ACT Inc., the company behind one of the standardized tests taken by college applicants across the country, will soon offer a practice ACT.
The "PreACT" will be available for tenth graders beginning this fall, the company announced this week. Much like the PSAT for SATs, the other standardized test taken by applicants nationwide, it will give students an opportunity to take a run-through of the exam without that score counting toward their college application.
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The PreACT will be a paper-based, multiple-choice exam with the same types of questions, same format, and same scoring scale as the actual ACT exam, although it will have fewer questions and will take less time to complete than the full version of the ACT.
“PreACT will provide valuable insights on college and career readiness to students, educators and schools while students still have time to make adjustments and improve,” said ACT Chief Executive Officer Marten Roorda in a press release on Tuesday. “It’s an affordable tool to help empower students and educators with information they can use to better prepare for the ACT and the future.”
The College Board’s PSAT has existed for decades, and those who receive top scores are eligible for the National Merit Scholarship. For now, the PreACT won’t be tied to any scholarships.
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According to the 2015 ACT annual report, more than 1.9 million members of the class of 2015 took the ACT, which amounts to approximately 59 percent of all high school graduates in the country. The College Board says 1.7 million students from the class of 2015 took the SAT.
“We developed PreACT to meet a need for a 10th grade measurement and guidance tool that can be administered easily and affordably and that offers fast, helpful results,” said Suzana Delanghe, ACT chief commercial officer, in the press release. “The introduction of this new assessment is a direct result of ACT listening to what our customers are telling us and taking action on their feedback.”
