The ACT was intended as a contrast to the SAT in almost every way. It was headquartered in Iowa City, far from the coastal elites. Its questions were more straightforward and more aligned with what public school students were studying, with none of the obscure vocabulary words and cognitive traps that for many students made the SAT an ordeal. Unlike on the SAT, if you guessed wrong on a question on the ACT, you didn’t lose points.
