New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The final years of high school in the US are the most nerve-wracking ones. You are always in pursuit of managing your GPA while applying to colleges and on top of all that be able to give multiple tests that you have to perform well in. So you are always going to be busy with books piling up. You want to be able to secure your college and university admission and the best way to do so is with your ACT exam.
What is ACT?
In the United States, the system of a standardized examination is a way to evaluate a child's intelligence. American College Testing (Visit The Home Link) is primarily testing 3 subjects along with your Reading ability and the writing portion is optional. These subjects include English, Mathematics and Science. The students in the 11th or 12th grades being in the senior years of high school opt for this exam prior to applying for their college of choice. This enables them to submit their ACT scores with their application in order for a better chance of getting accepted.
The ACT test is generally 2 hours and 55 minutes long; however, if you choose the optional Writing part, you will have 3 hours and 35 minutes. The exam consists of sections and each segment comes with various amounts of questions. For Mathematics, there are 60 questions, for English, you have 75 questions, as for Reading and Science, the students should answer 40 questions each and 1 essay to write for the optional Writing section.
You will be marked from 1 (being the minimum) and 36 (being the maximum). You are marked on an average of the scores of each section of your exam. The average score most candidates manage to get is 20; therefore, anything above that is considered above average and will be considered better while applying to the college of your choice.
Preparation hints
Much like any tests, there are certain essentials that will be required for your ACT preparation. As you are being tested on your knowledge and capability to recall things previously learnt in high school, you need to be able to divide your course work for the test.
For the English, Mathematics and Science sections that involve actual studying, it may be beneficial to get some well-renowned ACT preparation books.These will help you practice with the additional help of some real exam format questions that give you a better understanding of how these questions will appear in the real ACT test. It will also offer a better chance of you scoring well. Another source you can easily consult for preparation of your ACT test is practicing the most commonly occurring concepts. In this way, you will be able to find a pattern in the exams and be able to work harder on what you feel you lack in.
The most crucial part of preparing for a test is timing. Break the stereotypical myth about "if you finish the earliest you know the most". Often the candidates are so concerned with working fast that they misread and misunderstand certain questions causing them to easily lose numerous marks. This causes you to make silly mistakes even when the answer was well within your understanding. So, it is greatly recommended that you take your entire time allotted for each section. If you have spare time by the end, utilize it to recheck your answers.
ACT or SAT?
It is important to remember that you do not require both the SAT and the ACT tests. The term alternative means that you can take either one and will be accepted accordingly. Although the two exams are pretty similar to each other as they are both nationally recognized, they have an optional Writing section and are both essential for most colleges in the United States. There are some differences however since both SAT and ACT are commonly accepted by all colleges and can get you into practically the same colleges that you wish. There isn't much of a difference when it comes to which one is better or worse.
Time difference
However, some differences remain. The SAT test is generally considered to be longer by the amount of questions than the ACT exam. Another difference is that they have different periods for their tests and sections. For instance, ACT lasts 2 hours and 55 minutes without the essay and 3 hours and 35 minutes with the essay included, although SAT is 3 hours long without the Writing section and 3 hours and 50 minutes with it. This also means that onepassing the ACT test will have comparatively less time for each question. On the other hand, people who pass SAT will have a little extra time.
Science section
ACT has one section entirely dedicated to Science while SAT does not have such a section choice. This is a controversy all by itself as not everyone has opted for sciences in their high school experience. Some may not even be good at this area or do not prefer to study it solely for the purpose of their ACT.
Math section
There is also no a calculator subsection in the SAT test whereas the ACT exam lets you use a calculator for all the math questions. This may not be as much of difficulty or as much of an advantage as most the questions can easily be done without using a calculator in both tests.
In the Math section, ACT focuses on algebra along with some minor math concepts whereas SAT only focuses on algebra. There are also a number of other math related differences that do differ these two tests from each other.
Conclusion
To conclude, there isn't a better or worse exam when it comes to appearing for one of these aptitude tests. These exams are for the sole purpose of predicting and testing the individual's concepts of recalling, learning and utilizing information they have learnt. Therefore, passing one of the tests is as beneficial for you like the other.
