Low ACT scores...please give us hope!

Parents Forum
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<p>Mom2CollegeKids - I am feeling much better about her chances of being accepted with her scores. She took a partial practice test last night and improved dramatically! A 28 on both science and math. I think she gets very nervous during the test. Her lowest scores are in reading and writing. She doesn’t read fast enough to get through the questions and has to guess. </p>

<p>Your question prompted me to calculate our realy EFC. WOW! That is sobering! I ran the numbers at Wake Forest and we are expected to pay $50K per year. That is out of the question. We have 2 other kids at home and won’t have anything left for their college. I ran them for Auburn and we are expected to pay the entire bill, but it’s 1/2 the price. </p>

<p>chaos - Our top school visits so far have been Vandy and UF. Both are out of the question with her test scores. We knew Vandy was a reach, but as UF alumni parents we are very surprised to see how competitive admission is 25 years later…</p>

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<p>MomOfThree – Good job on figuring out your EFC. Figuring out what you CAN pay annually, plus a bit for what she can earn over the summer, plus possibly a Stafford loan will give you a much better sense of what you ought to look at. I would suspect that most of the LAC’s and OOS public universities will not provide much of anything in the way of merit awards or grants, since the merit is heavily influenced by test scores and the grants are based on EFC and OOS public universities often have little institutional aid for OOS applicants unless they’re at the very top of the admissions pool. If your EFC is at $45K or greater, I’d be surprised if you got much grant aid at any but the colleges with absolutely super financial aid. </p>

<p>Auburn’s COA is 26.5K for in-state next year; 42K for OOS. Are you in-state for Georgia?
Is the $26.5 doable? Is she eligible for HOPE? (Not sure what the funding status is for that in 2012-13)</p>

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<p>arabrab - She can qualify for in-state status in AL and FL. There is not a Hope scholarship program in Alabama. I haven’t researched the Bright Futures scholarship in Florida too much yet.</p>

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<p>If she is already scoring in her target range for math and science, a general test prep class may not be the right strategy. An individual tutor working with her on the English and Writing sections might get you more bang for your buck. If she isn’t reading fast enough, she needs to be reading a lot more of the type of literature she’s exposed to on the test. There are no tricks that I know of that work for improving reading speed; you just need to be more fluent in the kind of written English she is encountering on the test. Over the summer, reading the kind of novels that would have been covered in the AP English course may help her.</p>

<p>If she is guessing on almost all of the verbal questions because she can’t finish the excerpts, then her score may go up if she ignores one or two of them and concentrates on getting all the questions right in the remaining ones. This technique won’t get her to a 32, but it might get her to a 23 on that section.</p>

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<p>Hanna - She’s on week 4 of the test prep class. It is the reason she’s improved on her practice tests. They gave her some good strategies and it seems to be paying off. Her confidence is improving. Hopefully that will help to settle her nerves in the actual exam. Last week she bumped up 7 points on the reading practice test by following a technique she learned in the class. They suggested working on the reading sections in order of which she scores best, rather than the order they are on the test. </p>

<p>After the June 9th exam scores are released, we will look into private tutoring for the fall exam dates.</p>

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<p>MomofThree95 -I totally get the slow reading problem. When S1 was younger we worked with a professional and here is the “meat” of what they said about my son “It is a matter of training your eyes to move faster and of training your brain to read in phrases versus word by word” </p>

<p>Get an app for her phone or ipad like ‘K12 timed reading.’ There is a free version and the full one is only $1.99. There are only 5 or 6 words on each line (which teaches reading multiple words) and if she starts a low grade level (like 4th) and spends 15 minutes a day trying to read faster and faster, it should help. I am sure there are hundreds of these programs, but see if she is willing to do this one before you drop the big bucks. </p>

<p>If I recall correctly, I think Sparknotes online .com had some short practice ACT tests.</p>

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<p>Are they telling her to skip the ones she scores most poorly on altogether? What is her score like on an untimed reading section?</p>

