ACT 2022 Exam

Table of Contents

ACT-American college test is a standardized test for high school students for getting into college admissions in USA. The ACT is a standardized test that admission officers use to compare applicants from different schools and different states. The test comprises four subjects: English, Math, Reading and Science. The ACT with Writing includes an additional 40-minutes writing test. ACT scores are acceptable by all the colleges in the US for Undergraduate admissions. At EETT we provide excellent ACT Training to aspiring students to ensure that they have a solid performance at the test.

The ACT is administered by the ACT, Incorporated. ACT full form is American College Testing. It is a standardized test that is required to be taken by students looking for admission in undergraduate schools based in the US and Canada. ACT exam has been developed to evaluate the written, mathematical, verbal and scientific skills of the candidates.

In 2015, ACT will begin to be offered as a computer-based test instead of the traditional paper-based test. The test syllabus, total score, and multiple choice format will not be affected by this change as only the test-taking format changes.

ACT Latest Updates

Many universities abroad are going test-optional as ACT is being canceled. What it means for students and whether this arrangement is here to stay?

ACT Registration

International students must register for ACT online only.

Register Online

If you plan to test at the Indian test centres, sign up online by creating an ACT Web account.
Choose a test date and test centre.
Create a student profile and complete the application request, submit the required documentation.
You will receive an immediate registration confirmation
Pay the exam fee through a credit/debit card or online funds transfer.
Registration deadlines are typically about three to four weeks before a test date.
Deadlines for late registration are typically about two to three weeks before the test date, and registering late will incur a late fee.

Admit Card

Candidates can download and print the admit card from the official website. The candidate must produce the admit card while appearing for the exam. When you receive your admission ticket, check it carefully to make sure your identifying information, address, and score recipients are correct.

Test Centers

The ACT exam is conducted at the test centres in the following cities. Please note that these cities have multiple test centres: Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Bangalore, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Dehradun, Fatehpur, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kodiakanal, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Mussoorie, New Delhi, Noida, Pune, and Vadodara.

ACT Eligibility

Since ACT is primarily for high school students, there are no particular eligibility criteria to appear for the ACT. People of all ages and grade levels are eligible to take the ACT.

ACT Fee

Fee Type	Description	Cost
Registration Fee	The basic fee for the ACT test	$150 (without writing)
Registration Fee with Writing	The writing fee is $16.50	$166.50 (with writing)
International Fees	Chargeable for Indian Students as you will be taking the test outside of US	$51
Late Fee	Charged if you register after the deadline but before the final late registration	$35
Waitlist Fee	Charged if you register after the late registration deadline	$51
Change Fee	Charged if you change the test date, test center, or test type	$35
Question and Answers Test Information Release (TIR) fee	Sends you the test questions and correct answers after the exam is complete so you can see what mistakes you made (optional)	$20

ACT Exam Pattern

The ACT provides four answer choices to questions in the English, Reading, and Science tests but five answer choices to questions in the Math test. The ACT has a unique feature in which the odd-numbered questions have answer choices labeled A through D or E, whereas the even-numbered questions have answer choice labeled F through J or K with the exclusion of I.
Each correct answer on the ACT gets you a raw point, and there is no penalty for wrong answers. A scale score ranging from 1-36 is computed for each test on the basis of the raw score secured in that test. The ACT also provides a STEM score and seven different sub-scores.

ACT exam pattern is as follows- four sections, namely, English, Math, Reading, and Science. There is an optional section which is called the Writing section, which has one 30-40 minute writing prompt that will define an issue, along with two points of view on that issue. Students are not scored on this section.

ACT Pattern

Here is the ACT paper pattern –

Subject	Duration	Subsections	Questions
English	45 minutes	Usage/Mechanics punctuation grammar and usage sentence structure Rhetorical Skills strategy organization style	75 Questions
Math	60 minutes	Pre-algebra Elementary algebra Intermediate algebra Coordinate geometry Plane geometry Trigonometry	60 multiple-choice questions
Reading	35 minutes	Four passages are given, each passage from different sections like social studies, natural science, fiction, and humanities	40 questions
Science	35 minutes	Data representation like graphs and tables Research summaries Conflicting viewpoints	40 questions
Optional writing test	40 minutes	One writing prompt
Total	3 hours and 35 minutes (excluding breaks)	4 sections (one optional)	215 question

Scoring in ACT

Each section of the ACT (English, Math, Reading, and Science) is scored on a 1 to 36 point scale. The composite score is the average of all four tests. Students taking the optional writing test will receive a writing score of that section ranging from 1 to 36. The writing score does not affect the composite score.

