The ACT
The ACT (American College Testing Program) is 3 hours and 35 minutes long and is composed of five sections: English, Math, Reading, Science, and an essay. The test is offered seven times per year, and most students take the test for the first time when they are in 11th grade.
English, Math, Reading, and Science are scored out of 36 points. Students receive a composite score out of 36 on the test as a whole, which represents the average of the scores on each section. Only .1% of test takers score a 36 in a given year. Median ACT scores typically range from 30 - 35 at premier universities and liberal arts colleges and from 25 to 32 at top state schools.
ENGLISH
Questions on the English test are broken into two general categories: grammar and style. Each short passage contains multiple underlined portions, and students are required to fix incorrect grammar, reorder sentences or paragraphs in the passage, or improve the style of the passage.
MATH
Math questions cover material from grades 7 to 11. The ACT Math section places a great deal of emphasis on mastering content. In addition to knowledge of general concepts such as coordinate geometry, polynomials, and exponents, students aiming for a top score in ACT Math will need to study less common topics such as matrix multiplication, logarithms, and trigonometric functions.
READING
The best way to improve on the Reading section is to read as much as possible! Students who are resistant to reading or who feel they don’t have time to read can focus on shorter articles from The New Yorker or The New York Times. They should ensure that they read a wide variety of material, from fiction, nonfiction, science, and technology to arts, business, and history.
SCIENCE
The ACT Science section has gained some notoriety for its difficulty, and many students prefer to take the SAT in order to avoid this section. However, ACT Science is essentially a reading section that focuses more heavily on the interpretation of charts and data. Unlike the SAT Chemistry, Biology, and Physics subject tests, ACT Science requires minimal outside knowledge of science. Its difficulty lies in understanding complex charts and working quickly within a short time limit.
The last section of the ACT is an optional 40-minute essay. We always recommend that your student takes the ACT with Writing – completing the essay is viewed favorably by colleges. The essay is given a score from 1 to 12 by two different graders, and the final score is the average of those two scores.