<p>I heard a lot of people talking about how the ACT is slowly becoming more and more challenging every time because more people are taking it and they don't want so many people to have such high scores. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I think ACT is concerned about shaking the reputation of being an easier test than the SAT. Perhaps the test is just not as well standardized as the SAT and will naturally vary in difficulty. I don’t see how they can maintain a level of diffficulty without experimental sections.</p>
<p>What! That’s not fair, September 21st is my last chance to take it before early decision and second to last for regular. Seriously though, if they do, do that they should at least tell the colleges to give an extra point or two to people who took it later.</p>
<p>And I also think if they did do that a team of lawyers would hunt them down.</p>
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<p>Just a couple of years ago, you wouldn’t be able to even apply to most colleges with just an ACT. What are you complaining about?</p>
<p>@aznskydragon</p>
<p>You can take the ACT in September and October for early decision, and you can take it December as well for regular decision.
You can take the SAT up to January for RD and Nov. for ED.</p>
<p>***The deadlines were derived from Princeton’s application process. This does not apply to all schools, but it’s a good guideline</p>
<p>if you take Oct ACT how would it be good for ED as most colleges the application deadline is Nov 1st. It takes 3-5 weeks for ACT to send reports. Is this understanding correct?</p>
<p>Even for schools with deadline on November 1st, many accept scores by 11/15 or later.</p>
<p>Cal Poly said we should have our standardized testing done BY October and I’m not taking risks.</p>
<p>Even if it is getting harder, it will be harder for everyone. All the scores are still going to be based off the same bell curve so it wont matter too much. It would make it harder to study for if the older tests are significantly easier.</p>
<p>I actually think the ACT score is getting slightly higher.</p>
<p>The average when my parents were in high school was 17 or so. I think kids are aiming for higher scores and the act is obviously going to increase their standards because they can’t have everyone getting 36’s!</p>
<p>They really need to adjust the scores so each subsequent time you take it, the top possible score goes down. The scores are much higher than they were when I took it, many years ago. There was an adjustment made in the 90s that made it easier (or the scoring higher). It used to be nearly impossible to get a 36. Any score in the 30s was considered a fantastic score.</p>
<p>My 12-year-old just got a 25 Composite with no prep or practice. 2 points higher than his brother who is a NMF did at the same age.</p>
<p>No, ACT is not getting harder.</p>
<p>Just to let you know: the test dates in December, February and April are re-released tests. For example, the February form 72A test was also given in October 2012. Call and verify with ACT. I did. </p>
<p>I don’t really think they are getting harder, but maybe it’s just me. I know the reading section was changed a little between 2012 and 2013. </p>
<p>The scores are going up as others mentioned, probably because more emphasis is put on these tests than in days past.</p>
<p>My mom says she got a 29 when she took it a long time ago. The maximum score was not even 36 back then.</p>
<p>If anything, I think the test has actually gotten easier. </p>
<p>The number of perfect 36’s has increased from 74 out of 959,000+ in 1997 to 1162 out of 1.799 million test takers in 2013. The percentage increase went from .0077% to .06% scoring a perfect 36 representing an 837% increase in flawless results. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t be surprised if they are attempting to counter this trend. At the same time, you would think that the integrity of the tests wouldn’t need to have more complex questions if it’s testing a true “standard set of ideas/concepts.” </p>
<p>Got a 33 with no prep taking it in Feb… I think it’s pretty easy</p>
<p>Ctesiphon, I am pretty sure it has been scaled to 36 since the inception, and it was 36 when I got my 31 back in 1988. And I believe that the main reason the perfect scores have been going up is twofold. Traditionally, only Southern and Midwestern schools that tended to be less selective accepted the ACT. Any student wanting to go West or East coast (read Ivy type schools) had to take the SAT exclusively. Those kind of students are now taking the ACT instead. The other reason is that the ACT technically is a test that is easier to study for because of the content areas and how it is written. The SAT is more of a logic/reasoning test and is less a study of taught knowledge. And like hkkid2014 said, I would not be surprised if they are attempting to slow this trend. My own child felt the two times she took it last year were more difficult than what she took in Spring the year before.</p>
<p>The ACT is undergoing some changes.</p>
<p>Reading
Literary Narrative (25%) OR Prose Fiction (25%). Literary Narrative is a broad category incorporating both prose fiction and literary non-fiction such as memoirs and personal essays. Each containing one long or TWO shorter prose passages that are representative of the level and type of reading required in first-year college courses.</p>
<p>Math
Pre Algebra: Includes simple probability; data collection, representation, and interpretation; and understanding simple descriptive statistics.</p>
<p>If anything, the ACT has gotten easier over time, as people seemed to have found a multitude of proven ways to significantly improve their test scores.</p>
<p>I’m only 23, so it was just back in 2008 when a 30 overall composite was a 97th percentile. Now, it’s only a 94-95 percentile. From what I’ve seen, some State Us have responded by increasing their ACT score requirements for scholarships. </p>
<p>Given the recent changes to the actual ACT exam, it seems that the ACT testmakers are trying to either make it more difficult by a) having a harder test in general or b) slightly vary its content from test to test, resulting in more unpredictability and therefore more difficulty in preparing and knowing everything there is to know going into the exam due to increased breadth and a degree of uncertainty… </p>
<p>I think the best way to sum it up is that we all knew what we knew regarding the ACT. Moving forward, however, we may know about what potential changes the ACT has made to the exam, but we may <em>not</em> know precisely what the structure of a given subtest will be. For example, we’ve always known there will be a Prose, Social Science, Arts/Humanities, and Natural Science section on the Reading subtest, but now we know that there may be a compare/contrast section on the Reading. Will it be one way or the other every time going forward? I don’t know.</p>
<p>A shift from “known knowns” to “known unknowns”, in other words. I’m only speculating, though, and attempting to put myself inside the minds of the ACT testmakers. </p>