No one could deny that standardized tests are one of the scariest parts of the college application process, and the ACT® is no exception. It’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed at first with how many things there are to think about and how much there is to remember. In this article you’ll find all the information you need to tackle the test: We’ll cover what the ACT® is, whether you should take the ACT®, how the it is scored, what the different sections are, and what you can do to start preparing now!

What is the ACT®?

The ACT® is a standardized test used by colleges in the US to assess the academic ability of high school students. By admitting you, a college is investing significant time and money into your development, and standardized tests are one way you can prove to the college that they are making the right decision.

Should You Take the ACT®?

If you are a college-bound senior, the answer is probably yes. Even though it costs about $40 to take the ACT® without the essay portion and $60 with the essay, it’s a good idea to take the test. Almost all colleges require you to take at least one standardized admissions test, and it’s also an excellent way to get on their radar screens. Many colleges will use the ACT® score as one factor to determine whether they will offer you any merit-based financial aid. There’s always the potential that if you don’t take the ACT®, you might be turning down free money!

Colleges only learn about your ACT® scores if you want them to. Once you take the ACT®, you can choose to send your score to four different colleges (included in the price). If you don’t take these free opportunities to send colleges your scores, you have to pay around $10-15 for each score you send.

Also, in registering for the ACT®, you’ll have the option to allow people to send information about you to colleges, who will then contact you by mail and email with things like informational packets and opportunities to connect with them. This does not mean that your scores get published. Your scores will only be sent to the four schools you designate.

But for many college-bound juniors and seniors, getting on those mailing lists can be an easy and free way to discover new schools that might fall through the cracks when searching for colleges online.

ACT® vs. SAT®: What’s the Difference?

The SAT® is also a standardized test, and lots of students wonder what’s the difference between the two. The short answer is that there isn’t really a difference. They are very similar in format (especially since the SAT® recently got restructured), and they perform the same function.

The long answer is that there are some regional differences in who takes the test, and there are some tiny differences in test content. Generally speaking, more high school seniors from the middle states of the US take the ACT®; more high school seniors from the coastal states take the SAT®.

As for differences in content, the SAT® is 5 minutes longer, the SAT® doesn’t have a Science section, and the SAT® Math section has some data analysis questions. Other than that, the only other differences are that the ACT® allows a calculator on all math questions (the SAT® doesn’t let you use it on some), and the score you receive for each test is on a different scale.

The final answer is that once you decide which colleges you want to apply to, check out their websites or contact an admissions counselor to see how much they want you to take the ACT®, the SAT®, the ACT® essay portion, the SAT® essay portion, or perhaps the SAT® Subject Tests.

If colleges don’t specify, or if they say that you can take either the SAT® or the ACT®, the best option is to take both. This doubles your chances for a good test score if you have an off day for one or the other. Also, if you earn a similar score for both the ACT® and the SAT®, this gives the colleges you are applying for that much more security that you are up for the challenge of college-level classes.

So now that you know what the ACT® is all about, it’s time to continue our ACT® review and talk about what the numbers mean.

How is the ACT® Scored?

The ACT® is scored on a 1 to 36-point scale. It’s pretty simple, at a base level: ACT® scores assign each of the four main sections a score from 1-36 (excluding the essay, which has a separate scoring system explained in the Writing section below). Then, you just average those four scores together to give you a composite score.

What this means is that being weaker in one subject and stronger in others isn’t going to ruin you. For example, if you’re more of a words-person than a numbers-person, and you get an 18 in Math, a 24 in Science, a 30 in Reading, and a 28 in English? That averages out to a 25, which falls right inside the range of acceptable scores for many colleges. However, admissions offices look kindly upon balanced scores, so work to improve your weaknesses as you study.

Keep in mind that the grade you get for each section, from 1-36, is not calculated like the grades you get in high school classes. For most high school classes, you receive scores at regular intervals based on how many questions you get correct: Usually getting 90-100% of the questions correct is an A, 80-89% is a B, etc. On the ACT® It’s slightly more complicated than that.

Let’s continue our ACT® review and take a look under the hood at how the ACT® scorers work their magic.

