The ACT Should Be Outlawed (persuasive)(Part One)

Over a million students take the ACT every year and for what? To get into a better college? Maybe for a scholarship? Or maybe to brag to their friends about a standardized test for a better placement in life.

First we need to talk about the history of the ACT. Around 1900 a group of college presidents got together and created a standardized test called the “College Boards”. After 25 years of army based research on this test, the “College Boards” became known as the SAT. The use of this test became very popular over the next 30 years. The problem with SAT was that this test was based around a students theoretical reasoning skills. So a professor by the name of E.F. Lindquist started developing a new test that would rather test a students practical knowledge than reasoning skills. This lead to the first proctoring of the ACT in 1959.

Now that we are all caught up, we cam talk about the issue with the ACT. The main factors can be broken up into categories. Stress, content validity, and misuse. First is stress. With over a million students taking the ACT every year, anxiety and stress are a big factor in how people score. The ACT is heavily studied for by students needing to learn test taking strategies rather than real content. This means that student learn strategies that they might use once or twice but will never be needed in the real world.