The ACT (American College Testing) is the most popular test among 11th and 12th graders across the nation. Students take this exam for many reasons, such as to improve college applications and better their chances of receiving scholarships.
The ACT measures how well a student is likely to perform during their freshman year of college. The test is scored on a 1-36 scale with 36 being the highest possible score. Within three hours, students are tested on four subjects: English, math, reading and science. If desired, there is an additional writing test with one prompt and 40 minutes to write an essay.
When the ACT was introduced in 1959, students’ scores had little importance or meaning.
Big changes will be coming to the exam in 2025. For the first time, the science portion will be optional. This allows students who do not plan on using science in college an opportunity to remove it from their scores. This will not change the grading scale and the composite score will now consider only English, reading and math.
Many students have the option to take the PreACT prior to taking the ACT. The structure is set up to mirror the actual exam, however the PreACT is cheaper and shorter. Even though there are plenty of practice tests online, PreACT helps students practice in an environment that they will experience on test day.
As the ACT has grown in significance, so has the industry specializing in test preparation. . Today, there are hundreds of online courses and practice exams to help students prepare. Most of these resources require payment., For example, one of the most expensive options is one-on-one tutoring, with prices ranging from $8,000 to $1,600 (Prep Scholar) However, there are cheaper options for test preparation such as “The Official ACT Prep Book”, which can be found for about $40 on Amazon. Some students also opt to rely on prior knowledge from their classes at school. Individuals choose their preparation method based on what works best for them. Marissa Becker (she/her), 12, discusses how she is changing her approach to studying for her second time taking the test..
“I actually have the textbook this time, so I’ll be able to use the textbook while I’m studying. I think it definitely will help, just like how studying for a test at school would help you. [My test] is in exactly one month so I’ll be studying each day until the test day, for probably about two hours.”
Recently, due to COVID-19, the ACT was reporting lower scores caused by students struggling with online learning. This led colleges across the US to start considering whether requiring exam scores during applications was fair for students, with certain colleges and universities removing their testing requirements. As time passes and the pandemic has less of an impact on current test scores, the number of schools disregarding scores is decreasing. Currently, there are over 2,000 schools that don’t require scores, as stated by SRG.
Another strategy that colleges are now using is the concept of a superscore, which benefits students who have taken the ACT more than once. A superscore takes the highest score of each subject between all tests and combines them to create a new score on the same 1-36 scale.
Only time will tell what effect these changes will have on future test takers.
