One Test to Rule Them All- The ACT and its impact

One Test to Rule Them All- The ACT and its impact

The ACT takes place tomorrow, and most Juniors are stressing out over the annual standardized college test. The Director of Guidance and Counseling for LPS, Greg Casel, shared some important information regarding the ACT.

“There is now a 30 minute writing prompt that is scored on a 1-12 scale, and the average is about a six on that scale. A 10 on that scale will put a student in the top 5%. The writing prompt will be taken by all LPS students this year,” Casel said.

However, the essay score will not affect students’ composite scores which are sent to colleges.

“ACT is used by colleges primarily as a predictor of success the freshman year of college. The scores range from 1-36, 36 being perfect, and every point is fairly significant. A 30 is the top 5%, a 21 is the national average, and a 25 is about the top 20% in the country,” Casel said.

Scoring well on the ACT could potentially save students a considerable amount of money during college.

“Colleges also use the test to help decided on merit scholarships, to determine a lot of their automatic scholarship. The test itself is an achievement test, which measures what a student has learned, as opposed to an IQ test, which focuses on aptitude,” Casel said.

Students always have the option of improving his or her score. A student may take the ACT as many times as they deem necessary.

“The second time students take the test, 60% improve their scores anywhere from 1-3 points without any additional test prep. Students should definitely take the ACT more than once,” Casel said.