Introduction
What is ACT about?
- The ACT Test is a standardized test that measures a high school student’s academic skills and readiness for college by testing an individual knowledge.
- ACT tests your English, math, science, and writing skills. It was created using extensive research into expected high school abilities and necessary college expectations. It is all about setting you up for success in college.
- ACT is a test offered by a nonprofit organization, with the same name, ACT (American College Testing). This test is seen as one of the two major standard tests used in the United States for admission into colleges.
- The ACT test is also often taken by students in the US to determine whether they are "ready for college". Sometimes, regardless of whether they are going to college or not, states and individual school districts require all high school students to take the ACT, using it to assess the students' learning and/or the performance of schools. It is used a standard of determining the academic performance and/or excellence of individual students, or schools at large.
Science
The scientific information appears in one of three formats:
Four scores are reported for the science test: a total test score based on all 40 questions and three reporting category scores based on scientific knowledge, skills, and practices. The approximate percentage of the test devoted to each reporting category is:
graphic and tabular material similar to that found in science journals and texts. The questions associated with this format measure skills such as recognizing relationships among data in tables and graphs; interpolation and extrapolation; and translating tabular data into graphs.
This format provides descriptions of one or more related experiments. The questions focus on the design of the experiments and the interpretation of experimental results.
This format presents two or more explanations for the same scientific phenomena that, because they are based on differing premises or incomplete data, are inconsistent with one another. The questions focus on the understanding, analysis, and comparison of alternative viewpoints or hypotheses.
This category asks you to manipulate and analyze scientific data presented in scientific tables, graphs, and diagrams (e.g., recognize trends in data, translate tabular data into graphs, interpolate and extrapolate, and reason mathematically).
This category requires you to understand experimental tools, procedures, and design (e.g., identify controls and variables) and compare, extend, and modify experiments (e.g., predict the results of additional trials).
These questions ask you to judge the validity of scientific information and formulate conclusions and predictions based on that information (e.g., determine which explanation for a scientific phenomenon is supported by new findings).
Samples
Strategies
Before you begin answering a question, read the scientific material provided. It is important that you read the entire text and examine any tables, graphs, or figures. You may want to make notes about important ideas in your test booklet. Some of the information sets will describe experiments. You should consider the experimental design, including the controls and variables, because questions are likely to address this component of scientific research.
Some material will present conflicting viewpoints, and the questions will ask you to distinguish among them. It may be helpful for you to make notes summarizing each viewpoint next to that section in the test booklet.
ACT - Related Information
Introduction to ACT
ACT Test Day
ACT Preparation Tips
What is a Good ACT Score? – ACT Score Chart
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