ACT creates the PLAN test, which is a kind of practice test for the official ACT for 10th-grade students in high school. Students should learn how to prepare for the ACT PLAN exam to assess their current academic level and areas for improvement.
The PLAN exam is quite similar to the official ACT. It is one of the best tools to see how close your child or students are at getting a competitive score on the official ACT for college admissions. There is far less stress than the ACT, but parents and teachers should implore students to seriously prepare for the PLAN so they can determine areas for improvement that will be needed to achieve their desired score on the ACT in 11th or 12th grade.
The PLAN has a 30-minute English test with 50 questions, 40-minute Mathematics test with 40 questions, 20-minute Reading test with 25 questions, and 25-minute Science test with 30 questions. This is close enough to the ACT to give a good comparison of the educational progress made by 10th graders.
All parents, teachers, and students should download the “PLAN Test Content and Sample Test Questions” document. Read this document to get a general overview of the content of each PLAN exam section and some sample questions. This is definitely not enough to prepare for the PLAN or any other standardized test. But it will help the student get familiar with the exam format and provide some limited feedback on whether the student is ready for this aptitude test.
In looking at the practice questions, it appears that English and Mathematics are more like a typical school test. A focus on grammar in the English textbooks and all of the formulas and other lessons taught in high school math textbooks could be useful in preparing for those sections of the PLAN exam.
The PLAN practice questions for science and reading are more akin to the typical aptitude exercises on the Law School Admission Test, GRE, and other graduate admissions test. Using study guides designed for the ACT test, LSAT, and GRE could be especially helpful on reading comprehension.
A good deal of the science questions were just testing basic observational skills. However, all students should review both science and social studies textbooks they are currently using in high school to practice for the science portion of the ACT PLAN test. This is because social studies textbooks often contain the same kinds of graphs that are used on the science portion. The only difference is the content, but the skills tested are similar. With that said, there will obviously be some difficult science questions, as well. This is why a review of all available science textbooks would be good preparation for the PLAN.
Resources:
ACT: PLAN Test Content and Sample Test Questions