The Importance of Accuplacer Practice Tests for Students

Before a student can get into a certain course for higher education, his or her skills in English, mathematics, analytical problem solving, and reading comprehension have to be assessed through the use of Accuplacer Practice Tests.

As such, there are two groups of students who take Accuplacer Practice Tests. The first are those who are under twenty-one years of age and have not yet taken the ACT examinations. The Accuplacer test is also a requirement for those who do not have a high school diploma or GED but have to pursue enrollment in a career program. The Accuplacer test is also necessary for those who are seeking financial aid.

What Are Accuplacer Practice Tests?

The Accuplacer Practice Tests enable students to gauge the level of their understanding and skill in the fields of English, mathematics, and reading comprehension. The main difference with Accuplacer tests is that they computer adaptive, which means that the student has to answer the set of questions in the order presented by the computer. This is because the succeeding questions are dependent on the previous question.

Also, unlike other tests, Accuplacer Practice Tests do not have a pass or fail system because its main purpose is to measure one’s academic skills. However, one has to remember that the results of this test will be used by advisers as aids in determining the appropriate course for the student’s higher education.

What is in an Accuplacer Test?

When taking Accuplacer Practice Tests, the student should not be surprised to find that it consists of multiple choice questions and an essay writing part. This portion will aim to guide the student as to how he or she should go about in practicing and studying for the Accuplacer Practice Tests.

Generally, there are five parts that fall under the multiple choice questions category, each bearing around 20 questions that one has to answer in accordance to the computer adaptive type of testing.

• Sentence skills category.

• The first part is the sentence skills category which tests the sentence correction and construction shift skills. The former tests the student’s capability of choosing the appropriate word that would be the best alternative for an underlined portion of the sentence. In the construction shift category, the student will have to choose the best answer that depicts a rewritten form of the original sentence in accordance to a set of criteria or conditions. This will test the student’s ability to understand the relationship of the areas of a sentence.

• Reading comprehension category.

• For this area, there are also two types of tests for reading comprehension. The first one will provide a passage followed by a question that the student will have to answer. It will test the student’s information processing and the ability to extrapolate particular information to answer the question.

  The other primary test type would involve the student’s ability to identify the relationship between two sentences presented in the question.

• Arithmetic test category.

• Mathematics and fundamental arithmetic concepts will be tested in this category with the use of 17 questions. The student should note that even with the fewer number of questions, this area will test three specific mathematical skills. The first would be the operations between whole numbers and fractions, from simple addition to estimating. For the second part, there will be operations between more complex decimals and percentages, while the last part will involve problem solving, geometry, and measurement equations.

• Elementary Algebra category.

• There will be 12 questions that will test the student’s ability to do operations with rational numbers, algebraic expressions, monomials and polynomials, inequalities, and word problems.

• College Level Math Test category.

• For this part, the student will be tested with skills for topics like intermediate algebra to pre-calculus. This will include the simplification of algebraic operations, solutions to quadratic equations and equation systems, and functions and trigonometry.

The last part of Accuplacer Practice Tests consists of a written essay which will measure the student’s ability to write an essay that is focused, organized, and developed. It has to have proper sentence structure and should follow the mechanical conventions to ensure that there are minimal to no errors in the essay.

What Happens After Taking the Test?

Students can immediately find out their scores after taking the test. The score is dependent on the level of difficulty and the number of correctly answered questions.