<p>My D is a junior and has a 24 on her ACT and is retaking in June. She needs to improve by about 5 more points to be in the range of her dream school. All of her grades - 4.0 unweighted, ECs, awards, are all in place and she's going along smoothly, just is a poor standardized test taker. She's taken an ACT prep class and we have all the practice tests and scoring guides…..I just can't get her to practice. Granted, her time is limited, it's track season and AP tests are coming up, but I / we can't find the right motivation for an extra 1/2 hour to 45 min every other night or so to practice. That combined with a typical teenage attitude of "I probably won't improve anyway…" attitude isn't helping…..</p>
<p>5 points is a LOT. The ACT is a test of speed, and since she is on the track team, she understands the need for interval training. The ACT is no different. To gain speed on that test, better to practice at home in short bursts. Take a section and its related questions and try to answer in 10 minutes. Then work it down to 6.</p>
<p>Or. try the SAT. Some students just do better on that test.</p>
<p>@bluebayou is right, it is a test of speed and the approach laid out is a good one. If she doesn’t want to practice, it is okay. She just needs to adjust her vision of a dream school. It is really that simple. </p>
<p>Yeah - the practice makes better strategy is what I’m trying to get her to do. Any bribe or motivational ideas? I would like to think that getting into her dream college would be motivation enough, but she’s 16 </p>
<p>SAT is not an option - she took it - hated it and did worse than her ACT :/</p>
<p>We have a similar dilemma w/math SAT score…need 100 points. Here is what we are doing…SAT Blue book is sitting at the table in the kitchen. Son has his choice of when to do the 20-25 min timed session, but it must be done daily, before dinner. (He gets out early, so this is very generous timing). Then, dad corrects after dinner, and every couple of days they sit down and rework missed problems. Non negotiable, and if he grouses he loses a privilege (video game/YouTube privilege or phone after school). So far so good…but if I give him an inch, he tries to take a mile, so I am kinda hard nosed. 20-25 min is not much time, even with his 4 AP classes and ECs. Good luck!</p>
<p>Also, look into schools that are test-optional or put less stress on ACT/SAT scores. She sounds like one of those students for whom tests are less effective predictors of performance. </p>
<p>Or, does she have any documented LDs? Do you, for instance, have the option of accommodations? The extra time accommodation on the ACT can be especially helpful to bright students with focus or processing issues. </p>
<p>Since her composite score is a 24, to raise her score to get a 29 composite score is going to take a lot of work. It is not impossible but it is really going to be an uphill climb. I agree with Elliemom that while is is prepping, you should also look at the test optional schools on fairtest.org</p>
<p>One of my favorite mantras during the stressful college search times was to “love the kid on the couch”. Instead of looking for dream colleges, it’s so much less stressful to concentrate on colleges where your kid has the right stats to get in. If she’s not willing to work hard now to get into a challenging college, how will she do when she’s attending?</p>
<p>I think you’d be doing her a bigger favor by convincing her to drop the entire idea of a “dream school”. That notion causes more unnecessary angst than any other issue in the whole college search process. If she doesn’t want to attempt to raise her ACT score (and I agree that raising it 5 points would be very difficult if not impossible), then tell her to forget her “dream” school and start looking at schools which are realistic given her ACT score.</p>
<p>It should not be your problem to make her work to raise her score.</p>
<p>Here’s an idea (as a Senior in highschool) for how to motivate her. I don’t know her personality, but I can think of two things that may work.
Give her monetary incentives for spending 45 min- 1.5 hr every Friday (right after school or track)
Have a long talk with her about how important it is for her to score better. IN MY OPINION, the test is a function of how much you study. Everyone starts off at a different place, but with intensive studying your daughter can bring up her score by 5 points. Simply put, you do better on the ACT by taking the ACT.
