Is a 28 an okay score for my son who is an honor student and takes Ap classes with an IQ of 143?
Depends upon which colleges his is targeting. IQ is not a consideration.
@jenzeigler, ditto on the above. An ACT may be a great score for one school but not for another. What was helpful for my kids application process in developing a great school list was to look at the schools CDS. This information will give you the percentages the school accepted from the test scores. For example, from the SAT- 500-590 20% 600-690 50% and so on. This information was key. It’s much better than just getting a range of test scores or a median test score.
IDK, about the ACT and IQ correlation. I had read about some correlation with the SAT and IQ but then it was questioned by some other researches. It sounds though that you were thinking that his ACT score should have been higher.
Being an Honor student and an AP student is a whole different ball of wax from scoring well in the SAT or ACT test.
I have a kiddo that was not academically focused so not a particularly strong student in a magnet cohort and did cursory prep (taking the PSAT) for the SAT and scored a 700 Math and 800 CR first try.
Check in with him and see what he thinks is a good score (he may or may not want a retake) then research some schools that he is interested in.
And he may want to try the SAT. However, I heard that they are now more similar than dissimilar. Too bad. Some kids really do better in different types of testing and my kids were definitely SAT kids. Actually I wasn’t sure about my son because he refused to take the ACT. But for my daughter there was definitely a preference. She just found the SAT was easier once she cracked the logic behind it. For my son, he found it was an intuitive type of test.
If his GPA is high and depends on the colleges, a higher ACT may help him with merit scholarship
If you have him take a few practice tests I’m sure he can raise it to a 30-31. A high ACT will get good merit aid at many schools, especially public universities. Maybe have him take it one more time, if you’re willing to pay the exam fee.