He took the Feb ACT with minimal prep = a few practice tests from his sister’s old bookstore prep book.
His composite was 34, which is great! and his math is 31 [reading 36, english 35, science 35]
The question is, does he need to retake? It seems kinda silly to retake a 34, but is 31 ok for his choice of major?
He is an A+ math student, so I’m sure he could pull up the score with some targeted prep, but I think it would take some convincing.
GPA: UW 3.9, W 4.2, UC/CSU 4.4
Current faves are SLO and UCSD. I think he would be really happy at SLO.
He is a good student, but reaaallly not interested in being overly stressed out and competitive, so he is ‘only’ taking 3 honors/AP classes each year, and no ECs related to his major. This isn’t really lack of interest, he likes to build and tinker etc on his own, but the CS-type ECs (FIRST robotics, for example) are not compatible with his sports (snowboard racing, soccer). In the summer he is a camp counselor. He volunteers a couple hours a week at a kids science center. Not a lot of interest in doing a major-related EC this summer b/c he wants to earn $ working.
Pretty similar situation to mine, I got a 34 composite but a 32 on the math section. What was his issue with the math section? If it’s like me where he struggles to finish the math in the allotted time (I’m slow at math), then I suggest he grinds out math practice sections until he can manage his time better. Also, I found the SAT math easier to finish, so I’d give it a try as mentioned above.
Do you know if he ran out of time on any of the sections? My DS20 took the ACT in October with no prep and got a 24 composite. He was supposed to actually prep for the 2/9 one and did a tiny bit. He was able to get a 36 on that and improved all of his subscores. I think the big help is he was better able to manage his time on each section and completed all the questions. I don’t know if I would have him re-take it if he knew he completed all sections. Plus, my son wanted to re-take his just to see if he could get a perfect score. Ha! Luckily he did and it made it worthwhile for him.
Thanks everyone.
Not sure if he ran out of time, I don’t think so since he didn’t mention it.
He took the SAT in fall and got a qualitatively similar score. 730 R, 680 M. He feels better with the ACT.
He was on the leading edge of the new math curriculum in 7th-10th grade (common core and ‘Integrated’ vs traditional algebra, geometry etc), such that every year it was the first time the district was teaching the new course. Because he was in the accelerated class, they served as a small group of guinea pigs each year, before rolling it out to more classes the following year. He thinks this may have left some holes, relative to what the ACT is testing, and I suspect they could be plugged easily with some prep.
But S needs to decide if it is worth the effort. If a 31 Math is not good enough for CS at SLO, I think it would be worthwhile to prep, because it is his top choice and I am hard-pressed to think of a comparable option (maybe UCSC?)