The ACT is now the most popular college admissions standardized test in the US, with the number of test-takers exceeding that of the SAT.
But what does ACT actually stand for, and why does this actually matter? We answer all your questions in this guide.
The SAT was designed as an aptitude test – essentially, it tested your intelligence and innate capacity to learn. Lindquist thought that a college assessment test should really be testing what you’ve actually learned in school.
The SAT was popular in private schools in the northeastern US (New York, Massachusetts) but not in the rest of the country and not in public schools. Lindquist believed the test should be accepted by public institutions and other schools across the country.
Even though the SAT had begun over 30 years earlier and was growing in popularity, Lindquist believed he could do things better.
As a result, he founded the American College Testing Program. See the ACT in there?
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Since then, the test hasn’t changed all that much, in contrast to the SAT, which has had something of an identity crisis.
1959: The first ACT is administered to 75,460 students.
1972: Million Mark: The ACT hits 1,000,000 students taking the ACT.
1989: Redesign: The ACT undergoes a major change. The Social Studies section is changed into Reading, and Natural Sciences is changed into Science Reasoning. Both changes are an attempt to test fundamental reading and reasoning skills, rather than facts about history and science.
2005: The ACT adds an optional Writing Test.
2007: Every single college in the United States now accepts the ACT for admission.
2012: The number of students taking the ACT surpasses the SAT for the first time. At 1.85 million students, this means over half of the country’s graduates are taking the ACT.
So what does ACT stand for? It started off as the American College Test, but at this point the ACT organization doesn’t formally call it that. The test is just known as the ACT.
Now that you’ve learned the history, you probably want to know how you can get the highest ACT score possible.
Find out what a good ACT score is, and how to calculate your own ACT target score.
Interested in free ACT practice tests? Click here for a guide on how to get every official ACT practice test available.
Read our detailed guide to the best ACT prep books.