The ACT is one of the most commonly used college entrance exams in the US. With about 1.5 million test-takers yearly, it has increasingly been deemed as the key to a better future for most aspiring students. And because of the way it affects the admission process of the most prestigious schools in the country, it is also perceived as some kind of an intelligence test.

The truth is the ACT is designed to produce standardized results across populations, but while it can measure college readiness in some students, it does not measure all factors. In other terms, your test scores reflect how good you are at preparing for and taking the test—and that’s about it.

If it is in fact an intelligence test, then it does not fully serve its purpose. First, it cannot conform to your physical or mental state during the time at which you take the test. For instance, factors such as anxiety could affect the end result. Moreover, the ACT is a multiple choice test. A test-taker can simply guess and still get a great score without knowing squat. ACT is also not an exam designed for everyone. There are unimaginable numbers of factor that deem brilliant people to be ineloquent when it comes to these types of exam.

Instead of perceiving it as an intelligence exam, you should look at ACT as just another challenge to get to the college that you want. On the other hand, while ACT scores will be a huge factor in the admissions process, they are only one factor. How colleges use your scores varies from school to school.

At awesomescores.com, we also believe that although your ACT score will be a great achievement, it does not truly measure how intelligent you are or predict how successful you will be in life. It is just an exam that you should prepare for to make the next step to your education easier!