Prediction Service for the ACT

The Prediction Service describes the academic achievements of previous freshmen and develops prediction equations used in forecasting the overall performance of future freshmen. It is offered at no charge to postsecondary educational institutions who have at least 40 ACT-tested entering freshmen.

The Prediction Service Report is both comprehensive and flexible. Some of its uses include the following:

Advising and counseling individual students
Selecting applicants for scholarship and honors programs
Examining and comparing grading practices of various campus departments to learn whether they correspond to institutional philosophy and policy
Checking the predictive validity of ACT data for your students
Comparing various student groups on designated characteristics
Comparing persisting and nonpersisting student groups

Here are some typical questions that the Prediction Service can help answer:

How effective is the ACT for predicting overall academic success in the first year of college?
How do our second-year returning students compare with first-year students?
How does the ACT compare with other locally available test scores for predicting overall academic success in the first year of college?
What are the ACT characteristics of persisting students?
Are my admissions criteria equally effective for all ethnic and gender groups?

Page section from sample Prediction Service Report

Page section from sample Prediction Service Report

For more information or to request order forms, call the Prediction/Retention Service Coordinator at 319/337-1111.

Download:

Procedures for Participating (PDF; 1 page, 20KB)
Subgroup Identification Sheet (PDF; 1 page, 18KB)
College Information Form (PDF; 3 pages, 50KB)
Your College Freshmen: An Interpretive Guide for the ACT Prediction Research Service (PDF; 46 pages, 11,423KB)

You may also read about other ACT Research and Information Services.