The ACT College Entrance Exam

You may not realize it, but the summer is basically over. In a few short days, kids will be returning to school and life will be returning to normal. If you are a typical parent of a high school student you know that in addition to solid grades, the second most important measuring stick for colleges in evaluating your son or daughter is, the college entrance exams. With both the ACT and SAT going through modifications in the last five years, your child's collegiate choices will dictate which test they need to take more than anything else. For those parents whose child will be taking the ACT test, this article is geared towards introducing you to the new ACT.

With four required sections and an additional section if chosen, the ACT College Entrance Exam focuses on critical thinking for college-ready high school students. The core of the test is to evaluate a high school student's ability to solve problems, draw conclusions, make inferences, and think analytically. As opposed to the old standard of read and recall, today's test is designed to assess a college-ready student's critical thinking and deductive reasoning skills.

The test revolves around the four required sections. The English section includes seventy-five questions that must be completed in forty-five minutes. The Math section has sixty questions to be finished in sixty minutes. The Reading section lasts thirty-five minutes and has forty-four questions in it. The Science Reasoning portion of the test has forty questions and last thirty-five minutes as well. For those students who are looking at schools that require a writing sample, students have the choice of taking the writing section which is composed of one essay that is to be finished in thirty minutes.

The English Section of the ACT

With a focus on evaluating a high school student's writing sills development, the English section is divided into two areas. Usage and mechanics is followed by rhetorical skills. In the usage and mechanics, students are tested on punctuation, grammar and usage, and sentence structure. As far as rhetorical skills go, students will be examined on writing strategy, organization, and style.

Students, who score well on the ACT, convey that they have an aptitude for writing structured, conventional sentences that are punctuated appropriately. With the rhetorical section, college-ready students need to be able to read a writing sample and evaluate if it is well-developed, organized, and consistent in style.

The English section of the ACT is made up of five passages between 300-350 words. The questions pull pieces of the writing sample out and question the accurateness of the portion. When the sample is wrong, the student is given four choices from which to replace the sample. Secondarily, the high school student must judge clarity, consistency, and effectiveness in the writing sample.

The Math Section of the ACT

With sixty questions from disciplines like algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, the Math section of the ACT does not test a college-ready student's ability to memorize formulas. Reasoning ability is what is being evaluated. The Math section's problems are presented in order of difficulty to ensure a student taking the ACT test gets to as many problems as possible. In each problem, you get five answers including the standard none of the above. Half of the problems require the high school student to perform a sequence of actions.

The test is comprised of fourteen questions involving pre-algebra. Elementary algebra has ten questions. Intermediate Algebra is tested in nine questions. Coordinate geometry is used in nine questions. In fourteen problems, plane geometry is the focus. And then there are four trigonometry questions to boot.

The Reading Section of the ACT

Looking to measure a college-ready student's aptitude to understand materials similar to those read in college classes, the Reading section of the ACT consists of four passages with about seven hundred and fifty words. Dealing with prose fiction, social studies, the humanities, and natural sciences, the Reading section of the ACT test, tests a student in a multitude of disciplines from short stories to biology and physics. The passages are excerpts from various mediums. To answer properly, a high school student needs to be able to determine main ideas, see cause-effect relationships, analyze order of events, and separate fact from fiction. The test will evaluate their ability to fully grasp the content and purpose of each passage.

The Science Reasoning Section of the ACT

The ACT exam's Science Reasoning Section €will measure a student's ability to think scientifically. They will look at data representations, research summaries, and conflicting viewpoints. The test will give them graphs, tables, related experiments, and alternative interpretations of views of related hypothesis to look at. Half of the questions will be set to determine the accuracy and validity of conclusions and hypothesis based on the information that is given. In others they will need to be able to draw conclusions or to check the understanding of the information that is given. Simple arithmetic and algebra may be needed during the portion though a calculator will not be allowed.

The Writing Section of the ACT

One of the additions to the ACT is the writing Section. While not required, college admissions staff highly recommends that students take the Writing Section of the ACT. Geared towards measuring a student's ability to plan and construct a clear, concise persuasive essay it will tell a college that they can think, organize ideas, express themselves, and use proper English.

With college just around the corner for many high school students, parents would be wise to get a jump on the days ahead. The ACT test and the SAT test are mandatory for every college in the US. It is much easier to take the test if you have prepared for the test. Do your child a favor, help them succeed by letting them attend a college examination prep course or visiting one of the websites with ACT sample tests on it. Doing well on these will give your son or daughter the confidence to do well when it is time to take the real one. When they do well, you do well too.