<p>I'm a junior and took the act this December. I still have yet to receive my scores because i switch to the writing act on the day of the act. Anyways i didnt put in my top four colleges on the act website. And now im registering for the feb act. Should i put any colleges? Is this important? What happens when you dont? Can you not use those scores? </p>
<p>Also, im not very good at the act, i was around the 20 range (with preparing), i know i can take the test as many times as i want, but is that a bad thing for colleges to look at if you took it like 5 or 6 times?</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>You do NOT want to take it 5 or 6 times. Wait to retake it when you are comfortable that you are as prepared as you will ever be. You can send your scores to the colleges you apply to at a later date, during your application period. </p>
<p>You may find the ACT forum has helpful preparation tips.
[ACT</a> Preparation - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/act-preparation/]ACT”>ACT Preparation - College Confidential Forums)</p>
<p>Are you taking the SAT? There is a forum for that with some good preparation tips pinned to the top.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering my question.</p>
<p>But my question is still not answered, what is the point of putting your top 4 colleges when you register, what happens if you dont?</p>
<p>And lets just say i take it 5 times? will colleges see that?</p>
<p>If you are expecting satisfactory scores, then fill in those free score report to save money. You may put down some safety schools or schools that want all scores anyway. If you do not choose any school for free score report, you just need to pay for each school (and each score for ACT) to be submitted later on.</p>
<p>so do you recommend putting in the schools? I’m thinking mostly about UIC, DePaul, Loyola.</p>
<p>I think what ppl are saying is that there are a few things to consider re putting down schools when you register (for sending free score reports):<br>
- Do you think you will do well on this ACT test so that you feel OK sending it to schools or do you want to wait and see your score first before deciding if you want to send it?</p>
<p>For this consideration you may want to think about whether a college you’re interested in applying to requires scores for all tests taken anyway (check your preferred schools’ admissions websites to see what they require). In that case, you may think it doesn’t hurt to choose to send the score reports before you know your score since they will see them all anyway. If you do pretty well, then you saved that extra fee.</p>
<p>If you think that maybe the SAT may be a test better suited to your testing style, you may wish to try the SAT too and see how you do before sending in scores to schools. After trying both tests, you may find that you score higher on one than the other and may just want to send only the ACT or only the SAT to schools to which you plan to apply.</p>
<p>2) Then there is financial consideration. You get to send the score reports w/o additional charge if you elect the schools before. Otherwise if you wait to get your scores, then you end up having to pay for each report. So you have to weigh whether it is worth the extra money to get to see your scores first and then decide if/where you want to send them. As billcsho mentioned, you could also consider how confident you feel going into the test (hopefully based on practice tests you took beforehand). </p>
<p>3) billcsho also mentioned that you could choose to send scores to safety schools.</p>
<p>My DS wanted to wait to see how he did since he hadn’t taken the ACT or SAT before - we decided it was worth it to have the control of getting to see you score on each test and then deciding. </p>
<p>In case you want to try both SAT and ACT to see which you like better…This is DS’s impression of the difference b/t the 2 tests - other ppl may have other opinions: ACT - more straightforward, but you have to move much more quickly to finish it well. SAT: must read questions more carefully to avoid “dumb” mistakes but can easily finish w/ time to spare. </p>
<p>Instead of taking the ACT multiple times, it is probably better if you take practice tests and look at where you are losing points or not finishing in time. Then try to focus on those areas. Get the “Real ACT” book which has a bunch of practice tests for you to work on before you sit for the actual test that counts. My son found he had to focus on moving more quickly through the reading sections and just worked on those sections before taking the actual test. If you want to get a feel for the SAT, you can get the “blue book” with SAT practice tests put out by the College Board.</p>
<p>thank you so much, you answered all my questions. I’m definitely going to get the red book.</p>
<p>red book is amazing! went from a 28 to a 31 w/ 11 essay</p>