Under the Hood

For the ACT®, the score you get is normalized across everyone who takes the test. What this means is that it’s not just about how many questions you got right or wrong: it’s about how your score compares to the scores of the other test-takers.

For example, let’s imagine that for one section, every single person who takes the test gets at least five questions wrong, and most people get at least 15 questions wrong. This means that if one single person only got four questions wrong, they would have the top score. Even though they didn’t get all the questions correct, they still receive a perfect score of 36. But let’s say that on another test, lots of people got only one question wrong. In this case, for the perfect score of 36, you would need to get zero questions wrong.

So in the end, it’s not about how well you do, rather it’s about how well you do when compared to the other people who take the same test as you.

Some people believe that because of this, you should try to take the ACT® during an off-month when the fewest people are taking the test and competition is the lowest. But this is a tricky issue; it’s very hard to say that taking the test during one month or another is better. If all of the super-smart, super-ahead-of-the-game high school seniors took the ACT® during a slow month, then maybe they would all do worse because the competition was greater!

So don’t overthink it. Just remember that the general concept is that your ACT® scores are normalized, and the number you get is relative to how everyone else did. So what do the numbers really mean then? Let’s continue our ACT® review and take a closer look.

The Range of ACT® Scores

As was explained earlier in our ACT® review, your score is always a reflection of when you take the test. You might get a total of 20 questions wrong — 5 per section — and get a 32. Then, when you take the ACT® again six months later, you might get the exact same number of questions wrong, and get a 33. This is because the ACT® score is all about percentages.

The reason the ACT® scorers normalize the scores is that they are trying their best to provide an equal playing field. If you got a 27 on the ACT®, and your friend got a 28, this only means something if the scoring procedure was consistent when you took the test and when your friend took the test. If the score was just based on how many questions you both got correct, then maybe your friend did better just because the questions on his test were easier than the ones you answered.

So don’t worry! If you thought that one question was just impossible, everyone else who took the test with you probably thought so too. And if the question really was impossible, and you got it wrong? Everyone else probably got it wrong too. Normalized scores mean that you don’t have to be perfect: you just have to be better than most of the people who took the test at the same time you did.

So what’s the bottom line? If you get a score of 33 or higher, you’re in the 99^th percentile, meaning that you did better than 99% of the other test-takers. If you get a score somewhere between a 28 and a 32, you are in the top 10%. And scores from a 20 to a 28 put you in the top 50% of test-takers.

The national average is a 21, and the ACT® people design the test specifically so that most people get a 21. The range of ACT® scores accepted at different colleges can range widely, but the average score at most state schools is usually around 20-28. The average score for top schools in the nation can be as high as 30-32. Check out our Albert.io article on what’s a good ACT® score for more information, or check the websites of the schools you are interested in to see what scores they are looking for.

So now that you know what scores to shoot for let’s continue our ACT® review and dive into how you can get the score that you want. It starts by understanding each section of the ACT®, and how you can master them.

What are the Different ACT® Sections?

The ACT® has four main sections – English, Math, Reading, and Science – followed by an optional Writing section. Here is a basic overview of the five sections:

The test usually begins in the morning (think 8:00 AM early), and test-takers usually get a short break at the halfway point, after the first two sections. There is also a break before the Writing section begins so that people who will not be writing the essay can leave the testing area. Generally speaking, you will finish the test by about 12:30 PM or 1:30 PM, depending on if you include the Writing section.

So now that you know what you’re in for on test day let’s continue our ACT® review and take a closer look at what the ACT® sections actually consist of.

English

The English portion is always the first of the ACT® sections. With 75 multiple-choice questions to complete in 45 minutes, you only have 36 seconds per question, on average, so you’ll have to make sure your brain is working quickly even very early in the morning!

The English portion is laid out as a series of five passages. You will read each passage, and then answer questions about the passage. The questions concern two areas: Usage & Mechanics (things like punctuation, grammar, word usage, and sentence structure), and Rhetorical Skills (things like the organization and style of the writing).