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<p>MomofThree: Check the schools she is interested in; they might not consider writing. (The schools my DS is interested in don’t.) In fact, on the first day the ACT scores were available, they showed the composite WITHOUT the writing score and, IN RED, it said that the writing score was not included yet and that it WILL NOT affect the composite. I don’t remember the exact wording but it was very encouraging to me since the writing is my DS’ weakest area too (he’s also a math/science kid). </p>

<p>As a side note, he was able to bring up his reading/English sections considerably by taking several practice tests and studying – which was so painful for him because he absolutely does not like these subjects. Interestingly, for the reading section, the tutor discovered - the week before the actual test - that he did better on the reading selections on topics he did not like than those on topics that were of interest to him. Maybe it had something to do with the attention he paid to the details, but this observation helped him. Also - we used a national franchise test center for tutoring and usually had the same tutor (that was what I wanted). However, on occasion when his tutor wasn’t available and he had someone else, there seemed to be breakthroughs, new findings/revelations, such as the observation about which reading selections he did better on.</p>

<p>Finally, Many schools DO super-score the ACT (including DS’ first choice), so check that out as well for the colleges your DD is interested in.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>Momof3, if it is her nerves getting in the way, the suggestion to practice, practice, practice is a good one. Not overwhelming if broken down to a little bit every day. Have you/she signed up for the question of the day at College Board? I think you can have it emailed and it only takes a few minutes. My sympathies to your D, it is hard to not get stressed when you think a test will affect your entire life, so if you have not yet shared with her the list of test-optional schools, I hope you will now.</p>

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<p>If UF is her dream and a family tradition, and her grades are much better than her scores, it would make a lot of sense to think about a 2+2 plan, at least as a backup. I assume that she wants to go away to a college with dorms, Greek life, etc. rather than staying home and going to community college. If she goes to UWF, UNF, etc. and does as well academically as she has been doing in HS, she has an excellent chance of getting into UF, and her scores won’t matter after two years of college work.</p>

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<p>Reading slowly…</p>

<p>Have your D silently read a paragraph. Ask her if she’s “silently pronouncing” each word as she goes along. If she is, that is what’s slowing down her reading. She needs to just “absorb” the words in her head without “silently pronouncing”. </p>

<p>She can practice by using her finger to move across words and to force her eyes to move more quickly across sentences.</p>

<p>* I ran them for Auburn and we are expected to pay the entire bill, but it’s 1/2 the price. *</p>

<p>??? Auburn is going to be about $40k OOS; are you aware of that?</p>

<p>What is your home state?</p>

<p>How much can you pay each year?</p>

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<p>She qualifies for in-state status for Florida or Alabama.</p>

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<p>Chronic low scores on standardized exams relative to in-class grades can be an indicator for learning disabilities in the dyslexia and/or processing range. It also can be an indicator for test-induced anxiety. Both of these things are best dealt with while your child is still in high school and has access to formal classroom and testing accommodations. If she can a handle on how her brain works now, she will be better able to do well once she’s in college.</p>

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<p>Thanks happymomof1. I am 99% positive the problem is test anxiety.</p>

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<p>MomofThree95: </p>

<p>I just went through this college admission process. I researched colleges since 8th grade, so I know a thing or two about this crazy process. I had a pretty successful outcome as well. </p>

<p>I first took the SAT and got a 1350. I then took the ACT and got an 18. I retook the SAT and got a 1420. I cried when I saw my ACT scores, but it wasn’t the end of the world. I had around a 3.4 GPA when I applied to colleges (with over 10 honor classes/5 AP classes). I originally thought it was just text anxiety, but I’m just a bad test taker. It irritates me when people on CC automatically think it is just a learning disability. Not that there is anything wrong with people who have them, but just because one is a bad tester, it does not mean one has a learning disability. A lot of my honor/AP friends got around the same score as I did. It’s perfectly normal. CC is just elitist, pure and simple. I didn’t study much for the SAT or ACT. I took a useless SAT prep class at my school and glanced at a bunch of prep books, but in my mind, it wasn’t worth the time and energy. The SAT/ACT are stupid tests. I’m so glad I’ll be attending a college where they look past scores. They do not define how smart your D is. I didn’t even have time to read one passage when I took the ACT. I only took it once though because I did a tad bit better on the SAT math/reading.</p>

