My son took the act 2 times on test dates. First score 22 his sophomore year and again in December his junior year he scored a 28 with help from tutoring and online testing. So he was done didn’t want to take anymore. Well at the end of junior year all juniors are required to take so he didn’t even try got a 20, well the school screwed test up for everyone so they had to retake he made a 19. College and scholarship time is going on now(march)as a senior, one college he is interested in would not take transcript of act score from high school so I had to have act send to them. This is when we received letter saying they will not count the 28. We sent in his transcripts he has a 4.35 and he has 26 college credits as a senior. They rejected it and said his academics were not good enough. We are now thinking about going through arbitration but not sure if it will help because act is the one that pays the law firm in arbitration. Any advice will be helpful.
Before you move to arbitration, contact ACT and find out why particular scores were and were not sent. Also, clarify with the school that said his academics weren’t good enough. So, are you really sure that the test scores are the same as academics were not good enough? You do not want to go through the time and effort of challenging the wrong group. Further, make sure your son’s transcript includes every requirement for admissions.
Has your son always had difficulty with standardized testing? That kind of discrepancy between the ACT score and classroom GPA can be an indication for a so-far undiagnosed learning disability in the slow processing/dyslexia range. You might want to have that looked into while he is still in high school. He can use the evaluation results to get accommodations when he is in college.
The 28 was not sent to all of his college choices he will be playing baseball and they’re are several colleges interested in him. So the first test we sent the 22 to 3 colleges and the 2nd test 28 we sent to 3 different ones. But since he is leaning more toward this certain college the school had to send his transcripts and act(28) but the college wanted actual email verification from act personally. So since then is why act sent letter saying concern of 28 not being accurate. So that’s why we sent in his school transcripts, he has never made a B and his gpa is 4.35 and act after reviewing his transcripts said academics didn’t prove good enough to determine 28. I just don’t understand.
I don’t understand your comment. He has never made a b and his gpa is 4.35 and has 26 college credits. Act said that his academics didn’t show enough evidence for them to accept the 28.
Did they offer the option of retesting? It sounds like they’re canceling the score because of the difference in results : 22 to 28 to 20 to 19. They may not have said they think he cheated, but I suspect that’s what they think is going on.
Yes they did offer that but his college is already chose bc of academic scholarship with baseball. so my thing is, it’s so late in the school year and we are in baseball now so that means games all week and weekends until end of may not to mention the 4 college classes he is doing homework in now. It’s just a headache that his test was in 2016 and we are just now having a issue with score. If this was last year we would just retake but lots going on right now not to mention the stress this can cause.
To the ACT they saw he took it 4 times and 3 times he got 19-22 and once he got a 28 so that looks like an outlier and possibly cheating to them.
I would dig into it. Frankly 28 is an anomaly given the other 3 scores. It might be worth exploring which area of that particular ACT caused the increase to 28 - it’s possible that the material was fresher in his mind as opposed to cheating. Once you have a good grasp on where the differences were then you could certainly call ACT. Most kids move a couple points on the ACT as they progress through school and especially when they are clustered in the lower 20s… but 7 pt. jumps, even in the 20 to high 20s, are rare.
There is now a July ACT. Plan for the retake. It would be hard to imagine an 8 point drop after a few months even one is not “trying”. There probably was some glitches in the system that led to that sudden jump in the second test.
Colleges will only take test scores for seniors until December. So anything after that will not help. The 28 is with practice and a act tutor. My son thought he was done after the first score of 22 he did not want to take anymore. But from having an older child that scored a 33 we know money comes from act score. Like I said in recent post the required act he took at school he did not care about so he practically just marked answers because he already knew he was good on his scholarship for the college he wanted. Now we get this.
Might the college rescind before July (or earlier) if they don’t get a verified score from the ACT?
That’s just it, act sent them the verification score of 28. The college is good with my son right now. I think the college is not notified until case is closed, I’ve also heard a college can decide if they even care about it. It’s gonna be about a $12,000 difference if the 28 doesn’t stand.
I’ll PM or DM you.
Not sure what the cancellation policy is, but at 22 to 28 after tutoring and practice is doable. And a 19-20 for a kid just going thru the motions isn’t justification to cancel the good test. At the kid’s school, his first 2 years the ACT was mandatory. They gave practice tests to freshman and sophs. Then they changed to the SAT. We decided to stick with the ACT and he did really well. He still was required to take the SAT – but I think he slept thru it. 
Not so good. Hard to be motivated for a test that just doesn’t matter. I’d pursue it with the ACT people – make sure you talk to real people who can make decisions. Good luck.
So…ACT DID send the score of 28…to the college of choice? If so…what is the issue??
Sounds like you need to have this conversation with the college…ask the college what will happen if that 28 ACT is somehow overturned.
Yes, they did send it to the college after I gave act permission and paid extra to have it sent. Then that’s when we got the letter. Didn’t get a letter after he took test but now 15 months later.
I know, act themselves sell study programs that will guarantee increase of 3 or 4 points but then they want to question your score when it happens.
I’m sure the tutoring helped your son. What didn’t help was purposely tanking later tests. He isn’t set if the ACT people rescind his score, so you need to talk to the college.
There’s a thread about ACT cheating accusations on CC right now. I don’t think they’ve reinstated anyone’s score. Your son may have to retest to validate his score. If the college won’t take it, he may have to take a gap year and apply with new test scores.
If he does look at other schools at some point, please consider this list of test optional or test flexible schools:
http://fairtest.org/university/optional Many great schools on there.