The ACT test, started by the American College Testing Program (hence the acronym), is a standardized pencil-and-paper test used as a college entrance exam.
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What Is the ACT Test?
Colleges and universities use your ACT score, along with your GPA, extracurricular activities, and high school involvement to determine if they’d like you to grace their campus as a freshman.
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What Is the ACT Test?
You can take the test a zillion times if you’d like during your junior and senior years, but testing restrictions exist to keep you from having an unfair advantage over students who can’t do the same.
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Why Take the ACT Test?
Money, money, money.
Broke as a joke? The ACT test can garner you some serious coin for the college of your choice if you can earn an impressive score. And by impressive, I do not mean a 21.
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Why Take the ACT Test?
Your scores follow you around.
I’m not kidding. When you apply for your first entry-level job, your ACT score is going to be on your resume, because truthfully, your pizza delivery gig can’t showcase your reasoning ability like a 33 on the ACT can.
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Why Take the ACT Test?
It can balance a low GPA.
So maybe you hated World History, flunked it on purpose, and ruined that 4.0. That doesn’t mean you aren’t smart. Scoring high on the ACT can show off your brains when your GPA doesn’t.
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What’s On the ACT Test?
Never fear. You’ll not be required to rewrite the entire periodic table of elements, although Science is one of the subjects you’ll see. This test, although long, (3 hours and 45 minutes) basically measures reasoning and the stuff you learned in high school. Here’s the breakdown:
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What’s On the ACT Test?
English 75: 45 minutes Standard English and rhetorical skills
Mathematics 60: 60 minutes Math from grades 9 - 11