Just my two cents. </p>
<p>It’s her job. You can provide the tools but she needs to do the work. My daughter liked the ACT flash cards as she could review 10 or so at a time. She did several practice tests at her own pace.</p>
<p>I bought the study guides, she did the work. I arranged for her to have one tutoring session, but unfortunately the tutor got sick and she couldn’t meet with her. I think that would have helped a lot.</p>
<p>Another vote for dropping the idea of “dream school”. We really discouraged this idea with our kids. We wanted them to be willing to attend every school they applied to. And we looked long and hard to find the right list of schools – a lot of researching and visiting so this would be the case. It is a lot harder to find a safety they genuinely like – reach schools are so much easier to find (and like). Our kids kept an open mind until after accepted student visits in April, and both ended up surprising me and were VERY happy with their choices.</p>
<p>Sure, she should study and bring up her scores if possible. But part of your job as a parent is to help her do a realistic and balanced college search. It is really important to have affordable schools that she can likely get into and likes. If she has “reach” schools on her list, make sure she knows the odds of admission given her statistics AND any financial parameters you place around attendance (if she needs a specific aid package to attend, be sure you say that up front).</p>
<p>When my kid did extra studying for the SAT, we set aside from 4-6 pm on Sunday afternoons. We never attempted study sessions during the week. And I didn’t leave her to her own devices. I timed her practice tests, graded them, then we went over what she missed together.</p>
<p>Just my opinion. 5 ACT points in about 6 weeks for a kid who isn’t motivated to really grind it and push themselves to the limit just isn’t going to happen. Honestly, even if she was that kind of motivated it probably wouldn’t happen anyway since you’ve already got a pretty good idea that she doesn’t shine in standardized testing. I’m never against a well-placed bribe, believe me, but if the skill set isn’t there you could promise the moon and it’s not gonna change things. I’d go with the test optional options. She sounds like a smart, well rounded girl who just needs to find a new “dream” school. </p>
<p>Some kids are not ready to have the entire weight of responsibility dropped on them at 16. We took that tact with one of our older kids, and by senior year he was ready to bear the weight of all things college related. For him, it was too late for his dream schools, so he went the CC route and transferred. Not the end of the world by a long shot, but he was very depressed and I wished we had helped him more earlier in the process. He was by all accounts academically and socially ready to go away to school, but his 16 year old brain had a hard time with projecting out that far and managing the whole long process. Now with our youngest ( who is also a young for his grade like his older sib was) we are guiding him through the process with what some would call too much help. I just want him to avoid the remorse that oldest felt in June of Sr. Year. Our hope is to gradually let out the reigns, but the big issues are in joint control. YMMV.</p>
<p>kids have to take ownership of their own scores. My two younger ones had fairly average PSAT scores. I told them that if they want to have options for decent merit aid at a private school they needed to up the ante, otherwise it would be instate public. i spent about $2k on each for private test prep tutoring one on one. yes, that is a lot of money…but that the way the game is played. Both improved by a lot, but they had to do the homework that was given, and they practiced. My daughter liked ACT, but many kids can’t finis, so you need to practice speed and also don’t get intimidated by science portion of test. My son preferred SAT and improved by about 500 points…with practice…I am not kidding…SAT is definitely teachable. kids can improve if they practice, but they gotta buckle down and THEY need to want the higher score. Time and money spent on test prep is worth it if you want to get merit aid…It definitely paid off for us. It’s real money they will lose with a mediocre score, a 24 will not get her anything and probably not even get her in in many schools. with a 24 you would not get even into a Calstate University here in CA. So, tell her that it’s her life and her missed options . she has a good GPA, so she should be able do it if SHE wants it.</p>
<p>I asked our son a month ago to please give me a month to go over practice tests, watch youtube videos (and there are a lot of videos pertaining to ACT!), and go over forgotten formulas, etc. and that hopefully with his hard work he could raise his score for better scholarships. He has a 27 as of now, which we are thrilled about, but with higher scores comes more money. Has he done this with a smile, umm NO! But, he is doing it and with each point that he adds to his practice tests, he sees that it is working. As of this week, he asked us if we would throw some money into the mix… 50.00 for a 28, 100.00 for a 29 and 150.00 for 30 and above. We laughed and said YES! Hey, whatever works at this point! I figure that is small change compared to college costs! </p>
<p>I don’t see that spending $2,000 for prep tutoring is really having them take ownership, even if there is homework! A kid can raise their scores with a couple of good prep books and a parent willing to time and go over answers with them, too.</p>
<p>@intparent - not every parent has the time unfortunately, and some parents don’t have the skill set. Here on CC, I always cringe when I see serious spelling or grammatical errors from parents who are purporting to be coaching their own kids on the SAT. (I have to hold myself back from correcting people because I think it’s rude - but there area couple of doozies in one of the posts in this thread!)</p>
<p>5 points is alot on the ACT. Most kids can raise it 2 points the second time they take it but there is diminishing return on the ACT after two times as sections go up and down and the composite doesn’t change all that much. Pick the section she did the worse on and work on that section. Most kids can do well on the math since it’s the basic pre-college stuff with only about 2 Trig questions so if she goes back and quickly reviews Algebra I and Geometry she might pick up a point or two. Most kids can raise the science once they understand it’s deductive science and not “memorizing” formulas type stuff…but I would pick one section to work on. Read the questions FIRST for the Reading sections then go back and review the passage looking for the answers to the questions is the trick the kids learned. You could ask her GC how kids in her high schools score…it’s possible that the “A” crowd at her high school is primarily ACT 25-30 kids and you could get a pretty good idea where they apply and get accepted. The nice thing is in June you can “tweak” the college list if you need to. An A student with a 25 or 26 on an ACT is a sweet spot for many, many of all but the most selective colleges. </p>
<p>High school senior here, I needed to improve a lot on the SAT and ended up improving over 100 points, but it was because I was motivated and I knew I needed to do it. I spent a lot of time just doing practice sections and doing whatever my prep teachers told me to. I even brought my books to the beach and did it. Make sure to time them too. 5 points is a lot for the ACT, but if worse comes to worse there are September and October dates so, maybe she can go up 2 or 3 points on this test, work hard preparing the whole summer and go up the rest of the way. I’ve also seen as I learned more in school, mainly math, it helped me with the test, I found it slightly easier and I did better. I ended up getting my desired score and basically scored the same on the SAT and ACT. What section does she struggle the most with or does she do similar on all of them?</p>
</p>