ACT, which stands for ‘American College Testing’, is an exam based on measuring the knowledge and skills of high school graduate students who want to receive education at an academic level, just like the SAT. The ACT, which has been accepted by many universities and colleges, especially in the USA and Canada, is also valid in many different countries apart from these two.
The ACT exam, organised and put into practice for the first time in 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist, one of the well-known professors at the University of Iowa, is an alternative to the SAT exam. With the scores obtained in this exam (which can be taken by both American citizens and citizens of other countries), individuals have the right to apply to all universities in the United States and 225 universities outside the United States.
In this exam, which does not only measure language proficiency but also evaluates what high school education brings to the student, the reasoning abilities and problem-solving skills of the individuals are also tested. This exam is held 6 times a year, and these dates are called “National Test Days”. There are also selected exam centres in many countries for participants living outside the United States for this exam, where additional exam dates are determined as needed. Additional exams are held at designated university campuses and are subject to the control of officials appointed by the ACT during this process.
The exam has a total of 215 questions and is prepared in English, and of course, the student’s proficiency in this field is also considered. The term “Residual Testing” is also used for the ACT supplementary exams, which never coincide with the national exams whose dates are determined.
Who Can Take the ACT Exam?
The ACT is an exam that can be taken by students who have completed their high school education in their country and want to study at university, especially in the USA or Canada. It is specially designed to measure the ability of people in various fields. To take this exam, the following requirements must be met:
- Completing high school education,
- To register for the exam from the specified internet address,
- To deposit the required exam fee in the registration process,
- To have a printout of the exam document ready after the registration is completed.
It is essential for students who want to take the ACT exam to start preparing for the exam technique, especially from the 3rd grade of high school. There is no age limit specified in the application process for the exam. The centres where this exam is administered in Turkey are:
- Ankara Turkish American Association,
- Bursa TED College,
- Istanbul MEF Schools,
- Istanbul Austrian High School,
- Tarsus American High School,
- Antalya Marathon English Course,
- Izmir Gelisim High School and
- İzmir Işıkkent High School.
Students can get a score between 1 and 36 on this exam. For those who will register for the first time, the application for the exam is made through the official website.
During the exam preparation process, students can also follow the question types that came out in the previous periods from the online study programs. In addition to individual studies, there are also special ACT courses and group studies prepared for students. In addition, research on English content will also be beneficial for the exam.
ACT Exam Fee
ACT exam fees are set at $42.50 for the first 4 sections. The total exam fee is $59.50 for students who want to attend the 5th section where their writing skills are tested. In addition to the exam fees, there are additional fees that must be paid during this process for international students. In addition to this fee of $41, an additional $27.50 is charged for late applications submitted after the application deadline.
ACT Exam Content
Organised as a single session, the ACT exam consists of four difficult sections and an elective section. In the first four compulsory sections, students are asked questions about English, Mathematics, Reading and Science skills.
- Only students who wish can enter the writing section. This section, subject to an extra exam fee, is not compulsory for every university. In the exam, which is evaluated out of 36 points, scores of 24 points and above are considered successful.
The four main sections of the exam, which take a total of 2 hours and 55 minutes, are suitably completed in 40 minutes for the participating students. The writing section score is calculated separately from the total score and is evaluated between 1-12 points.
English Department
For the English section, which has 75 questions, the exam duration is 45 minutes. Here, theoretical and mechanical skills in the use of English are tested. With the questions prepared to test subjects such as sentence structure, punctuation marks, and language usage, students’ language command is measured. A lot of practice will be beneficial while preparing for this section.
Department of Mathematics
Students ‘ knowledge of plane geometry, coordinate geometry, trigonometry, and algebra are measured in the mathematics section, where 60 minutes are given for 60 questions. In this section, it is sufficient to have a complete command of the mathematics learned at the high school level and to be able to use the techniques correctly.
Reading Section
There are 40 questions in this section, and students are given 35 minutes to answer the questions. Selected passages in the reading section include literary narratives, prose fiction, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Skills such as speed reading, reading comprehension and interpretation are measured in this section.
Science department
This section, which is the last of the compulsory sections, consists of 40 questions and takes 35 minutes. During the period of this stage, paragraphs containing the contents of science are given to the students, and the questions that follow these paragraphs are asked. While the subjects are suitable for the high school curriculum, students’ ability to evaluate data analysis, their skills in finding experimental results, and their level of interpreting theoretical knowledge and contradictory perspectives are also measured in this section.
Writing Department
There are no questions in the non-compulsory writing section, and the score obtained in this is not included in the overall ACT score. In this section, students are asked to write an essay on a determined topic, and both their expression skills and writing skills are evaluated.
Things to Know About the ACT Exam
The ACT exam is a very convenient and comprehensive exam for those who want to start their 4-year university education in the USA, Canada or countries where the exam is valid. Mathematical knowledge forms the basis of this exam, and the curriculum is mainly prepared with multiple-choice questions. Students who do not get the desired score on the first attempt of this exam have the right to take the exam 12 times in total. Wrong answers given in the exam do not affect the number of correct answers. Exam results are evaluated in approximately 1 to 1.5 months and are announced on the institution’s official website.
What’s the Difference Between ACT and SAT?
Like the ACT exam, the SAT exam is a type of exam taken by students who want to study at universities in the United States. However, there are apparent differences between these two exams.
*The ACT exam is based on a more information-oriented basis than the SAT exam. While students’ English knowledge is measured in the SAT exam, the ACT exam puts this issue in later plans. From this point of view, it can be said that the SAT exam is more standardised. On the other hand, the ACT is an exam that includes questions that measure skills such as reading comprehension, interpretation, and graphic and table evaluation instead of rote-based questions.
*SAT is evaluated over 1600 points, while the ACT is evaluated over 36 points. The duration of the ACT exam is shorter than the longer-term SAT exam, and the questions are more suitable for students who are more successful in numerical courses and do not like long and tiring questions.
*The SAT exam is given 7 times a year and the score is based on the number of correct answers. While calculators are not allowed in the math section of the SAT, it is allowed for the ACT exam. Regarding math content, both the ACT and SAT place a great emphasis on algebra. However, the mathematics part of the ACT exam is more detailed. While a quarter of the score in the ACT exam comes from math, 50% of the total score in the SAT exam is accounted for by the math questions. In addition, evidence support questions form the reading part of the SAT exam, and all questions are arranged in chronological order; however, on the contrary, questions can flow randomly in the ACT exam and the places in the text are not expected to be found in order.
In summary, it can be said that the ACT exam is an exam that measures knowledge. The SAT exam measures the way of thinking and the ability of a student to interpret. In addition to these, there is a section that measures English vocabulary in the SAT exam.
