The number of students taking the test has grown by nearly 200,000 since the beginning of the decade. About 60 percent of America's entering college freshmen took the test, one of two major entrance examinations. Results from the other, the SAT, will be released later this month. The ACT scores reflect the skills of less than half of high school graduates, not the academic performance or course-taking habits of everyone. Some 2.3 million people graduated from high school in 1995-1996, the last year for which numbers are available from the Education Department.
Course work in calculus, trigonometry and physics helped boost scores.
Those who took just two years of algebra and one of geometry scored well below the national average of 20.8 on the math part of the test. Those who took just general science, biology and chemistry scored below the national average of 21.1 on the science reasoning part. That emphasis seems to be producing results. Although students are taking more math and science, most show little interest in computer science and computer engineering degrees that hold out a promise of good jobs. Only about 3 percent of the college-bound graduates picked computer and information science as their first vocational choice.