Is the act september date a good time to take the act; this will be after a whole summer’s worth of studying for test-outs and the act. I heard somewhere that the September test is harder because most people who take it have been studying during the summer, and therefore perform better. Is this true?
If you can prep all summer, take the Sept test.
The “curve” is not at all based on the test takers. It is predetermined to ensure the level of difficulty is consistent between tests.
ACT has many tests and uses them multiple times, e.g., a test given 5 years ago in Feb could possibly show up as one in Sep this year. ACT does not follow a same time period of the year for those tests, i.e., the test you take in Sep could easily have been one from Oct, Dec, Feb, or June from prior years. Also, what you score on the ACT does not depend on how well the test takers from the given test date do. What is necessary to score any particular score on the 36 scale is determined by how test-takers did on tests in the years before you take it and when you sit down to take the test the number correct you need to score 36, 35, etc. is predetermined.
What ACT does have are some tests that are deemed a little bit harder (or easier) or may have sections that are deemed a little harder (or easier) than like sections in other tests and thus to have scores from all tests be comparable, the number of correct answers needed to get a particular score on the 36 scale on a test or section can vary a little from test to test. Thus it is possible to get a test in Sep that may be a little more difficult than ones given on other dates but the probability of that happening is the same for every test date.
@drusba Is there anyway to figure out the curve after taking the test?
I have seen articles on and once talked to a former ACT statistician a number of years ago on the math used to equalize and determine scale scores. However, you cannot know the number of correct answers needed to score any particular score on the 36 scale on a test until after scores are released and you learn your raw and scale scores and many others. ACT some years ago put out a raw to scale score chart for one test as an example which I found on another site:
http://mindfish.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ACT_score_chart.png-550x0.png That is an interesting example because it is one the tests that ACT has for which it is impossible to score 35, 33, or 31 on the science section because one wrong answer takes you to 34, two to 32 and three to 30.
