The ACT ® test motivates students to perform to their best ability. Test scores reflect what students have learned throughout high school and provide colleges and universities with excellent information for recruiting, advising, placement, and retention.
Many times, students who are not considering higher education rethink their plans when they see their ACT test results. This is especially true for underrepresented students. To support college and career planning, the ACT also offers a career exploration component to help students identify career options.
The ACT test is designed for the 10th, 11th, and/or 12th grade levels to provide schools and districts with the data necessary to position students for success after high school.
Did You Know?
The standards are empirically derived descriptions of the essential skills and knowledge students need to become ready for college and career, giving clear meaning to test scores and serving as a link between what students have learned and what they are ready to learn next.
When students take the ACT test, high school educators and counselors receive valuable information for guidance and curriculum development. K-12 professionals use ACT reports to:
This handbook offers educators the most comprehensive information for K-12 professionals about the ACT test. In addition to detailed information about updates to the test, accommodations, and reports, the handbook offers helpful tips about:
The ACT contains four multiple-choice tests—English, mathematics, reading, and science—and an optional writing test. These tests are designed to measure skills that are most important for success in postsecondary education and that are acquired in secondary education. The score range for each of the four multiple-choice tests is 1–36. The Composite score is the average of the four test scores rounded to the nearest whole number.
The ACT English test puts an examinee in the position of a writer who makes decisions to revise and edit a text. Short texts and essays in different genres provide a variety of rhetorical situations. Passages are chosen for their appropriateness in assessing writing and language skills and to reflect students’ interests and experiences.
The ACT mathematics test assesses the skills students typically acquire in courses taken through grade 11. The material covered on the test emphasizes the major content areas that are prerequisites to successful performance in entry-level courses in college mathematics. Knowledge of basic formulas and computational skills are assumed as background for the problems, but recall of complex formulas and extensive computation are not required.
The ACT reading test measures the ability to read closely, reason logically about texts using evidence, and integrate information from multiple sources. The test questions focus on the mutually supportive skills that readers must bring to bear in studying written materials across a range of subject areas. Specifically, questions will ask you to determine main ideas; locate and interpret significant details; understand sequences of events; make comparisons; comprehend cause-effect relationships; determine the meaning of context-dependent words, phrases, and statements; draw generalizations; analyze the author’s or narrator’s voice and method; analyze claims and evidence in arguments; and integrate information from multiple texts.
The ACT science test measures the interpretation, analysis, evaluation, reasoning, and problem-solving skills required in the natural sciences. The test presents several authentic scientific scenarios, each followed by a number of multiple-choice test questions. The content of the test includes biology, chemistry, Earth/space sciences (e.g., geology, astronomy, and meteorology), and physics. The questions require you to recognize and understand the basic features of, and concepts related to, the provided information; to examine critically the relationship between the information provided and the conclusions drawn or hypotheses developed; and to generalize from given information to gain new information, draw conclusions, or make predictions.
The optional ACT writing test is an essay test that measures writing skills taught in high school English classes and entry level college composition courses. The test consists of one writing prompt that describes a complex issue and provides three different perspectives on the issue. You are asked to read the prompt and write an essay in which you develop your own perspective on the issue. Your essay must analyze the relationship between your own perspective and one or more other perspectives. You may adopt one of the perspectives given in the prompt as your own, or you may introduce one that is completely different from those given.
Complete information about the ACT test is available in the technical manual.
The ACT High School Report provides comprehensive information about a student's needs, interests, background, and abilities. The report includes the following sections:
You can also see the questions that students answer when they register to take the ACT test:
For training on how to use data from the ACT test for advising and curriculum development, see the list of available videos, webinars, and workshops that ACT offers.
Data from the ACT High School Report are available in ASCII flat file format, delivered online for high schools and districts to import into any system set up to receive the data. Records are available on demand as scores are released. Data is also provided for the current testing year as well as three previous testing years.
The current High School Record Layout (xlsx) is the key to interpreting the file you receive from ACT. It identifies location, field name, and field content for each data element.
Help your students do their best on test day!
ACT offers numerous ways for students to prepare for test day, including:
Help your students prepare for the ACT test. The same research and expertise that has made the ACT test the most widely used college entrance exam in the nation was used to develop ACT Online Prep. Benefits of the program for schools and districts include:
Please note that ACT test preparation materials are copyrighted and may not be copied or distributed without ACT's prior written permission.
Purchase ACT Online Prep annual licenses for students in your school or district. Discounts are available for GEAR UP organizations and schools with more than 50% free and reduced lunch students.
After your order is processed, each school-level administrator will receive an email from ACT that includes a quick-start guide and instructions for activating their account. The administrator can then upload students, assign instructors, and create classrooms.