Beginning in 2015, the ACT will be available to select high schools in an online format. While the ACT has no current plans to eliminate its paper test, the online exam is an interesting new development in college admissions testing.
Here is a breakdown of some key things to expect in the online version:
1. School-based administration: Although the ACT is billed as an online exam, it will only be available on approved computers located within schools — and eventually, at monitored testing facilities. In other words, you will not be able to complete the ACT from the comfort of your living room at home. Specific administration details are still being determined, including the possibility of multi-day testing when access to approved computers is limited.
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2. Interactive elements: Prioritizing questions is a time-honored test-takeing technique. The computerized ACT will make this process even simpler with the option to mark a question for reconsideration at the end of a session.
You will also be able to strike out individual answer responses for a given question, much as you might do on a paper exam. Unlike a paper test, however, you will not be forced to scan through a booklet searching for questions to review or complete, as the computer will simply call up a list of such questions.
The largest potential issue for students will be the lack of white space for math problems. When preparing for the ACT, even if you are doing so with a paper practice exam, it will be important to complete your calculation work on a separate sheet of paper in order to simulate the actual testing conditions. You may be surprised by how much mental effort can be devoted to such a small change in routine.
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3. Essay revision will be simpler: Another significant change involves the written portion of the test — for those students who choose to take it. You will no longer have to plan your essay so meticulously in order to avoid major corrections.
Instead of messily crossing out poorly worded or unnecessary paragraphs, students will be able to revise more quickly and neatly. As an added benefit, many students tend to type faster than they write, so they may have more time to plan and think — or to fervently rewrite problematic sections.
4. No adaptive testing — yet: Adaptive testing is one major feature that is not currently in use. One of the potential benefits of the computer-based format is the ability to receive questions of differing difficulty during a session.
In an adaptive exam, a student who does well on an initial set of questions would face more difficult items on the next set. Conversely, a student who does poorly on the initial questions would then receive easier ones in subsequent sets. This method allows better distinction between students on the highest and lowest achievement levels.
A top student acing the standard, non-adaptive test without real effort might receive the same score as another student who happens to be having the best testing day of his or her life. An adaptive exam, however, could allow the top student to truly shine by providing him or her with a series of questions to truly demonstrate mastery of a subject. There are indications that the ACT may eventually move in this direction, but perhaps not for several years.
Here’s [what to know before you start studying for the ACT.]
5. Same scoring: According to the ACT, scoring components of the computerized test will be equivalent to those of the paper-based exam. Your results will be reported in the same format and within the same time span. You will not receive your results any sooner by completing the computer-based exam.
Both paper and online versions will have the same sections and the same number of questions. Perhaps significantly, however, the online version will eliminate the risk of an improperly bubbled test answer. For those of us who are prone to changing answers, or who have poor-quality erasers, this may be a noticeably positive and important difference.
In sum, the computerized ACT is coming soon to a school near you. Exactly what form it will take remains to be seen.
Do not wait to discover the details, however. Prepare as you would for the paper ACT — by working hard in your core curriculum courses and rigorously taking practice exams.
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5 Online ACT Facts Students Need to Know originally appeared on usnews.com
