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Im nervous. Im VERY nervous.

Ive been practicing and studying my butt off this whole week... reviewing all algebra ive ever learned, trying to learn new trigonometry ive never learned, reviewing all that crap about chromozomes and genes.... reading and english im not scared about. Ive always been good with that (yeah yeah, i may not use the best english skills when I type, but if im having a real conversation with somebody.... i have superior english skills!)

But this science and math stuff is KILLING me ughhh...


...basically, I dont have much else to say. Im just ranting, and taking a break, and sharing with you all how stressed out I am. Plus, Im sure there are others of you who are also taking the ACT's soon as well, correct? Yes? hmm?

OOOOOOMg.

*bites his nails*

*bites his nails*

*bites his nails*

*bites his...... oh no.*

I have two words to say to you.

Don't fail.

That is all.

Just a question but what exactly is "ACT"?

The ACT is the American College Test, and it's used as a test for seniors who are going to college. The SAT is the one the majority of seniors take, but now the number of students taking either one is about the same.

I don't know. When I took my acts I did the best on science, but while actually taking the test I was certain I had bombed that section as I actually knew none of the answers. I guess you can't predict how it will go. I'm sure you'll do fine.

Don't freak out. Trigonometry is only a small portion of the maths exam, and the science test is mostly about having a knack for details and drawing conclusions. Considering that and the fact that reading and English are fine with you, you should be able to get a good score.

Is the SAT or the ACT considered harder?

..mainly because I plan on taking the SAT's in a few years as well

How old are you supposed to be when entering college?

cipher_text, I found the ACT(which I took this morning) much harder, but that's just me. Wait until I get my results, and my answer may change. But I did a lot more guessing on the ACT, especially on the Science part(what a nightmare THAT section was). The SAT is a "glorified grammar test" in the words of my English teacher, so it's tougher on word-related stuff, grammar, syntax, etc. and comprehension; the ACT has harder math and science. Much harder.
843, people entering college directly from high school are usually 18 or 19. Sometimes 17, if they've skipped a grade or if they were right close to the cutoff date. That's just the US though, and I know it's different in other places.

it's usually around 17-19 years of age. (it varies a bit by by where you live)

If that's so, then at what age do you take the ACT test?

By the way, I was 16 when I entered college here (UoL one though)

I'm 17, a junior in high school (born in December 88, will graduate in May 07, so I'll be 18 when I walk across that stage), and just took ACT yesterday. Here's the lowdown:
ENGLISH is a section wherein you read essays and sometimes stuff is underlined. Next to it are possible corrections if the grammar is wrong, or sometimes they throw in a "which of these options does NOT sound right?" to trip you up. Sometimes they also ask if a sentence should be deleted, moved around, or replaced. At the end of each essay they say "what if the writer wanted to write about (something), would this essay accomplish this?" and you say yes or no. That's it, repeated for about 4-5 essays on different topics (which sometimes can admittedly be interesting).

READING is a section where you read stuff and then answer questions about the content. Standardized tests start doing this sort of work in about the second/third grade, so everyone has been doing this for a LONG time by the time they meet ACT/SAT. Piece of cake, at least for me because I love reading.

MATH is a potent mixture of algebra, geometry, and small amounts of trigonometry. The trig is thrown in because they don't want everyone to get a perfect score. That's how all tests work--easy, medium, hard questions and they don't expect anyone to get a perfect.

SCIENCE is reading charts related to science stuff (chemical reactions, ecology, I got a really complicated part about planet rotations) and extrapolating certain data. Sometimes you have to speculate a little bit too.

Then there's the writing section, which just asks you to write an essay related to a certain prompt. Easy peasy.

The biggest difference, though, between ACT and SAT is thus:
The ACT does not penalize you for guessing.

"Well then, 10in2010," you might say. "Please elaborate!" And I will.

On all standardized tests, if you don't know the answer, you can guess and have a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right (or a 1 in 3 or 1 in 2 if you can eliminate the one ridiculous answer they generally throw in). However, on the SAT, if you guess wrong, points get deducted. The ACT works differently--only what you get RIGHT is scored. There's also a completely different scoring scale for the both of them: the SAT prefers 4-digit numbers and a perfect score is a 2400, the ACT prefers 2-digit numbers and a perfect score is 36.

My high school counselor recommends taking both because of that one big difference. The Board of Regents, who decides which minimum scores should be required for admission into any college here in Georgia, has minimum scores for both tests. The college I want to go to, Georgia State University, will take either test score as long as they include the writing part. I'm taking both tests, so I'll send in scores from both of them to the friendly folks of GSU admissions.

When registering for the tests themselves, you're prompted to give the names of a few colleges you want to receive your scores, so try to have a few potentials in mind before you start registering for tests. For example, I filled in Georgia State and University of Georgia, though now I don't want to go to UGA because they have a SERIOUS alcohol and drug problem on campus and there's nothing to do in Athens, the city UGA is in.

I'm taking the SAT in May.

I'm sorry if this reply is too long/irrelevant, but there's a lot of explaining to be done when it comes to standardized tests.

I took the ACT+Writing when I was 17 and a junior in highschool.

I thought it was pretty easy. The average score is about 20, I got 28. :-)

Don't stress out too much about the test.

To add onto 10in2010's post about the difference between ACT/SATS:

The ACT is used more prominently by colleges in the midwest, and the SATs are the preferred test for colleges along the coast.

So, you needn't worry about taking an SAT if you live in, say, Iowa and don't plan on going to California for college. Same can be said if you live in Florida and don't plan on going to Wisconsin for college, you wouldn't have to take the ACT.

I only took the ACT and I took it once, as opposed to multiple times.

Anyway, Weezel, judging from your posts, you seem intelligent enough and should fare just fine...

Well, I figure I'm already late considering it's past Saturday, but I figure I'll toss my two cents in.

From what I've heard/remembered, one unmentioned difference between the two tests that 10in2010 hinted at is that the SAT is "harder" (spend more time per question due to inferring/thinking out each one), while the ACT is "easier" (more questions, was told it tests how fast you can solve problems).

I've taken both myself. I took the SAT twice before giving the ACT a shot. After seeing the test and receiving scores from the reading and science sections though, I jumped ship back to the SAT. As for what age I took the ACT, I took it at 18 (senior year). I wouldn't recommend that though. lol

from reading some of the posts
I've come to believe that you should stick to whatever you were preparing for (in this case the SAT for me)

there goes my idea about gettin a good score over an easier test
and I have to start studying for the SAT's as well..

bye the way (why can't there be a forum section for educational purposes?
All we have so far is the homework help thread at the top. Wouldn't a whole forum section devoted to such things encourage people to be less shy and perhaps more motivated to ask questions and disucuss things like this.) Just saying my opinion.