Monday, November 1, 2010

An Overview of the ACT Test

Disclaimer: This is by no means a score-booster, prep-course or official ACT information.


Introduction


In this first part I will cover what the ACT Test is, registering for it, differences between the SAT and the ACT and how to prepare for it.
Not many of you reading this would know what the ACT, let alone have taken it. Interesting fact: There were only 13 (inclusive) students at the test centre I was at!


The ACT (short for American College Testing) is a standardised college entrance test consisting of four tests, namely English, Mathematics, Reading and Science. There is also an optional writing test lasting 30 minutes.


Test scores range from 1 to 36 and all scores are whole numbers. The English, mathematics, and reading tests also have subscores ranging from 1 to 18. The subscores do not add up to the total score. The composite score that you receive is the average score of all 4 components. Half points and above are rounded up. That is to say that if you receive an average of 35.5, you will receive a composite of 36 (full marks)!


All four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. accept the ACT.


Registering


According to the official website for the ACT, the 2010–2011 basic registration fee is $33.00, which includes sending score reports to up to four college choices. The basic registration fee for the ACT Plus Writing is $48.00.


You can sign up for the test at actstudent.org in which you have to create an account. It’s fairly straightforward and simple, though you may not find your school at the part where you have to indicate your high school.


Do note that there are only 5 test dates in a year and not all test centres offer all test dates. In fact, there are only 3 test centres in Singapore: Singapore American School, US Education Information Center and International Community School. The following is a list of test dates and their corresponding test centres.


11 December 2010: USEIC
12 February 2011: USEIC
9 April 2011: SAS, USEIC, ICS
11 June 2011: ICS
22 October 2011: SAS, USEIC, ICS (This date is unconfirmed)


Do note that the SAT and the ACT are not offered on the same date so you can choose to take them in the same month.


Testing


Your proctor will direct you to your seat and read the instructions when everyone is seated.


Your proctor will remind you when there is only 5 minutes left for each test. There will only be a 10 minute break between the Mathematics and Reading section and between the Science and Writing (if you choose to offer it).


English


The English test is 45-minute, 75-question test. As Wikipedia nicely puts it, the test consists of 5 passages with various sections underlined on one side of the page and options to correct the underlined portions on the other side of the page. The difficulty is probably the same as the SAT. The English test also features questions at the end of each passage that would ask about the passage as a whole. These questions are indicated by a box telling you so.


Questions like these usually ask whether the passage would fulfil requirements of an essay on a certain topic, usually closely related. Of course the question setters are smart and what they did was to put two yes and two no options with different reasons attached to each for you to figure out! I felt that these were the questions that were slightly tricky.


Time management for the section was fine and I finished this part of the test fairly quickly with about 5-10 minutes to spare.


Mathematics


The Mathematics test is a 60-minute, 60-question test. Interestingly, this section of the ACT has 5 options instead of 4. The questions in this section are very doable and are indeed very easy. This makes for very little room for error.


Time management for this section was great and I was able to have 15 minutes to spare, during which I checked my answers over and over again!


Reading


The Reading test is a 35-minute, 40-question test. There are 4 passages of about 600-800 words each. The various passages cover prose fiction, social science, humanities and natural science. Now this is the section where things start to get quite difficult especially if you are not a fast reader. However, it might be interesting to note that the questions are actually quite simple! I do recall that one of the questions from the science section required me to extract information from the passage that appeared in one of the options almost verbatim.


Nevertheless, if you are planning to take the ACT, do try reading faster (with reasonable comprehension) in the run up to the test!


Time management for this section was actually rather bad and I felt that I was rushing through the passages in the middle because I was really worried that I would not have time for the remaining few passages.


Science


The Science test is a 35-minute, 40-question test. There are 7 passages with 5-7 questions each. The passages are not actually prose; they are more like charts and graphs. Each passage typically has 3 studies where there are different charts, tables, graphs, etc. Most of the questions require you to find the study the question asked for then extrapolate the info. I found this slightly challenging but if you are used to working with charts very often, this might prove to be easy as pie.


Time management is absolutely essential in this section. My experience with this section was similar to the Reading section.


Writing


The writing test is 30 minutes long. The essay prompt is usually something related to high school. Planning is essential for this part if not you might find yourself rambling on and on and on. The thing about the ACT writing prompt is that it is very difficult to give examples for high school experiences. I know that the SAT has prompts that you can quote real-life examples but for the ACT, it is quite possible to give anecdotal evidence.


Despite being optional, the Writing test is actually required by quite a few colleges. Hence, I would strongly recommend that you sign up for the Writing test as well. Some schools which list the Writing test as compulsory are shown below:


Harvard College
MIT
Yale
Princeton
Do check each college’s site for more details!


Differences between the ACT and SAT


Format
The most obvious difference is that the ACT has a science section. I figured that NUSHS is a math and science school, the ACT might be a good test to try out instead of the SAT!


Time
As I mentioned previously, time is really tight on the ACT. While on the SAT you can (sort of) sit back and relax, I found myself rushing for time on the ACT.


Scoring
The ACT is upon 36 and the SAT is upon 2400. Some say that it is easier to get a perfect score for the ACT than the SAT and this is true. You can get two 35s and still get a composite of 36.


Preparing


To prepare for the ACT test, I suggest obtaining a copy of The Real ACT. It’s available at Kinokuniya or you can purchase it online via bookdepository. According to some online sources, The Princeton Review also has pretty accurate prep for the ACT.


The most important part that I feel you need to prepare for is the time constraint for each section. Without a time limit, the questions look really easy. However, when panic sets in, they start to look harder. As with most exams, it is important to pace yourself.

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About the Author:
For reasons of privacy and that someone may identify her, the author of this article has chosen to remain anonymous. However, you may like to know that she goes to a school very near CC16 and will graduate next year.

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