ACT Admissions Test, Like Rival, Adds Essay, But Makes It Optional
Like any pair of longtime competitors, the sponsors of the nation’s two major college-entrance exams, the SAT and ACT, regularly scrutinize each other’s work, and adjust their own accordingly.
In its latest overhaul of the SAT, the College Board, the New York City organization that sponsors the exam, made changes that will in some ways more closely align the test’s content and objectives with those of its longtime rival, testing observers say. In turn, ACT Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based owner of the ACT exam closely followed the College Board two years ago in announcing the launch of an optional written essay.
Officials of the ACT note that their test, founded in 1959 as the American College Testing Program, has sought all along to evaluate students’ knowledge of high school content—rather than to gauge...
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