<p>My DS took the ACT for the second time in October and increased his score by 2 points. We are hoping third time is a charm. When he took the PLAN it projected his score to be 30-33, so far he had a 27 and a 29. He just wants a 30. I would like him to get a 32. :D </p>
<p>Took the SAT twice, didn’t get anywhere near my desired score. Took the ACT once, got close to my desired score, so I retook it and ended up getting very close to my desired score of around a 35. If your son hasn’t ever taken the SAT, see if he does better on that. If not, just have him prepare for the next ACT more and hopefully he gets a 30+.</p>
<p>Also, does the D stand for dear in DS?</p>
<p>^Yes the D did stand for dear. He took the SAT already and did not do well. He scored close to what he got on the PSAT. He had a tutor for the first time and took one practice test under her. He did not study the second time around. I have told him he had to pay for the next test. These are expensive “practice tests.”</p>
<p>Took the ACT twice to get the score I desired ( a 35 ). I did well the first time ( 33 ) and almost decided not to retake, but the second time I was less stressed and much more confident. So I’d say, based on my own experience the second time is easier ( because I went in knowing I already had a good score and I was used to the test). </p>
<p>Not sure that this is helpful, but I only took it once and got a 36.</p>
<p>Also, PLAN scores are, in my experience, pretty much entirely useless. I think mine projected a range of 32-35, and I know some projections were off by as much as 4 points, even given a range of 3 points.</p>
<p>Lapsis did you study before ? I mean I think it depends how much preparation someone has. I know I had much more preparation my second time and the first time I went in a little unprepared. A student that has studied thoroughly will logically do better his first time, than someone who has taken the test several time with superficial preparation. Then again some are naturally gifted and probably do not have to prepare much ( I mean the ACT is not an über demanding test, even though tricky )</p>
<p>depends on*</p>
<p>*times, gee I’m tired and writing poorly </p>
<p>@JeremyRotman
I sound completely arrogant, but that was actually taking it cold-- aside from looking up if I was allowed a calculator, I didn’t do any prep at all. To be honest, I’m shocked I got a 36.</p>
<p>Dear OP: You probably should not encourage your son to be like me. I only know one other person who got a 36 cold, and he was an actual genius and is now an aerospace engineer (i.e. rocket scientist).</p>
<p>@Lapsis Well that’s good, but you probably had the knowledge. That does not sound arrogant. I honestly did not study that much the content on the ACT, I think it’s not that hard, and you’ve probably seen everything in class (unlike me since I’m french but that’s my life ). Yeah you must be a good test taker and that’s great. Well what I did that helped boost my score up was practice the test. As I’ve said, I’m french and we don’t have standardized tests, so I took practice tests to get accustomed to it. After the practices I managed my time much better and probably improved a lot especially on the sections that are very strict on time. So that’s what I would recommend for students that deem they have the knowledge. Then again, I don’t think it hurts to study or to have a tutor for the OP.</p>
<p>Not counting the time he took it as an 8th grader as part of the Duke-TIP program, my son took the ACT 4 times over a 14 month period. His practice tests implied a score of around 30. First time he took he got a 25. He showed gradual improvement until the 4th try where he had a healthy jump to 33. </p>
<p>The 33 was plenty good for his first choice school, so we called it a day and he did not re-take at all his senior year.</p>
<p>I took it three times:</p>
<p>1st - 30C
2nd - 31C
3rd - 35C</p>
<p>My daughter took it twice. In Feb of her jr year she got a 29. She took it in September and got a 31. She actually got pretty stressed about the second test, so our feeling was that a 31 was good enough. It put her in the top 25% at all the schools she was interested in attending. She’s been offered or called into interview for their tops merit scholarships, so in her case a 31 was enough to do the job. We thought the Plan test was very accurate. It predicted a score between 29 and 32 for her. </p>
<p>So – The dec '14 ACT is in a few days. </p>
<p>what do you guys know about studying/practicing/prep classes? is there a lot of that going on? </p>
<p>how often do your kids - or you - take it? does it make sense to take it over and over if you haven’t prepped? </p>
<p>D16 took it her sophomore year (april) – has NOT studied or prepped for it as a junior, but we are having her take it again in a few days. SPRING will be the big one – we plan to have her take prep classes for the spring ACT test of her junior year. i’m interested to see how many times kids take it.</p>
<p>Son is taking it for the third time Saturday. He has gone over the math and one practice reading section. I’m hoping he gets his desired score this time and we can call it a day. </p>
<p>Only once was needed. I got a 35 (Writing 35, Math 36, Reading 36, Science 33 :|) </p>
<p>Took it twice. 31C first time, 33C the second time. </p>
<p>I’m not going to take it again. I’m satisfied with my section scores in the second round. I really focused on getting my math and science up. For practice, just drill over study books until you understand the concepts and learn how to balance your time in the room. You have to answer ~60 questions over a long point of time so it’s not like the SAT where it’s split up. </p>
<p>My first time taking Science I didn’t know how to manage my time and was rushing at the end. </p>
<p>I got 34 for my first try in April, took the advice here on CC and did not retake, but I am not sure if that was the right decision</p>
<p>I just walked in without studying and got a 32.</p>
<p>From what I am hearing from my son, most at his college prep school take it two times. </p>
<p>My son takes his first ACT tomorrow. He usually tests well on standardized tests (99 percentile) so did the prep on his own. If he does not get his goal score he will retake in February. If he retakes he will get a tutor so he will only hopefully need to take it one more time. </p>