Preparation for College Admissions Exams: Comparing the SAT and ACT and What They Measure

Preparation for College Admissions Exams: Comparing the SAT and ACT and What They Measure
Educational Resource Information Center (U.S. Department of Education)

The ACT

The ACT exam, developed and administered by ACT Inc., consists of four principal test sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science. The 215 multiple-choice items across these sections are administered over the course of four hours. Recently, ACT Inc. has also made a writing section available; this section includes one open-ended essay response which adds an additional 30 minutes of testing time. Scores for students taking the writing section are incorporated into an overall English/Writing test score. Test scores are provided for each ACT test section along with a single composite score (computed as the average across sections). The ACT score scale ranges from one to 36 with increments of one. The standard error of measurement associated with test scores range between 1.5 and two points on the individual sections, with a standard error of measurement of about one point associated with the composite score. When ACT scores are reported to students and colleges, they include both scale scores and the expression of those scores as a percentile rank relative to the national distribution of test-takers. As of 2008, the cost of taking the ACT without the writing section was $31; the cost with the writing section was $46. The mean composite score for roughly 1.4 million students taking the ACT in 2008 was 21.1.

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