Here are the average ACT scores by sections –

English	20.3
Math	20.9
Reading	21.3
Science	20.8
Composite	21.0

ACT Score Validity – The ACT total scores are valid for five years after the testing year in which you tested.

ACT Results

ACT test results are typically released within eight weeks of the test administration and can be viewed online. If you took the ACT with writing, your writing scores will be posted online as soon as they are ready, which is normally two weeks after your general scores are out.

Important Dates

The ACT is conducted only a few times a year between September to July. You do not have the luxury of selecting an exam date suitable as per your convenience, which is the case with other exams. You need to plan your exam prep according to these test dates. These exams are scheduled to suit your application deadlines for the fall semester.

Points to remember:

Ideally, you are recommended to register for the exam two to three months before your choice of date for exam appearance.
It is safer to stick to early registration as you will have a set schedule to prepare for the exam accordingly.
If you consider taking coaching for exam preparation, the coaching institutes would also recommend you register at the earliest so that you have a wide window of time to prepare.

ACT Preparation Tips

There are two ways to prepare for the ACT: Self-Study and Coaching Classes. Both these options have unique benefits and none of the above can be considered better than the other. These two methods cannot be compared as they serve different audiences. Choice of method of study would depend upon the requirements and preferences of the exam takers.

Self-Study: If money is a consideration and one is quite confident of being able to prepare well without supervision, then self-study may be the better option to prepare for the ACT. You could save money on personal tuition and classes, but you need to keep in mind other factors too. To be able to study on your own effectively, you need a good resource of books and study material, along with motivation and self-discipline.

Coaching: If time is a constraint and you need professional guidance to ensure a competitive edge in exam preparation, then coaching classes are a better option. You will have access to a better resource of study material and will have a team of experts guiding you. Your time will be better managed as being regular to classes will become part of your routine. Moreover, being around other students preparing for the ACT will help you increase your motivation levels.

To choose the best method on how to prepare for ACT you first need to look at your criteria and decide accordingly. If you are confused and want to check whether or not you are ready to prepare o your own, you may refer to ACT Preparation Tips.

Practice Tests and Sample Papers

It is always better to prepare with the help of practice tests and sample papers. The step-by-step way to go about this would be:

Checking the syllabus thoroughly
Understanding the exam pattern
Making a preparation plan covering all the sections
Picking up some tests to practice
Referring to old samples papers to see how far you’ve reached

ACT Syllabus

The ACT exam syllabus covers Reading, Mathematics, English, and Science as mandatory. This exam, however, has an optional writing section as well. Given below is an idea of how the syllabus of the ACT exam goes –

English Section

Usage/Mechanics

Punctuation – These questions test your knowledge of the internal and ‘end of sentence’ punctuation, with a focus on the relationship of punctuation to meaning.
Grammar and Usage – These questions test your understanding of the agreement between pronoun and antecedent, between subject and verb, and between modifiers and the word modified; pronoun case; verb formation; idiomatic usage; and formation of comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs.
Sentence Structure – These questions test your understanding of relationships between and among clauses, shifts in construction, and placement of modifiers.

Rhetorical Skills

Strategy – These questions test how well you develop a topic by choosing appropriate expressions to an essay’s purpose and audience; judging the effect of adding, deleting, or revising supporting material; and testing the relevance of statements in context.
Organization – These questions test how well you organize ideas, as well as how you choose an effective opening, transitional, and closing sentence.
Style – These questions test how well you choose appropriate words and images, manage sentence elements, maintain the level of style and tone, and avoid ambiguous pronouns.

You May also like:

Mathematics Section

Pre-Algebra/Elementary Algebra

Pre-Algebra – These questions are based on operations like whole numbers, decimals, place value; square roots and approximations; fractions, and integers; the concept of exponents; scientific notation; linear equations in one variable; factors; ratio, proportion, and percent; absolute value and ordering numbers by value; data collection, representation, and interpretation; counting techniques and probability, and understanding descriptive statistics.
Elementary Algebra – These questions are based on evaluation of algebraic expressions, properties of exponents and square roots, understanding algebraic operations, using variables to express functional relationships, and solution of quadratic equations.

