Test Info: ACT

Test Info

ACT

The ACT, developed and administered by ACT, Inc., is a standardized test accepted by every college and university in the United States. The test is divided into four sections: English, Mathematics, Reading, and Science. Each section is scored from 1 to 36, and the total score or composite is determined by a simple average of the four subsection scores. All four sections are entirely multiple-choice. Students are allotted 2 hours and 55 minutes to complete the exam.

The ACT offers an optional Writing section, in which students write a persuasive essay. The Essay is graded using a rubric with four dimensions which generates a scaled score of 2 to 12 points. The essay score is not combined with the other sections of the test. The optional Writing section is 40 minutes long.

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ACT:

English

  • Question types:

  • vocabulary, most conventions of English grammar including correct use of punctuation, modifiers, pronouns, verbs, and prepositions; writing style and rhetoric including word choice, paragraph organization, transitions, and achieving the author’s goal

  • Time alloted:

  • 45 minutes

  • Number of questions:

  • 75, all multiple-choice

Mathematics

  • Question types:

  • material from pre-algebra to pre-calculus including geometry, trigonometry, functions, number theory, probability, and measures of central tendency

  • Time alloted:

  • 60 minutes

  • Number of questions:

  • 60, all multiple-choice

Reading

  • Question types:

  • main idea, recall of details, sentence and paragraph function, meaning of a word in context, characterization, inference

  • Time alloted:

  • 35 minutes

  • Number of questions:

  • 40, all multiple choice, in four passages; as many as one passage may be two shorter texts in dialogue

Science

  • Question types:

  • data point identification, trend analysis, reasoning from data, interpolation or extrapolation, ordering, making a graph from data, comparing scientific viewpoints, scientific method, experimental set up

  • Time alloted:

  • 35 minutes

  • Number of questions:

  • 40, all multiple choice, in six to eight passages; exactly one passage will be two to four scientific perspectives in dialogue

Essay

  •  

  • Question types:

  •  
  • essay asking the student to analyze two to four short perspectives on an issue and explain and justify her own opinion in relation to at least one of the given perspectives
  •  

  • Time alloted:

  •  
  • 40 minutes
  •  

  • Number of questions:

  •  
  • one, free response