<p>I applied to 16 colleges. I was accepted to 13 of them (12 with merit aid), wait-listed at 2 of them and rejected at the one in state public school. I applied to a lot because I needed a significant financial aid package. I applied to the majority of the CTCL schools. I didn’t just apply to SAT Optional Colleges. I got accepted to Clark (7k merit), Wooster (10k merit), Allegheny (10k merit), Hiram (10k merit), Ohio Wesleyan (15k merit), Flagler etc with my SAT scores. I didn’t submit my ACT score. These schools look past SAT/ACT scores. They look at the applicant holistically. The average SAT scores at these scores are MUCH higher then mine, but I got in with merit aid. That says something. Most people on CC told me I would get rejected because they couldn’t possibly think that someone with low SAT scores can do so well in this process. They thought there was something wrong with me. But then there were posters like calmom who disagreed with the majority and encouraged me to apply to schools like Clark. I had posters who secretly hoped I would fail during this process to prove that people with low SAT scores will not succeed. Well I had them proved wrong and even when I found an affordable school, some CC posters still found something wrong with it. </p>

<p>Anyways, I would personally focus on CTCL schools (Hendrix, Rhodes, Emory and Henry, Lynchburg, Guilford, Eckerd, etc). Not all of them are 50k per year and after financial aid they can even be cheaper then in-state. However, for your D, U Alabama may be the most logical since she’ll get in with a 1000 SAT and it’s in-state tuition. Even if I got the Hope Scholarship (90% tuition free), my parents would have to pay 13k in-state. We are paying 8k for my private CTCL with financial aid. Yes, I’m taking $7,500 loans per year, but IMO it’s worth it. State colleges will mostly just care about GPA/SAT scores. It’s the small private schools, which look at the individual. I got rejected at a state college because of my SAT score. The CTCL schools SAT score average was actually much higher then the state schools. Top LACs like Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Holy Cross, etc are SAT Optional. You may want to look into the New College of Florida. It’s a great school, but very small. I hope your D does better on her re-take, but if she doesn’t, it isn’t the end of the world. Please don’t let anyone make you think so. This may be a bit harder for your D though, since she is looking at bigger schools. </p>

<p>I will be attending Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.</p>

<p>Good Luck with this process! I actually found the financial aid process even more complicated.</p>

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<p>Early - Thank you for sharing your story! I really appreciate it.</p>

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<p>The whole summer is available to practice. I would suggest focusing on the ACT since she is strong in science. You can probably take it twice in the fall. Work on those reading passages - just do one a day - it is more about developing confidence and it is good for your brain anyway! Then her confidence will build over the summer. Even if her first test in the fall is still low, there can be huge improvement just one month later. Happened to us - so it is possible. The reading passages change with every test so there is still hope - and you can still have plan B in process.</p>

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<p>It may be almost too late before the June ACT, but see if you can track down a copy of “Zen and the Art of the SAT” - actually just checked and it’s out for Kindle now, too. While the book was written with the SAT in mind, a lot will still apply to the ACT.</p>

<p>I need to do what I call “mental toughness training” with a lot of my tutoring students, and I often have them start with reading that book. It can really help nail down what sort of irrational thinking she’s doing that’s revving up her anxiety. It also gives some concrete strategies for how to deal with unhelpful anxiety-driven behaviors on test day. </p>

<p>I agree with trying the SAT, but just have her take a practice test at home before trying the real thing. Whichever she feels most comfortable with, stick with it. The SAT and ACT are VERY different tests and switching back and forth is a bad idea for an anxious kid. It’s better for her confidence to focus on only one of the two. It’s a confidence-killer to go in and take an official SAT unprepared - a low score will only increase her fears about her abilities.</p>

<p>Hope that helps a bit. Feel free to PM me if you need more help!</p>

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<p>I would say as a professor at Harvard who attended an all Women’s college followed by an Ivy league medical school, with good high school grades and 450s on my SATs that your daughter will be fine, a small liberal arts college that doesnt use these crazy tests and is nurturing is probably the way to go. That is what I am advising my own junior…mom and dad both professors at Harvard, neither with SATs above 500, these tests are meaningless</p>

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<p>I agree 100% with clueless :)</p>