Luckily, spelling and vocabulary are not tested on any of the multiple choice ACT® sections. Also, remember that the questions about grammar are always given in context: you will never be asked about a specific grammar rule in isolation.

Let’s take a look at what this means with a specific ACT® practice question for the English section:

In this ACT® practice question (adapted from ACT®.org), the grammar point at issue involves subject-verb agreement: “few times” (the subject) is plural, so the verb, (the present perfect of “give”), must also be plural. So the correct answer is (c), “have given.”

But notice that in this ACT® practice question, in order to answer the question, you don’t actually have to know any of the names of the grammar points involved. You can just see what sounds best.

Now let’s continue our ACT® review and take a look at the Math section.

Math

The Math section is the only of the ACT® sections where you get to use a calculator, so long as it’s a permitted type of calculator. But it’s important to note that a calculator is not required, meaning that every question can be answered without a calculator. So don’t worry too much if you forget your calculator on test day.

The Math section has 60 questions in 60 minutes – you can do the math for how many minutes you get per question!

From easiest to hardest, the Math portion covers Pre-Algebra (20-25% of questions), Elementary Algebra (15-20%), Intermediate Algebra (15-20%), Coordinate Geometry (15-20%), Plane Geometry (20-25%), and Trigonometry (5-10%). Because you have limited time, remember to skip the questions you get stuck on. You can come back to them later after you’ve answered all of the easier questions.

Let’s take a look at an ACT® practice question for the Math section.

For this ACT® practice question (adapted from ACT®.org), we start with the knowledge that if PS and QR are parallel, this means that the angles of their transversals (PQ and SR) must add up to 180 degrees. So if 70 + x must add up to 180 degrees, we know that x must be 110 degrees. So the correct answer is (d).

Now let’s continue our ACT® review and take a look at the reading section.

Reading

For some people, the Reading section may be the most time-sensitive of all of the four ACT® sections. Even though you get an average of around 53 seconds per question (with 40 questions in 35 minutes), you also have to read four lengthy passages. Do your best to read efficiently, and not to get distracted.

Unlike the English section, which focuses more on the details of writing, the Reading section is more “big picture.” It involves gaining a holistic understanding of the main ideas and structure of the passage, as well as integrating that knowledge between different texts.

Here is an ACT® practice question of the Reading section to help give you an idea:

In this ACT® practice question (adapted from ACT®.org), the most important thing to note is the word “except.” This means that you are looking for the idea that is not present in the paragraph. The answer is (d), which is included elsewhere in the longer passage from which the paragraph is taken.

Now let’s continue our ACT® review and take a look at the last of the required ACT® sections, the Science section.

Science

The ACT® sections for Science and Reading both give you the same length of time per question – 40 questions in 35 minutes for an average of 53 seconds per question. Also similar to the Reading section, the Science section contains a significant amount of reading and re-reading. Questions will be based on a set of 7 short passages that may include figures, graphs, charts, and other forms of scientific data.

Your job on the Science ACT® section is to read the passages and interpret the data in a timely fashion, and then answer questions. It’s important to note that you are not tested on any sort of scientific knowledge. Instead, you are tested on your science skills, including interpreting scientific data and problem-solving.

Let’s see what we mean by taking a look at a sample ACT® practice question.

In this ACT® practice question (adapted from ACT®.org), the first step is to orient yourself to the information expressed in the graph. Once you locate the topmost dotted line, representing rock salt, then all you have to do is to follow that line horizontally over to the temperature of 500°C.

However, since the graph only shows values up to 400°C, you must extrapolate which value the line would be closest to among the four options listed. Given how the slope of the rock salt line seems to become less and less steep, and given how the line seems to approach the value of 2.0 W/m°C, the correct answer is (b).

Now that you’ve got an idea for the four main ACT® sections let’s continue our ACT® review and take a look at the last remaining section – the Writing section.

Writing Scoring

The essay portion of the ACT® is the only one of the ACT® sections that is optional. The purpose of the Writing section is to give you an opportunity to show colleges how well you can construct an essay in 40 minutes.

