Promote the ACT and Win

Now that the ACT has officially taken over as the most popular college entrance exam, the folks in Iowa are looking to increase market share and want your help encouraging other students to take their test.

And they are willing to pay—in the form of generous scholarships for winning videos or posters promoting the ACT.  If you’re a budding artist or an amateur film producer, either contest may work for you.

The ACT kicked-off its annual poster contest with a question, “Why Take the ACT.”  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• The ACT is totally interchangeable with the SAT for admissions purposes
• There are no penalties for wrong answers—you can guess
• It’s offered in September (this is huge)
• The ACT is curriculum-based—your best “test prep” is doing well in school
• Some colleges allow you to substitute the ACT (usually with Writing) for the SAT plus Subject Tests
• The SAT takes more time than the ACT
• They’re not out to trick you—this is not a “reasoning” test

There are others and to enter the competition, high school students must design a poster which illustrates a good answer.    

Entries must be uploaded at www.actstudent.org/postercontest by no later than January 21, 2013, and will be judged on the basis of creativity, visual appeal, and overall content.  The Grand Prize winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship.  The finalist with the second highest score will receive $2,500 and the third place finisher will receive $1,000.

The ACT Video Contest seeks “compelling” videos with themes drawn from one of five categories—test-day tips, photo ID’s, cheating is wrong, the ACT English test, or ACT test myths.  Original videos must be submitted online at www.actstudent.org/videocontest by January 28, 2013 (deadline extended) and cannot be longer than two minutes.  Finalists will be posted for website voting, and the top two videos in each category will be awarded $500 and $1,000.

Compared to the College Board, the ACT marketing team doesn’t go for much in the way of fancy bells and whistles.  This is your opportunity to help them jazz things up a little and reach out to students not familiar with their test.

For more information and contest guidelines, go to the ACT website.