Confused about scoring

Test Preparation ACT Preparation
1

<p>I’m confused about the ACT scoring for the Science.</p>

<p>According to the 2003-2004 ACT data, the Science test is the test that has the -least- amount of high scorers (in the range of 30+) out of all of the other tests. People in general score a lot lower on the Science than in all of the other tests. Meaning, those that score very high on it are an even smaller minority than all of the other tests.</p>

<p>Why is it, then, that the score conversions are so low for the Science? One conversion chart showed that while a person would need a 35/40 right on the Reading test to get a 30 scaled score, they would need 37/40 right on the Science test to get a 30 scaled score.</p>

2

<p>that can’t be right-- I got a 30 on the sciemce, and i doubt i got that many correct.</p>

3

<p>Look here. This is the percentile rankings for the 2004 tests.
<a href=“http://www.act.org/news/data/04/pdf/t4.pdf[/url]”>http://www.act.org/news/data/04/pdf/t4.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
Note that the science has the least number of high scorers, much less than the Reading. (This is the case in every test year from what i’ve seen)</p>

<p>Now, look at this. Particularly, scroll down to page 63 of it to see the conversion table:
<a href=“http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf[/url]”>http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
This is supposed to be the conversion table for one of the 2004 tests. Note how science has far far less high scorers than reading, yet the conversion table shows that you need a -higher- number of correct answers on the science than the reading to get the same scale score.</p>

<p>I’ve noticed this in most prep books also, but don’t understand why.</p>

4

<p>there’s no rhyme or reason…it’s just a way for the testmakers to screw us over</p>

<p>i also had a hard time with science, but my remedy was to take the real test multiple times and do every practice test under the sun</p>

5

<p>i got 33 and it is my worst subject. the scoring conversion depends on the specific test. if a certain test is easier, the conversion will show that. say we both took two different ACTs the same day, but your science section was harder. this would mean that while i may only be allowed to miss 4 in order to get a score of 30, you can miss 7.</p>