Many colleges do not require this section because they would rather evaluate your writing themselves in your admissions essays. Another reason it’s optional is that it is much more labor-intensive for ACT® scorers to grade handwritten essays than it is to score multiple-choice questions. This is why taking the ACT® with the essay costs more than taking it without. The Writing section is optional, then, because the ACT® people don’t want to force you to pay extra for something you might not need.

It is a good idea to do the optional essay, though, just in case one of the colleges you want to apply to does require it. It would be even more expensive to have to take the entire ACT® again just because you didn’t write the essay!

The Writing section is graded slightly differently than the other ACT® sections. As of September 2015, the ACT® Writing section is graded on a 1-36 scale. But unlike other sections, your score on the essay is then combined with your English and Writing section scores to give a composite language score.

Your essay is scored by two independent raters, who will judge your writing based on four criteria: ideas and analysis, development and support, organization, and language use and conventions. Each rater gives you a score from 1-6 on each of these four areas, combining for an overall score from 4-24. The scores from the two raters are then combined, giving you a total score ranging from 8-48.

This final score for the essay is then converted to a 1-36 scale, and the three scores for English, Reading, and Writing are then averaged together, giving you a composite score from 1-36 for English Language Arts (ELA). This ELA score is the score that will be sent to colleges.

So now that you’re familiar with how the Writing section is scored let’s take a look at what you will actually be writing.

Writing Content

There is a wide variety of different ACT® Writing section prompts, but they are generally laid out in the same way. The prompt will describe an issue, and then offer three different perspectives on that issue. You will then write an essay that develops your own perspective on the issue (which should be separate from the three perspectives listed). Finally, you must connect your perspective to at least one of the three perspectives listed on the prompt, and write about how they are similar and different.

It’s crucial to take some time before you start writing to plan and organize your essay, and identify connections between the various perspectives. Sample essay prompts are available on the ACT® website. The website also includes real example essays that received each of the different possible scores, and explanations for why those essays received the score they did.

And that’s it! That’s all you need to know about the different ACT® sections. Now it’s time to tie it all together, and think about what the ACT® means for you and what you should do next.

What Does Your ACT® Score Mean?

So now that you understand the various sections of the ACT®, it’s time to focus up and think hard about what you have to do.

Most importantly, before anything else, remember that your ACT® score is not a reflection on you as a person. The score doesn’t define who you are.

As we talked about in the scoring section above, remember that scores you receive on the ACT® are always a percentage. This means that even if you got a score in the 30^th percentile, you still did better than 30% of the population of high school seniors who took the test. That’s probably at least 100,000 students!

Your score is one important way to show colleges that you’re ready to take on the challenge of college-level academics. But it’s not the only way! The classes you took in high school, the way you express yourself in your college application essays, the way recommenders portray you in their letters, and the way you present yourself in a personal interview all speak just as loudly about who you are as does your ACT® score. And all of these factors together inform the college’s decision about whether to accept you into their class.

And finally, remember: If you’re not happy with your score, you can always take it again! It’s exceedingly common to take the test more than once; all the best test-takers do. You’ll be better prepared the second time around; you’ll know what it’s like to be in that high-pressure situation, and you’ll have learned a lot.

Quick ACT® Review

•  The ACT® is one of the two primary college readiness tests, and is one important component of college applications.

•  It’s generally a good idea to take the ACT®, though it doesn’t much matter if you take the ACT® or the SAT®. Taking both is probably the best option.

•  The ACT® gives you a score from 1-36 that is normalized, meaning it reflects how well you did relative to other test-takers.

•  There are four sections to the ACT® – English, Math, Reading, and Science – as well as an optional Writing section. (It’s a good idea to write the essay!)

•  Your ACT® score does not define you, and it’s not the only thing colleges look at to determine whether they will accept you into their school.

Next Steps

Practice, practice, practice! You can find a host of ACT® practice questions here on Albert.io, as well as tips, tricks, and study plans around the Albert blog.

There’s no substitute for taking the time to do ACT® practice questions and even taking a full-length practice ACT® or two. But even beyond this ACT® review we’ve got you covered here on Albert.io with all the support you need to take on the challenge that is the ACT®. You’ll do great!

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