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ACT Information
Register to take the ACT here.
Recommended ACT “Prep” Book: The Official ACT Prep Guide & Barron’s (great for an additional supplement)
General Information about ACT
The ACT (pronounced A-C-T), was formerly known as the American College Testing Program or American College Test, is a college entrance examination. It emerged in 1959, as a competitor to the College Board’s Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Many students who perform poorly on the SAT find that they perform better on the ACT because of the differences in the way the given questions are presented.

The ACT is more popular and widely used in the Midwest and Southeast United States. Recently, usage of the ACT by colleges has risen as a result of criticism of the effectiveness and fairness of the SAT.

Students who are more comfortable with reading/writing than math often prefer the ACT because extra weight is given to those sections. Also, there is no guessing penalty on the ACT.

The ACT was originally developed by the University of Iowa. ACT Incorporated, a non-profit organization, administers the test, as well as several other assessment tests.

The ACT comprises of four sections: Reading, Writing, Math, and Science Reasoning. You are given one score on each of the four sections. The final/composite score is calculated by the average of the scores on your 4 sections, the scores are tallied up and scaled from 1 to 36, 36 being the highest possible score. The national average ACT score is about 21.
Do all colleges accept ACT in place of SAT?
Most colleges (about 95%), look at ACT and SAT I: Reasoning Tests equally. It is usually just the highly competitive colleges which might not look at the two tests equally. For example, Princeton and University of Pennsylvania accepts the ACT, but they do say they prefer the SAT. Stanford also says they place more emphasize on the SAT then the ACT if submitted together.

Also In February 2005, an optional 30 minute essay was added to the ACT. Some colleges and universities may require the essay, therefore be sure to check with your school before you take the test.
Student’s Opinions
The ACT is stricter on time and it requires you to be speedy. The questions are easier but there are also many of them. The ACT’s emphasizes reading a lot. Unlike the SAT you are not forced to submit every score you receive. You may retake the ACT as many times are you wish, and your scores are reported separately for each test date. When you want to send your ACT scores to colleges, you can choose to send only the scores from your most successful test dates.
When should I take the ACT?
The ACT is offered in October, December, February, April, and June. Students usually take the ACT in the spring of their junior year and if needed, again in the fall of their senior year.

Many students however are now choosing to take their first ACT much earlier, which gives students more flexibility to retake the ACT more times or take the SAT I or SAT IIs: Subject Tests.