<p>It is tough. This is the time when we have to really shift the locus of control from us to them, and they are still shaky in their abilities. (and some of them have some natural rebelliousness going on, too.)</p>
<p>For better or worse, I am letting the boys be the leaders on this college/college app stuff. They talk to the counselors. They get the teacher recs. They contact the ad coms. Could I do it better? Probably. But it isn’t my job to do this stuff. </p>
<p>Same thing with the senioritis and the motivation. I tell my senior to hang in there one more semester, stay focused, but I can’t make him do it. I have to hope now that he is in the habit of doing good work and will continue. </p>
<p>I like the comment above about how hard we are on 17 year olds these days, how perfect they have to be. I remember int he old days when we cut them more slack, too. </p>
<p>We are in a similar situation, “chasing merit.” Our D will take the ACT for the 4th time this month, trying to raise her score by one point. We decided that it was worth the investment to pay for a tutor, when 1 point can mean tens of thousands of dollars in merit. I highly recommend having your D work with a tutor. </p>
<p>Ok…sounds like in the R she either missed a section, didn’t finish, or mis-bubbled at some point. Did she say that she didn’t finish? A 20 after doing well previously looks like a big mistake. </p>
<p>I would have her take the SAT. There is no Science section to bring down her score. She only has to practice the Math and CR sections because no one cares about the W section. </p>
<p>just an aside…my older son didn’t tell us that he hated using public bathrooms when anyone else was there, so when he first started testing, we couldn’t understand why he would have perfect/near-perfect results at the beginning of the tests, and then miss a bunch at the end (we had ordered the score reports to see what was going on). Then he confessed that by the end of the test he had to pee so badly he couldnt think straight. He wouldn’t use the public bathrooms during the breaks because there would be others there. </p>
<p>So, we worked on that “problem” and then he began scoring extremely well. </p>
<p>Just mentioning that there may be a hidden problem that you don’t know about. We sure were shocked!!!</p>
<p>Do you think she should try the SAT instead? It’s more about intuition than knowledge, so kids who aren’t going to study for it might have a better shot. Yes, I know this is a generalization, but some kids really do better on one test than the other, and she might be one of those kids. Otherwise, encourage her to find a financial safety if you don’t think she’ll qualify for any merit aid.</p>
<p>I’m not saying a 27 isn’t good. I know very little about the ACT. It always seemed like a high stakes test to me–what if the student was at a poor-performing high school or the material from that science class they slept through was all over the test? </p>
<p>The Science section isn’t about substantive knowledge, such as the periodic table or mitosis. It tests the student’s ability to read charts, tables and graphs and draw information from them. </p>
<p>My D took the ACT twice - and was disappointed with her scores. So she took the SAT and that was equivalent to 3 more ACT points. Some kids test better on one than the other - the SAT was better for our D. </p>
<p>My kids took the PLAN, took the state ACT and took the regular ACT one time and #3 took it two times. I could never have gotten them to take another standardized test senior fall…I think the OP should roll with the 27 which is at or above 80th percentile nationally and let it go. </p>
<p>If an ACT 27 is good enough to get her into the school that she want then that is fine. However, if merit is also needed to afford that school that accepts here, then she needs to retest.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>True, but the fact remains that the SR section brings down a number of students’ scores…so try the SAT. </p>
<p>It does seem like something odd happened with this last test. The strange drop in the CR score suggests that she either grossly mis-bubbled or skipped a section or something.</p>
<p>I know a student who took the Sept ACT and also was thrown by the reading comparative - said had done more than 20 practice tests and had never seen that. So score was also lower than other scores, but still had a 33 composite.</p>
<p>Maybe there are some new practice tests with the new ‘comparative’ reading - or a tutor can help with how to do this kind of Q & A.</p>
<p>The drop in the ACT Reading is most likely the result of the new format. Instead of reading one passage at a time, the new format that was tested in the September exam asks the student to read and compare two passages. This would throw off the timing as well as be quite difficult for someone not expecting this format.</p>
<p>Was it a <em>timing</em> issue? If a student doesn’t finish a section and randomly bubbles in a rush at the end it can bring the score down. If she finished <em>all</em> sections without random guessing at the end it may be more the types of questions. I know my D did substantially better on the SAT than the ACT, in part because of running out of time on the Science and Math sections. My S, on the other hand, did marginally better on the ACT - and had no timing issues. </p>
<p>I would say she should definitely try the SAT at least once. Can you still register for November? If not, December should still be okay for many colleges. If scores are low, you don’t need to report. And if she does better, how wonderful! Good luck. </p>