Why don't they score the ACT 1-12?

whenyoubelieve
Fri, 10 Mar 2017 03:38:59 +0000

In my opinion, I feel like this is asking something similar to why people will rate movies on a scale of 1 to 10 when they could rate it on a scale of 1 to 5. I think making it out of 36 gives students a greater range to show their proficiency in a subject, if that makes sense. For example, if on one movie rating site, they rated the movie 3 out of 5, but on another site it’s listed as 7 stars out of 10. 3/5 could translate to either 6 or 7 out of 10, making it either a better than expected movie or worse. By making the movie rating scale out of more “points”/stars, movie sites give you more information on just how good the movie is. The same could be said for score reports on the ACT. By making the test out of more points on the scale (36), the ACT is able to convey to colleges just how well a student did on each section of the test with more detail. At some colleges, where competition is high, I assume that the difference between a 34 and a 36 ACT could mean something.

This is just how I see it, though. I haven’t read the other commentary arguing for the 1-12 grading scale.