My D is not as strong a math student as she is in other subjects, although she is in accelerated math. (She is a HS junior and takes calculus this year.) Nevertheless, she decided to take the ACT rather than the SAT because she liked the format better. She took the ACT twice, and prepped a bit in between, but just for the math and science sections. Here were her scores:
First try: English 35, Reading 34, Math 27, Science 25, Composite 30.
Second try: English 34, Reading 32, Math 28, Science 28, Composite 31
She was going to try one more time for a 32 in the fall…maybe.
She just took the Lit subject test and got a 760 on it. She did not prep for this test. Now she is thinking she should switch to the SAT because supposedly the verbal section is much easier that the Lit subject test, and she would only then have to work on the math, which is also lower level math than the ACT and also less rushed. The down side is that she would be prepping for a whole new test, and also there’s the pressure of being penalized for wrong answers.
Anyone have any advice on which way she should go here if she would like to aim to do better than her current ACT score? Thank you!
My son got a 700 without studying for the Lit and 790 on the SAT CR. So I think odds are good she’ll do well. Math on the SAT tends not to be that hard, but lots of trickily worded questions.
Thank you for the advice. I forgot the other complicating factor, which is that she would like to take one more subject test in the fall, and she can’t do both and also apply early decision I don’t think as the latest SAT test date for ED is October, right?
Before signing up for the SAT, especially if your child only has one chance at it, take a close look at the ACT scores to see what it would take to get the 32. If she’s close, then stick to the ACT. If she thinks she’s at her limit, maybe the SAT would be better but I would not say “just try!” so quickly. It takes time and effort on her part to do well, so what would be the best use of them?
Assuming her English and Reading scores remain the same, she would need a combined score of 60 on Math and Science. The question is, then, how likely is your daughter to get 30+ on at least one of the two sections? Her Reading score can go up a bit as well, but she likely would still need to score 30 on either Math or Science.
Check your daughter’s subsection scores in the ACT math and see if there is one obvious weak area. If so, have her study that section and take practice math section tests.
My sense is kids just improve on the Science section the more times they take the ACT, even without studying.
It is debatable if the lit test is harder than CR. Some students have told me that the lit has harder language but the questions are more manageable while the CR can have “trickier” questions for a text that is really easy to read. It totally depends on the student. I know several students with higher lit score than CR score. Of course based on her scores you told us she will do well on CR but I will not be surprised if she does let say 720 and not 780. Same for math. Because SAT is lower level than ACT does not mean that one automatically will score higher.
Long story short, yes by all means go ahead and take the SAT. That’s the only way to find out. According to my experience though those test are hard to predict other than overall range.
“English 35, Reading 34, Math 27, Science 25, Composite 30.”
I understand the first 2, as preparation for these 2 require only to get familiar with the format. But I do not understand the Math score of 27 - this one is the easiest to improve by taking practice tests and going over every single mistake. Aslo, one does not have to be strong in science to get a high score in science section. The score of 25 indicates that test taker was not familiar with the format. The science section is basically a slower reading section and one who scored an awesome “34” in the Reading seciton, should be able to score much higher than 25 in the science section.
So, based on the above scores, I suggest to get very comfortable with the science section format. And prepare for the next ACT by taking lots and lots of math practice tests and going over every single mistake. If a student cannot do it herself, then help her. I helped my D. who developed a customized plan which included preparing math section only. Math is her strong subject but not the one that she likes the most. the HS kids simply forget the middle school material. The most of the ACT math section is based on the MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH, that simply needs to be re-freshed and the advanced kids are at disadvantage since they studied it back in the middle school. My D. simply did not remember. Her plan was to devote to math preparation 1 hour / day for 5 days preceeding taking the ACT. I was there to provide help. Did I remember my middle school material? Not a chance! But as an adult I found myself in better position to find the material related to D’s errors in her own textbooks, believe it or not. My help made a difference. D’s p[roblem was that she knew that her Reading score would be low, it has been low on ALL of her tests, she is a slower reader.
Well as a result she pulled her Math to 34 and compensted her low Reading score of 28 with the total score of 33. She did not need to re-take ACT, it was enough for her goal.
I believe that my D’s approach may help your D. Try it! The goal is to achieve a high score in practice tests before taking the real exam!
Best wishes, I am very confident that anybody with the Reading score of 34 (envious!!) can achieve a very high total score!
I’ve never taken the ACT, but it’s my understanding that doing well on the science section is mostly a matter of being able to read graphs, not any actual knowledge of science. At least this is what I’ve heard in gifted forums where people had younger kids who were able to score well without having actually been exposed to the science content. It would seem to me that it should be easy to raise her score in that section, especially since she clearly reads well.
Regarding the SAT, I would think that the easiest thing to do to predict a score is to take a timed sample test at home before embarking on a prep program.
But perhaps the larger question is: what schools is she aiming at? How does her 31 stack up against their stats? Higher is always better, but would a 32 make a significant difference?