What skill does ACT measure?

Certification: Test Prep ACT - American College Testing

The ACT stands for “American College Testing”, is a standardized assessment test meant for senior secondary school. It is meant for the assessment of achievements and admissions in college in United States. It was started in 1959, making it a competitor for SAT (College Board’s Scholastic Aptitude Test). Originally ACT comprises of four exams Natural Sciences, Social Studies, Math’s and English. After in 1989 test for Social Studies was replaced by Reading test which had Social Studies as its part and Science Reasoning test replaces the Natural Sciences test, after the change paper focused more on problem solving skill of the students. The ACT is the common entrance test that the students have to take for admissions in colleges and university in Unites States.

Skills that ACT Measure

The ACT test tests the sis of the students that they earn during their high school. The skills comprises of subjects studied during their schooling. The subjects comprises of English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing. In the five subjects the fifth subject is optional. If you go for that you should give ACT Pus. Otherwise you will be giving ACT Standard test. But it is suggested that you should go for the ACT Pus test. Following are the details of the skills set that the test certifies to the colleges about the student.

• Engish the students who are appearing for the ACT, the ACT presumes that the student appearing have the fundamental knowledge of usage, grammar, punctuation, rhetorical skills, and diction. This means that you must be aware to form a sentence and how to differentiate between two that are quite confusing, like effect and affect, principle and principal. The test taker should be able to differentiate between adverbs and adjective, he/she should know the difference between semicolon and comma, he /she can use words in a sentence properly. The student requires knowing all these to qualify.
• Reading this section determines the ability of the student, how fast he can be in reading the passage and in answering the question that follows the passage. By the time you sit for the test your reading speed is set for a fixed time, which you cannot change. However this does not mean that you will not be able to improve your reading time and score. There are methods by which you can improve your reading speed and will be able to understand the passage better, and can answer the question faster.
• Mathematics this section requires the student to now the basic level of algebra, geometry, and arithmetic. If you have learnt algebra, geometry, and general math for two semesters, then you have the information to answer maximum number of questions in this section, but unfortunately the ACT also have questions on trigonometry, if you don’t know this part you don’t have to worry a lot about it, as the paper have very few question on this topic. But in case you have a little knowledge of trigonometry and want to guess the answer, go guess it, because it will not harm you, in case the chosen option is correct you score. So don’t ever stop yourself from guessing a question you don’t know how to solve.
• Science this section will be easy for you if you are good at reading the passage and answering the questions that follow. You don’t have to know anything specific to score good in this section. The paper may consist of passages from any area of science like it may be from physics, or chemistry, or biology or any other branch of science. The passage itself will have the every detail you need to answer the questions.
• Writing this section is optional for you; you may or may not do it. But if you want to succeed in your college you should go for this section. This section tests the writing skill of the student. The ACT added this section to test your ability, how you make your sentences, how you organize your thoughts, your vocabulary. Always remember they are not looking for perfect essay, they just want to have a look how able are you in writing an essay. You should go for this section if you applying for colleges which require an essay and if you are going for ACT plus, it is easy to say that you have all the necessary requirements.

So it means that the ACT is based on the curriculum of high school. The performance of the student on the ACT test determines his/her educational achievements. Precisely, it means that the ACT is responsible for measuring the curriculum which a student earns in his high school and should now before entering college or university. The scores of ACT test determine the rank of the student in their state. The percentile tells the student where they stand in their state and on national level. So the student should look for percentile score in the test not just the score. So getting a perfect score to get into the college of your dreams; you should study well in your high school. The coursework should be taken seriously. But to perform better you need to know the pattern of questions that you can have a detailed look on the ACT website. The site will guide you to its various tools that will help you sharpen your sis that you are weak at and you can make you stronger points more strong by studying at their portal. You should practice as much as you can, the site provides you sample questions, a new practice question is provided daily. So it’s you who have to work hard and have a good score others can only help you getting there.