ACT

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The ACT is an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities to make admissions decisions. It is a multiple-choice, pencil-and-paper test that measures a student's skills in five core areas: English, math, reading, science, and writing (optional).

  • WHY IS THE ACT IMPORTANT?

    Any student who wants to apply to a college or university in the United States will certainly need to take the SAT or ACT, since most require the student to submit test scores during the application process.

    In the process of admission, your ACT scores will be reviewed alongside your high school GPA, the classes you took in high school, letters of recommendation from teachers or mentors, extracurricular activities, admissions interviews, and personal statement.

    The ACT provides colleges with one common data point that can be used to compare all applicants. Overall, the higher you score on the ACT, the more options for attending and paying for college or universities will be available to you.

  • WHAT IS THE FORMAT
    OF THE ACT?

    The ACT is composed of four multiple-choice sections -English, Math, Reading, and Science- and one optional essay section -writing. Total testing time is 2 hours and 55 minutes for the ACT without writing and 3 hours and 35 minutes for the ACT with writing. The breakdown of each section is as follows.

    Section

    Number of Questions & Time Limit

    Content / Skills Covered

    Question Types

    English

    75 questions

    45 min.

    grammar & usage,

    punctuation,

    sentence structure,

    strategy,

    organization, and

    style

    four-choice, multiple-choice usage/mechanics

    and rhetorical skills questions

    Math

    60 questions

    60 min.

    pre-algebra,

    elementary algebra,

    intermediate algebra,

    coordinate geometry,

    plane geometry, and trigonometry

    five-choice, multiple-choice questions

    Reading

    40 questions

    35 min.

    reading

    comprehension of

    what is directly stated or implied

    four-choice, multiple-choice

    referring and

    reasoning questions

    Science

    40 questions

    35 min.

    interpretation,

    analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and

    problem solving

    four-choice, multiple-choice data representation,

    research summaries, and conflicting viewpoints

    questions

    Writing (optional)

    1 essay

    40 min.

    writing skills

    essay prompt

  • WHEN
    TO TAKE IT?

    Most high school students take the ACT, the SAT, or both during the spring of their junior year or fall of their senior year. It's important to leave time to re-take the test if you need to raise your score before you apply to college. You can see all the upcoming ACT dates on top of this page!

  • HOW IS IT
    SCORED?

    The ACT has four sections, sometimes called subject areas: English, Math, Reading, and Science. Each subject area is given a scaled score between 1 and 36. Those area scores are then averaged into your composite score, which also ranges between 1 and 36.

    So where do those scaled scores come from? The scaled scores from 1 to 36 are converted from your raw scores on each of the subject areas. Your raw score is simply the total number of questions you answer correctly in each section. There is no point deduction for wrong answers on the ACT.

HOW IS THE ACT DIFFERENT THAN THE SAT?

Achievement vs. aptitude

The most fundamental difference between the SAT and the ACT is one that involves the difference between aptitude and achievement. The SAT is primarily designed as an aptitude test. The SAT’s questions are designed in such a way that they show the student’s capacity to reason, to take in new knowledge, and to perform long-term in a collegiate academic environment. The SAT is not a measure of high school material learned or knowledge retained. The ACT, on the other hand, is considered to be an achievement test. The ACT is focused primarily on what a student has learned during their time in high school and how much of that information have been retained. The areas of the ACT extend well outside of basic mathematics and vocabulary. Students who take the ACT should be prepared to essentially complete a cumulative examination concerning their high school coursework.

Being rather abstract and hypothetical, the SAT’s questions ask the student how they would reason about a problem, how they would use their skills to find a solution to a complex question, and try to assess the student’s capacity for using skills to achieve positive outcomes. That is not how the ACT’s questions are structured. Instead, those questions are direct. They ask students about specific concepts that they learned and ask them to either identify or apply them. Students who do so successfully earn points for the question, while those questions answered incorrectly simply do not contribute to a final score.

Though used for the same purpose, the SAT and ACT have key differences that change which topics are addressed, how scores are calculated, and how questions are asked. The difference between the SAT and the ACT concerns aptitude versus achievement, and that means each test might work differently for each student who takes them.

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