’m doing a home improvement project, I can calculate area or volume because of my high school geometry class. Every four years, I know just how the american presidential election process works from my US Government class.  I can format a cell in a spreadsheet thanks to a computer class I took. There are countless other things I know, or at least can figure out, just because I made it through high school.

The point I want to make here is that a high school education counts and is valuable. It’s hard to connect those daily lessons in school to real life for a young person, but they do connect. That week I learned about the properties of gas in my chemistry class, fumigating a rental property I didn't yet own for termites would have seemed like a far flung idea. But, 20 years later when I had to talk to the exterminator and then explain what was happening to my tenants, I was so thankful I understood what I did about the way the world works.

Elementary, middle school, and high school are important. The things we learn there might not come in to play every single day, but they will at some point. Those little nuggets of information we somehow dig up from the deep recesses of our memory, years later, are so valuable to our everyday lives and make us better and more productive people. Don’t lose sight of that value as you pursue college and bigger and better things. Remind your students that the stupid little assignment they don’t care about serves the purpose of reinforcing a concept, that maybe, just maybe, will be something they really need to rely on way down the road. At the very least, they’ll be able to answer their daughter’s question when she asks what the bones in her foot are called.