An ACT Overview

The ACT and the SAT are both meant to test your knowledge of the fundamentals of a high school education in the United States. Differences in Testing Philosophy –The ACT strives to assess the knowledge you’ve acquired, meaning that the test focuses on subjects and skills taught in high school. –The SAT tries to assess “innate ability.” It does so using tricky and confusing phrasing to determine your test-taking skills (i.e., your performance under pressure and your ability to identify what’s being asked). ACT tests a broader range of subjects SAT questions are often deliberately worded to confuse the test taker. You can study actual subject matter to improve your ACT score. Improving your SAT score requires you to understand test-taking tricks. ACT vs SAT

Four multiple-choice “Subject Tests” covering English, Math, Reading, and Science Reasoning. Every test has the same breakdown of question types. For example, every English Subject Test will contain ten punctuation questions, and every Math Subject Test will contain four trigonometry questions. The ACT doesn’t want to trick you. The ACT wants to test your knowledge. ACT Overview

The English Test 75 questions, 45 minutes Contains five reading passages containing grammatical and stylistic errors. Each passage is accompanied by 15 questions. Assesses your understanding of the basic grammar of the English language, as well as your grasp of the tools and strategies a writer can use to put sentences together to form paragraphs and arguments. The ACT calls grammar “Usage/Mechanics” and essay writing skills “Rhetorical Skills.” SubjectNumber of Questions Usage/Mechanics40 Punctuation10 Basic Grammar and Usage12 Sentence Structure18 Rhetorical Skills35 Strategy12 Organization11 Style12 Total75

The Math Test 60 questions, 60 minutes The Math Subject Test covers six areas of high school math: –pre-algebra –elementary algebra –intermediate algebra –coordinate geometry –plane geometry –trigonometry If you have not learned trigonometry, don’t sweat it: there are only four trig questions on the test, and four questions won’t ruin your score. Calculator use is allowed. There are five answer choices for each question, rather than four. SubjectNumber of Questions Pre-Algebra14 Elementary Algebra10 Intermediate Algebra9 Coordinate Geometry9 Plane Geometry14 Trigonometry4 Total60

40 questions, 35 minutes 4 reading passages, each approximately 750 words long. The passages cover Prose Fiction, Social Science, Humanities, and Natural Science. –These passages always appear in the above order, and they are given equal weight in scoring. –Each passage is accompanied by ten questions of varying levels of difficulty. Reading Test evaluates a set of skills you’ve acquired rather than subjects you’ve learned. –Identify details and facts –Draw inferences from given evidence –Make character generalizations –Identify the main idea of a section or the whole passage –Identify the author’s point of view –Identify cause-effect relationships –Determine the meaning of unfamiliar words through context –Make comparisons and analogies The Reading Test

The Science Reasoning Test 40 questions, 35 minutes Does NOT test your understanding of any scientific field. Assesses your ability to “reason like a scientist” or to test your ability to understand and analyze data. All of the information you need to know for the Science Reasoning Test will be presented in the questions. You just have to dig it out. 7 passages that contain a mixture of graphs, charts, and explanatory text. Data Representation Passages –3 passages each with 5 questions. –These passages ask you to understand and use information presented in graphs or tables. Research Summaries Passages –3 passages each with 6 questions. –These passages put scientific data in the context of an experiment. –These questions require you to evaluate an experimental design. Conflicting Viewpoints Passage –1 with 7 questions. –The questions test your understanding of the differences between the viewpoints and ask you to evaluate the soundness of the arguments.

Two Strategies: Look through the answer choices and pick out the one that is correct. –When you are sure how to answer a question, finding the right answer immediately is clearly better than chipping away at the wrong answers. Look at the answer choices and eliminate wrong answers until there’s only one answer left. –When you are unsure how to solve a problem, eliminating wrong answers is the better option. By focusing on the answers to problem that is giving you trouble, you might be able to use the answer choices to lead you in the right direction, or to solve the problem through trial and error. Taking A Multiple Choice Test

First, you receive four raw scores, one for each Subject Test, in addition to raw subscores for subsections of the Subject Test (for example, Usage/Mechanics and Rhetorical Skills are the two subsections of the English Test). Those raw scores are converted into four scaled scores for the subject tests and scaled subscores for the subsections. The four scaled scores are averaged, producing the Composite Score. Finally, every single score is assigned a corresponding percentile ranking, indicating how you fared in comparison to other test takers. Understanding the ACT Score

Your ACT Composite Score The composite score is the average of your scaled scores for the four Subject Tests. So, if you got a 28 on the English Test, a 26 on the Math Test, a 32 on the Reading Test, and a 30 on the Science Reasoning Test, your composite score will be: = 116/4 = 29 More than half of second-time test takers increase their scores. You are not penalized for getting a question wrong, so guessing can only help your score. Composite Score ACT Percentile Rank Percentage of Correct Answers 3199%90% 2690%75% 2376%63% 2054%53% 1728%43%

Set a target score based on the schools you want to attend. Focus on your target during your studying and preparation. Setting a Target Score EnglishMath Target Score# RightTarget Score# Right –703053– –622644– –542338– –462032– –381723– –21117–8 ReadingScience Reasoning Target Score# RightTarget Score# Right –312632– –272327– – –17 119–10117