I am currently a junior and haven’t taken the ACT yet. My county has a mandatory ACT testing for juniors on the 28th of February 2017. I am hoping to take it 2 times(both in junior year).
Here are my options:
Take my first one in October and then the mandatory one on February 28
Take my first one in December and then the mandatory one on February 28.
Take one on February 11 and then mandatory one on February 28 (probably not enough time).
I do not know which option is the best to get the highest score. What seems most reasonable?
How about taking it in April or June? That’s when my sons took it and did well, probably because it was close to final exams. I know of one person who took the ACT three times in junior year and got the best score on the last one in April.
Take October “Cold”, then see where/what you need to address prior to school test on 2/28. I don’t recommend taking national test date in Feb. since you’re taking it on 2/28. The April test is 5 weeks (and probably Spring Break is one of those) after, so I think that’ll be a great time to take it as well. Don’t forget to take it in September AND October of Senior year as well. I have seen a LOT of scholarships earned in the Sept. and Oct. tests (as in millions in my decade plus of tutoring).
Taking a PT out of a book is a pale imitation of going and taking the test for real.
High school sports teams hold scrimmages against teams similar to what they’ll face in tournaments to find out if their game plans are strong or weak. Taking a test on test day by end of 10th grade/early 11th grade is a far better measuring stick of what areas need to be addressed. Also, many students won’t appreciate extensive prep until after they have struggled with a real test.
What exactly does it mean that you have a “mandatory” offering of the ACT? Is it mandatory that you take that specific test on that day? Or is it mandatory that your district/county/state offer the test free -of-charge? There is a difference.
You should take the test at the time YOU feel best, not your district or state. After all, YOU are the one who is applying to colleges and possibly submitting all your test scores. So you should take the tests when you are ready, regardless of your district’s “rules”. Most likely if you take one or more standardized test before you graduate you are going to fulfill whatever grad standard your district/state has implemented. Check with your counselor and be sure to ask for the wording of the grad standard if your counselor begins to tell you that you “have” to take it. Ultimately, it should be your choice and most likely the wording of the standard supports that.
With all that, the following suggestion/plan is just one possible path for you. Ultimately you should do what feels “right” - balancing momentum and needed time to learn the test(s).
Spring is a GREAT time to take a standardized test because you have finished a good part of your junior year curriculum by then, you aren’t yet cramming for any AP’s or finals yet, and you have the option of an early summer re-take (and, in the case of the SAT, an August 2017 test date as well). That test schedule usually means you start prepping right after the New Year for one of the tests and have your initial practice tests done and scored by that time.
Fall is typically when you as a junior take the PSAT (does your school offer that test?) and results should be available by early January (hopefully sooner). You can also take an initial practice ACT following the PSAT test and compare both scores, figure out which test you want to focus on, and go from there with the goal of a spring test/summer retake. Don’t rule out the SAT at this time unless you absolutely know that you are going to do ACT. The two tests are very similar now and prepping for one tends to helps you with the other.
The historical dates in the Spring for ACT have been April and June. For the SAT it’s March, May, and June; this next year there will also be the August test date as mentioned previously. That August date is really cool because if, say, you wish to take BOTH tests you would be able to sit the ACT in the Spring/early Summer and the SAT in the late summer/Autumn.
@BoringPoster, many states (including mine) require all juniors to take either an ACT or an SAT on a state-mandated test day. These tests are offered to ensure that all students take a college entrance exam at least once in their high school experience. Which test depends on whether CB or ACT got their hands deeper in the pockets of the respective state departments of education!
DO NOT take any test cold. This is a very bad and outdated advise. You just need to do timed practice test to get an idea on your current standing.
Ideally, one should try to finish SAT/ACT before April and then focus on AP exam. June would be the best time to take SAT2 if needed. Otherwise, you may have your final attempt in SAT/ACT. You need to have pretty much your final score before summer so you can compile a list of schools to apply. September/October would be the time for applying EA/ED schools. Some schools would not even accept October score for EA/ED.
Taking an SAT cold is very bad and outdated advice. SAT scores are permanent record. You can’t undo those scores, which might hurt you if a college requires all your scores.
But…
Taking an ACT cold on a National Test date is not necessarily bad nor outdated advice. You can Permanently Delete any score from a National Test date. You can make the scores disappear. Just make sure your high school removes the score from its records.
I have worked with more than a thousand students on test prep over the last decade alone. Students who take the real test on a real test date by the end of their sophomore years become better test takers later in high school. Football players hit each other in practice because they can’t learn all of the proper techniques just by hitting a tackling dummy. It is simply impossible for a commercial/noncommercial testing center to adequately simulate the atmosphere inside a real test room on a real test day. The earlier students are exposed to this atmosphere, the more time they’ll have to become comfortable within it. If, as charged here, my advice is outdated, then why is it still working for my students???
^^Sure that makes a lot of sense @midtntutor but there are going to be consequences to taking the test for real. For instance, if the student is applying to a selective school that requires all the test scores he/she is going to want as few real scores out there as possible. Two retakes seems one too many, IMHO, if you are reaching high. Several simulated practice exams from the Red Book under test conditions (i.e. strictly timed, bring along a snack and bottled water, take a break mid-test, have it proctored if at all possible) then he/she is going a long way toward minimizing the number of “for real” tests that need to be taken.
Test prep companies always want the students to have a “baseline” score to show how “effective” they are. You don’t need to pay for real test to get a baseline score. You may use the official book if you don’t like other brands for a practice test. You are going to need more than one practice test anyway. Even if you don’t trust Kaplan or PR, take their free practice test too. Don’t waste your money to take a real test cold.
What are the pros and cons of prepping for and taking the Sept/Oct ACTs?
Obviously, it’s too late for OP to take the Sept ACT. But as the parent of a sophomore, I was wondering if it would be better to do test prep in summer before junior year, when D19 will not have any other competing academic interests, rather than February and April of Junior year, when she will be busy taking some difficult classes.
I was thinking that another benefit of such “early” test prep is that it naturally becomes PSAT test prep.
This is exactly what my D18 is doing. She has five AP classes this year so she’ll be very busy in the spring. She has been casually using Khan Academy and the ACT Red Book to hone her standardized testing skills since June. She’s taking the ACT tomorrow, the SAT on October 1, then the PSAT later in the month. Using swim terminology (as my D is a swimmer), she’s taking all of the big tests while she’s tapered. If she doesn’t like her scores, she has opportunity to take them again.
I guess the biggest con is that in the spring they theoretically should have more knowledge under their belt. But what if kid waits for spring, and then is sick for the test? Or just plain burned out? Yikes.
As an aside, D is applying to schools that require SAT subject tests. It worked well for her last May to take the subject test as close as possible to the corresponding AP test. Her test dates were a day apart, actually. She’ll do that again this May with AP Bio and the SAT Bio subject test. No need to study twice!
Ordinarily it makes sense to wait. However, if they wait then do super well on PSAT and are NM contenders then they might have to throw the SAT into the spring mix along with other tests (ACT, subject, AP, etc.). So if they can take early they should but only if they are a very strong tester.
My D17 prepped and took aCT in the spring/summer of sophomore year. She then prepped for PSAT and took that in October of Junior year. Because she did so well on PSAT she decided to take the initial new SAT (March of Junior year). She then took two subject tests right around the same time as her two AP tests. She did well on everything but boy - was she GLAD to be done with all that testing!!!
Her situation is not the same as her older siblings (both of whom sat their standardized tests in spring of Junior year). A lot depends on the individual kid.