@inthegarden Well, there are worse things in life than having a kid who decides on her own that she wants MORE standardized testing. That said, I would have her take a timed practice test at home if she hasn’t already done so. I think it’s wise to have a real sense of the pacing before going in. And if she’s going to do any prep, I agree that Science is the best area to focus. Also as the SAT sometimes has more technical or scientific reading passages, it wouldn’t be time wasted. FWIW, my older D decided to try the ACT after getting a reasonable score on the SAT and was very pleased with her ACT result. Maybe that 34 will happen!
Not sure yet if D21 will jump in the Feb ACT. She’s signed up but has decided to switch to SAT and she’s started studying for that. I’m ok just losing the money if she doesn’t want to sit for the Feb ACT. I plan on just leaving it up to her and we haven’t talked about it yet. Good luck to anyone taking it!
My post should say “no prep” rather than “I prepped…” love autocorrect! ?
DS did well on the SAT but wants to take the ACT also but really has no time til April. He took each section individually under timed conditions over break and did well so hopefully he can take all sections at once before then and have higher scores than the SAT to use for his applications.
A question is whether to send out the 4 free reports to some of the colleges he is interested in…do most of you do this or wait and see the scores first? Do most colleges allow self-reporting with submission after acceptance?
@yearstogo Colleges are very split right now on accepting self-reported scores. Check each of their websites now and again in the fall, as it’s likely more colleges will make the move to self-reporting over the summer. I would not use free reports if possible, but wait and decide in the fall, when the college list is relatively final, their score policies are known, and all the student’s scores are in, so you can choose the best one(s).
@yearstogo , I think the best reason to use the free score reports is to show interest to a college that uses “interest” as one of its means of acceptance. For example, Rice is big on interest so sending score reports, doing an interview, emailing admissions questions, etc. is supposedly tracked to show your student’s level of interest. They are trying to nail down who to accept by actually accepting those who will attend. If two students have the same basic credentials, they will accept the one has shown interest.
I would never send a score before we see it. But I would send scores as soon as they are final scores to schools on the list. I think S19 sent his scores to his schools in June before senior year since he got the score he wanted to use in August of junior year. I think it does show interest and colleges just keep it in their “file” until the rest of the application materials are sent.
I think using the free reports makes more sense if you have a good idea of your child’s test taking ability. We knew our daughter had always tested well on standardized tests so we did use the 4 free score reports.
We did do some calculated ‘risk analysis’ though and sent the 4 free reports to schools on her list (1 safety, 2 matches, 1 reach) and we chose the ones that consider interest. We sent the remaining 5 schools (on her list) the scores as soon as they came out; she had exceeded her target and we thought it was again an easy way to show interest (she received her scores last July and we sent them out in July so way before many people are sending stuff to start their application files at colleges).
All in all, I think we spent something like $65 on sending scores…and it turned out that our daughter decided to apply to only 2 schools EA and 1 school ED so some of the score sending was ‘wasted’…but she had created her list very thoughtfully so if we wasted $50 on sending scores - we thought it was a good trade off.
My son registered for the Feb ACT but then we realized that Aggieland Saturday (preview day/open house at TAMU) is also Feb 8 and he wants to go back for that so he’s going to change his registration to the April date.
There’s no way I would have D send the free scores, especially never having taken the ACT. She did one timed practice test in December over two days and scored roughly the same as on the SAT (had no trouble with the timing) but lots of students score higher on practice tests than the real thing. Plus, different tests have different curves. Just too risky.
@mamaedefamilia, yeah, I think studying for the ACT science section is a win/win for both tests, because ALL the questions my D missed in ERW/ SAT were in science analysis!
Really, I’m only humoring her to let her do the ACT at this point. I’d rather she try it later after giving SAT math her focused time, and then prep separately for it if she still has energy to take it. But, I guess there’s no risk…if the ACT results aren’t as good as her current SAT we’ll just drop it.
I’ve been cautioned to not go into the ACT with no prep, as that is the test that tends to flag students when there are huge score increases between tests. But if she does well enough on the first ACT to warrant a second test (as opposed to another SAT) she would be high enough already that a huge increase in scores is not needed and unlikely anyway (as I can’t imagine her ever scoring a combined 35/36 without her devoting her whole life to it for months. We’re just not aiming for that). I think it’s when there’s a jump of more than four or five ACT points when there’s increased chance of being flagged.
@Momof3B, can you change the registration without paying more? If D gets cold feet maybe I’ll suggest that.
@inthegarden it’s an additional $16 to change the date
Thanks! ^^
We use the free score reports. Everyone super scores that we sent to (mostly safeties at this point). We held off sending to he4 top pick, but they’re going to most likely see 2 sets of scores anyway to super score.
^^^That makes sense, except for those of us who may not send the ACT at all. Since my D already took the SAT and got an unexpectedly high ERW score that will be hard to beat on either test, it’s likely she’ll end up superscoring the SAT.
I actually forgot - D did take an ACT because she had done well on the practice test she took. I didn’t send those scores - and she ended up not doing great so that worked!
So, S21 just texted me that he wants to drop AP Gov, which he signed up for via the districts Virtual Learning Academy to take online. The course technically started yesterday, (Our second semester started Jan 7) so he’s in the time frame to drop. He said after looking over the course work and syllabus he feels he’d do better in a live class setting senior year. Plus, he wants to participate in some debate competitions this term and doesn’t want to get overwhelmed as he also has Pre AP Pre Cal this term and math is not his strong suite.
It’s his ship to sale, so I told him to talk to his counselor and do what he feels is best…I hope I get the class cost refunded lol.
@Momof3B What the downside to waiting until next year? I don’t see one. And I’m skeptical of online AP classes anyway. No one learns best online.
@homerdog no downside at all…the only reason I think he decided to take it online now was so that it would free up some space in his schedule senior year and give him “Senior Out”…he could either take off first period or leave after 3rd…sounded alluring but now common sense is prevailing lol.
@Momof3B leave after third period? Whoa! I understand about looking forward to an “easier” senior year but I think that’s usually not realistic. S19 had a full load senior year and D21 will be the same with five APs, two honors, and yearbook class. In fact, her schedule will mean she has to take early bird gym at 7:10 for the whole year in order to fit all of her classes in! Sometimes, first semester grades matter - most RD timelines insist on having those grades - and you don’t want to look like you’re sailing along with less rigor.
The time to “rest” bit is later into the second semester. If grades are decent, it’s ok to finish off the year a little slower than usual. Grades a little lower are generally ok. And the summer before the kids leave for college is really non-stress. No summer homework!