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The easiest way to begin this blog is by speaking simply: the ACT is gruesome. Think of it from Darwin's perspective, the nearly three-hour standardized test is the survival of the fittest for college admissions where natural test takers tend to always do better. I am aware the SAT (Same Awful Test) is almost identical to the ACT as far as the number of questions, length of testing, break times, difficulty, and value to some of the country's top institutions for higher education. However, considering I have taken the ACT more times than I imagined, it is my muse for today.
To my experience with the ACT, I first began the journey my sophomore year of high school. In retrospect, I attended what others called the "most private public school" in a small town of Northern Kentucky. Within this, I was an impressively ambitious young woman in terms of my education, extracurriculars, and community involvement. Even though my life was handed to me on a silver platter, I will never forget the hit my pride took on this day. Maybe it was the content I hadn't seen since my early years of middle school, maybe it was the fact I kept running out of time, or perhaps it was because I had to take the test online as a kind of trial for the state. In the end, my score was a 19. For it being my first time, I didn’t think it was awful. Hey, I didn’t even know the highest score one could attain was in the moment.
Over the next two years, this college tryout would be the center of my attention. I acquired textbooks and practice tests anywhere I could, an ACT Prep Course the winter of my junior year, and eventually a very poised, grandmother-like tutor from Maine to aid in my studies. Over time, my English, Math, and Reading improved at a steady and promising rate, while my Science score never once went up; not even by a point. If I recall correctly, in total I took the ACT around six or seven times at four different locations, yet all the time and money in the world wouldn't change a thing.
The most infuriating part of this process for me was the degrading support I received from my mother. I would push myself to study whenever I could, and when she didn't see a difference in my performance, it was money not well spent. It never occurred to me why the ACT's importance was an end all. After all, it wasn’t always a generational pressure for young adults as it is now. What began in 1959 at the University of Iowa, was one professor that developed the ACT as a competitor for the SAT. The subject matter was based around Iowa Tests and Educational Development and just over 75,000 students were administered. It aimed to highlight strengths and weaknesses to guide placement rather than a cognitive competition. By 1972, the number of participants grew to over a million, and the test structure was altered to include the sections we see today. Furthermore, by 1996, the ACT added the optional writing section, and the final format was solidified in 2015. Today, the ACT and SAT are the most widely renowned tests for college acceptances across the nation.
Although the exam is used to determine cognitive strength, it is not something you can just take once, unless you’re lucky. Many students study using testing strategies and item practice, just as I did, despite the reality that they are ineffective mechanisms for improving students' scores for the newest version of the ACT. The Consortium on Chicago School Research completed a study that model test prep for students across the nation is one month of instructional class time designated to preparation during their junior year of high school. As a result, the scores were slightly lower than those who spent 40% of their curriculum time on core concepts of the exam. While the test may have been initially used to support students, it had turned into a competition of strategy.
This may seem like an over-generalization or defamation to the institute on my part just because I've never really been an exceptional test taker, but I'm not the only one. Fair Test, a national center for honest and open testing, highlighted the biases that arise for marginalized groups. It is seen that family income and access to different levels of education have a predominant effect on the score one will achieve. Indeed, higher income, predominately white students, on average report higher scores than those from lower socio-economic regions. Even the language used in the test, like "ball and chain" or "straight from the horse's mouth" are not familiar to all populations and the academic opportunities they provide. It is far worse for those where English is not their first language. In truth, the test is a race with different finish lines.
Whether you got the bare minimum or a perfect thirty six, the ACT doesn't matter. If you need any consolation that what I am saying is true, I am a first year student at the University of Louisville and in one of the most prestigious scholarship programs in the state of Kentucky with a 26 on the ACT. Throughout my time, I have immersed myself in the words of Plato and Tocqueville as my peers do, been introduced to professors and politicians from around the globe, and pushed myself beyond limits I even thought possible. I applaud anyone with a perfect score. But, for myself and many others, America’s Corrupt Testing is just a number- and it is one that I can thank for the greatest opportunity I have ever been given in this life.
Kathleen Price is a McConnell Scholar in the class of 2027. She is studying political science on a pre-law track at the University of Louisville.