ACT (test)
The American College Testing Program, which is now officially the ACT (pronounced A.C.T.)) is a college-entrance examination that emerged in 1959 as a competitor to the Educational Testing Service's Scholastic Aptitude Test (now Scholastic Achievement Test or SAT). In contrast with the SAT, the ACT is more oriented to knowledge content (facts), rather than vocabulary and analogies. It includes a Science, Math, Reading, and English portions, and thus is more analogous with the SAT II or subject exams.
The ACT is more widely used in the midwest and southeast United States, while the SAT is more popular in the northeast and west coasts. Usage of the ACT by colleges has risen as a result of various criticisms of the effectiveness and fairness of the SAT.
In some states, the ACT is taken by all high school students as a standard to measure schools and the students, in others it is an optional test for college acceptance.
The ACT was developed by the University of Iowa and is an outgrowth of the Iowa Tests of Education Development. ACT incorporated, a not-for-profit organization based in Iowa City, Iowa now administrates the test, as well as several other assessment tests in other fields.
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