Intermediate Algebra/Coordinate Geometry

Intermediate Algebra – These questions are based on an understanding of rational and radical expressions, quadratic formula, sequences and patterns, absolute value equations and inequalities, systems of equations, functions, modeling, quadratic inequalities, matrices, complex numbers, and roots of polynomials.
Coordinate Geometry – These questions are based on graphing and relation between equations and graphs, including lines, points, polynomials, other curves, and circles; graphing inequalities; parallel and perpendicular lines; slope; distance; conics and midpoints.

Plane Geometry/Trigonometry

Plane Geometry – These questions are based on the properties and relations of plane figures, including relations and angles among perpendicular and parallel lines; properties of triangles, circles, rectangles, trapezoids, and parallelograms; transformations; the concept of proof and proof techniques; volume; and applications of geometry to three dimensions.
Trigonometry – These questions are based on understanding values and properties of trigonometric functions; trigonometric relations in right triangles; graphing trigonometric functions; use of trigonometric identities; modeling using trigonometric functions; and solving trigonometric equations.

Reading Section

Social Studies – These questions are based on passages in the areas of biography, anthropology, business, economics, psychology, history, archaeology, geography, political science, education, and sociology.
Natural Sciences- These questions are based on passages in the areas of meteorology, astronomy, biology, botany, natural history, ecology, geology, physics, medicine, microbiology, anatomy, physiology, technology, chemistry, and zoology.
Literary Narrative or Prose Fiction – These questions are based on passages from novels, memoirs, short stories, and personal essays. Questions in the Prose Fiction section are based on passages from novels and short stories.
Humanities – These questions are based on passages in the areas of art, dance, film, language, radio, literary criticism, philosophy, music, television, ethics, architecture, and theater.

Science Section

Data Representation – This section has Graphic and tabular material similar to those in science journals and texts. The questions associated with this format measure skills like graph reading, interpretation of the information presented in tables, and interpretation of scatter plots.
Research Summaries – This section provides descriptions of experiments. The questions focus on the design of experiments and the explanation of results.
Conflicting Viewpoints – This section presents several hypotheses or views that might be based on differing premises or incomplete data, and are inconsistent with one another. The questions focus on the analysis, understanding, and comparison of alternative hypotheses.

ACT Exam FAQs

Q. What all I can do with my ACT account?

A. You can do the following with your ACT account:

Register for ACT
View ACT scores
Send additional score reports
Register for the next test

Q. What registration changes can be done through the MyACT account?

A. Following changes can be done through the MyACT account:

Changing test date
Changing test location
Updation of personal details
Modifying college selection
Adding or removing the writing test

Q. How is the ACT scored?

A. Each of the ACT sections whether Reading, Math, English, and Science are scored on a range of 1-36. The scores of all the sections were then added together and divided by four to get the composite score.

Q. What is the duration of the ACT?

A. The ACT exam is 2 hours and 55 minutes long. If you add the optional writing section then add 30 minutes more. Then the total duration of ACT is 3 hours and 25 minutes after adding the writing section.

Q. When one should take the ACT?

A. Analyse the time you will take to prepare for the ACT and when you are planning to apply to colleges. Make sure you have the ACT score with you at the time of filling the application.

Q. What all I need to bring to the ACT test center?

A. Bring the following with you to the test center:

A valid photo ID
2 pencils (sharpened) with erasers
A calculator

Q. Can one skip the sections of the ACT?

A. No, candidates are allowed to skip the sections between the ACT.

Q. Is 7 a good ACT Writing score?

A. The ACT Writing test is scored between 2-12. 7 is an average writing score.

Q. When to retake the ACT?

A. Do not retake the ACT just for the sake of it, go for a retest if you are convinced that your score will improve. If your score is less than the targeted score, in that case you can retake the ACT after more preparation.

Q. What is an average ACT score 2022?

A. As per the data released by the ACT, 20.8 (out of 36) is the average composite score.

Q. What is the average ACT score for each section?

A. The average ACT score for each section is as follows: