Preparing for College: How the ACT is Scored
One of the ordeals through which all college-bound students in America must pass is the ACT, which claims to summarize your readiness for college in a number between 1 and 36.
The ACT is divided into four multiple choice tests; additionally, there is an optional writing test. Each subject test is scored from 1 to 36 (with no fractional scores); all except science also have sub-scores indicating which subareas the student scored well or poorly in. The writing test is scored from 2 to 12, but this does not affect the composite score from the four multiple choice exams.
The four ACT subject tests are English, Math, Reading, and Science. The English test covers mechanics and rhetorical skills; 75 questions quiz the student on issues with five passages of text. This section takes 45 minutes. The math section, which takes a full hour, consists of 60 questions covering pre-algebra, elementary algebra, intermediate algebra, plane geometry, coordinate geometry, and elementary trig; this is the only section that allows calculators. In this section, there are five possible answers for each question rather than the four given for each other section. The remaining two tests each allow 35 minutes for 40 questions. The reading test measures reading comprehension, with four passages representing prose, social science, humanities, and natural science. The science section gives seven passages, each of which requires students to reason about the information provided; there are three data representation sections, three research summary sections, and a conflicting viewpoints section.
Finally, the optional writing section gives students 30 minutes to respond to a prompt. These are scored by hand by several readers on a scale of 1 to 6; if the readers’ scores differ by more than a point, then a senior reader resolves the dispute.
The average score varies from year to year as the test changes; originally the mean was 18, but as of 2009, the average composite score was 21.1. However, the test board tends to throw out results from states that test all students rather than only college-bound students.
