FEBRUARY 2015 ACT DISCUSSION THREAD

Does anyone know if the UCs pick the best score if you send multiple in? Im thinking about taking advantage of the free score reports but I’m afraid my score will be bad. If I send it in and then retake it later this year, will they consider all of the scores or only the best one?

How do you guys know how many you missed?

I took the ACT+writing, so do they send my multiple choice scores on February 17th and then my writing score comes later, or does it take longer for both because they send them together?

So I am planning on taking the ACT in April and I am really concerned about the reading. Were there dual passages on the previous ACT’s? if so, how are they similar to the ones in the ACT Red book? And overall, are the questions in the red book similar to the ACT you guys took in February? Please reply

andre3200 i’m just guessing really…

@shween‌ Yes there were dual passages on this previous test along with the past 4 tests. Be prepared for those cause I can almost guarantee you will see it on them. It seems to be taking over as part of the general format for the ACT. To answer your question about the red book, I don’t recall any double passages on that so I’m not sure what you’re referring to. If you meant the other passages beside that, then yes the passages all had that same type of format. The other sections were also pretty much the same as the red book expect for the fact that the science section for this one seemed to take away the 5 question passages and replace them with all longer passages I think this is the first time they are doing that so it is not guaranteed that the next ACT will be like that, but is still very possible. Hope this helps!

Yes, you should likely be prepared for dual passages on the ACT. To me, they seem to be at pretty much the same difficulty and type as other normal passages.

The red book questions are definitely alike ones in the normal ACT, at least in the general idea behind them.

Man, I did not notice those longer science passages at all…

@Nrnjersey124‌ @tdallege‌ Thank you! and a couple more questions: is there any way to prepare for the dual passages? I mean is there any book that has dual passages in them?

@acx820‌ I believe our MC score comes around the 17th and then the essay comes out two weeks later.

There is at least one dial passage sample online on the act website. The red book tests are old , especially the first three tests.

can someone estimate my score? thank you.
english: -5
math: -2
Reading: -6
science: -2 (assuming i made 1 or 2 careless mistakes)

to everyone asking for someone to estimate their score…

Nobody knows what the curve will be. Right now, not even the ACT people know what the curve will be. It is decided after they see everyone’s scores. An estimate is every question you miss is one point off that section, but hopefully the curve will be beneficial and maybe one question wrong still gets us a 36.

@shween the dual passage was very easy on the february test, so don’t worry about the dual passages

@acx820 I’m pretty sure most of the curves are predetermined, unfortuneately.

I believe the math curve will be lenient while the reading curve will be harsh

i personally thought english was a little harder than normal, since there were not as many straight forward grammar questions, but more thinking questions. Math was pretty average. Reading for me was pretty difficult, and i thought science was really easy and straight forward. Hoping for a generous reading curve, and harsh curve for science if there is one.

It just feels like- for all of the ACTs- that there’s no telling how the curve goes and our predictions are never really accurate with them. It just shows how differnt everyone feels in difficulty versus what the ACT thinks.

@HADES98 how can the curves be predetermined? because for example, if they think the math section is easy, they will make it have a really strict curve, but if the average math score is really low, wouldn’t they have to change the curve to fit with the actual scores?

i agree with @acx820. The curves are definitely not predetermined cause they make sure certain scores are met on every single one. Lets say they thought the math was easy so they gave a really strict curve but then nobody got above a 33 on that section. That’s just not how it works it depends on all of the scores averages after they receive them

I’m sorry to bother you guys with the same question again, but do you think it is possible -3 on English could still be a 34/35? Thanks!