What is the ACT? – Getting Help with Admissions

ACT or American College Testing is a standardised entrance test that becomes the basis for college admissions in the United States. Most of the colleges and universities use ACT exam to make admission decisions by filtering out the students on the basis of their scores. It is a multiple-choice test which is administered by ACT, Inc.

The basic purpose of the ACT test is to examine the readiness of a high school student for college. Also, the test helps in providing the colleges with one common data point on the basis of which they can compare all the applicants and filter out the ones who are apt for the admission.

After the ACT test, the respective college admissions officers will do the reviewing work of the standardised test scores along with the candidates’ high school GPA, the classes which they attended in the high school, extracurricular activities, letters of recommendation from teachers or mentors, personal essays and admissions interviews. After evaluating all of these aspects, the officers then finally list the candidates eligible for admission to a specific college or university. Although the importance of ACT scores varies from school to school, nevertheless, the higher a student scores in the ACT exam, the wider his options will be.

What are the subjects on the ACT?

If your child is planning on taking the next ACT exam, it is important to have an idea about the subjects which are included in it. The ACT test is used to evaluate the academic knowledge of the students; thus, it includes 4 sections which comprise of subjects such as English, Reading, Maths, and Science.

It is important to know that the ACT exam also comes with an optional 40-minute Writing Test. However, some colleges require that the candidate should complete the Writing Test and include the results in the score. Therefore, it is important to always be aware of the admission policy of colleges independently in which the student primarily might be interested.

How are students assessed?

ACT gives importance to the aspect if curriculum-based learning in the school, instead of focusing on raw aptitude. This is the reason they can include academic sections in it. The endurance of the individual is tested on the basis of the knowledge, as the exam stretches to 3 hours. For those who are taking the writing test, there would be 40 minutes extra to them. The test includes 215 multiple choice questions without any negative marking. This is the reason that intelligent guessing is very much recommended.

Coming to the number of questions and time limit for each section, English has 75 questions and should be completed in 45 minutes. The maths section has 60 questions and 60 minutes are assigned for it. The reading section has 40 questions to be completed in 35 minutes. The science section has 40 questions which are to be complete in 35 minutes, and for the writing test, 40 minutes are assigned to write one essay.

For the assessment of the student, the final call is made on the basis of the overall profile of the candidate, instead of just focusing on the ACT score. Thus a good score would demand a good result in ACT along with a good academic performance in the school. The score of the ACT will be calculated on the basis of the four sections. Every section will receive a score from 1-36. The final score would be the average of the 4 scores from the different sections of the ACT exam.

Helpful Tips to Consider

• Practising on the previous years’ test papers can be very effective. It helps the students get an idea about what kind of questions can be expected.
• Use practice tests to find out the area of improvement and give special emphasis on it.
• Plan on solving the questions within a specific time frame so that each question can be given attention. If you are confused about any, jump to the next question.
• Be careful while reading the questions.
• While you perform your test, make sure to keep checking the time in between.
• Keep a few minutes to guess all the questions about which you are not sure. There is no negative marking so it is recommended to fill in the answers to all the questions.
• If you are finished before time, consider rechecking your answers. It is possible that you might recall the right answer to a question you guessed.

Vnaya brings the way to online preparation for the ACT exam with the expert ACT tutors. To find out more about our ACT preparation help or to acquire the demo classes, contact Vnaya at +1 855 688 8867. Also send your query at .

Author bio

Michelle Smith is a Client Manager at Vnaya. She works on connecting the students with our expert tutors through which the students can work on improving their knowledge and can reach their academic goals. Also, she connects the students with the right tutor who can prove to be a great mentor for them. Helping the students best is something that makes her happy and that’s how she enjoys her job very much.

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