Just following up to say I found out they are giving the Pre-ACT to 10th graders in our district on Nov. 27th so he will have chance to get 1st standardized test under belt.
Would love for him to prep around timing – I know that ACT tends to require students to move fast. Not sure if there’s any resources out there. Mostly would like him to do a little prep because I’d like him to get a decent score for confidence. I know it doesn’t really matter. Will hunt around and see if I can find anything he could do over the Thanksgiving break.
@AlmostThere2018 You can download several free practice ACT exams online. They come with answer keys and scoring instructions and are made up of real ACT questions. They are really great for getting the hang of the timing.
@AlmostThere2018 In addition to free on-line content, you can also buy an official ACT practice test book cheaply on Amazon - it has a red cover and I think it has 4 tests. My D17 used it. Alternately, ACT has an on-line interactive prep program but there’s a modest annual fee to access it.
Our kids’ school gives the PSAT and pre-ACT to 10th graders. Our twins took the PSAT and both thought they spent way too much time on the first Reading question and then had to rush.
Hoping the scores come back soon so they can do some kind of online prep, say 15 min or so a day, rather than intensive (and expensive) summer program their brother did.
It’s hard to know if the expensive tutoring really worked bc older S didn’t take the 10th grade tests seriously (e.g., left last ~ 8 questions in each section of ACT blank because “it was boring and stupid.”). But, he ended up with a 1520 SAT and 34 ACT, both much higher than his pretests.
I know learning the strategies for each test is important (and Khan Academy doesn’t teach that) but wonder if regular (but short) self-study over a longer period of time would render similar results as the intensive expensive tutoring right before the tests. Thoughts?
@havenoidea, D has not prepped yet. But I have printed the 8 released SATs and the 2 PSATs from College Board as well have purchased Erica Meltzer’s Grammar and CR books, as well as PWN the SAT math prep books. Plan is for D to do " SAT/PSAT" self/home boot camp next summer. Everything I have read for the past 4 years, points to this being the highest quality SAT/PSAT material out there for high scores.
@havenoidea I have always heard that taking practice tests over and over (and over…) is really the best prep. My D19 liked the ACT better, so we stuck with it. Using the answer keys, you begin to see a pattern of which topics give them trouble and might need additional tutoring, otherwise test strategy just sort of develops with practice. If math is a trouble spot, there are YouTube videos that show how to put important formulas into your calculator, and there is plenty of free advice online for interpreting reading passages, etc. All that said, I signed my D19 up for an intensive prep class the summer after junior year because she was not making enough progress on her own. It helped, but it just depends on the kid and their goals.
My DD18 took SAT and got a 1390. Took ACT next and got a 32. I offered to pay for a tutor for taking the ACT again and she refused and said she would study herself. She got a 35. She was so happy to prove to me that she could do it by herself.
You folks are reminding me that I do not yet have a study plan for D21 when it comes to the SATs. I’ve been so focused on making sure she’s ready for her SAT2 exams and AP exams each year (as a homeschooler, it helps if she has a nice bundle of SAT2s and AP scores) that I kind of forgot to schedule in SAT prep somewhere. Guess we’ll add that to the late summer/early fall scheduling.
We were thinking summer 2019 for SAT/ACT prep. Math is going to be the harder section for D21, and I think it’ll be much easier for her to focus on practicing if she’s not in school.
First nine weeks grades in and the perfect record of A’s still in tact. Honors Latin2, Honors Pre Calc, Honors Chemistry, Honors English2 and AP Human Geography. I also pushed her to take a STEM related class Engineering and Design. She had a few nervous moments like getting a 65 on a project in the E&D course and an 84 on a huge test in AP HUG, but in the end she pulled through.
ACT 10th grade test in two weeks. She is refusing to study for it saying it is the practice for the real ACT so she shouldn’t have to study. Maybe taking it cold will be a wake up call for the real thing.
D21 also did no prep for PSAT- she wanted to see what she could do with no prior work. Thought it was easy. We’ll see. 1st 9 weeks in the books. Goal was straight A+'s and she was 0.1 off in AP Spanish 5 because the teacher was too lazy to grade the last 3 assignments and said they’d carry over to the next quarter. She was not happy!! Still thrilled with her drive and almost straight A+ with a varsity sport 1st 9 weeks. She’s worn out and slept until 2 today, a rare day off. We have no SAT study plan. Hmmm. You all have me thinking now.
Teacher convention this week, so D21 and I headed to the Gettysburg battlefields (he loves Civil War history). Figured we could spare 1 hour to do a formal tour of the college to kick off the college hunt - no need for info session at this point. Anyway, when I asked his thoughts, he said it was good - the exception being he was annoyed they called them “first years” rather than Freshman - lol. I’m thinking our future tours are going to be interesting…
@NJWrestlingmom I didn’t notice it either, but maybe that’s because I’ve heard it before and never gave it a second thought. Funny how kids pick up on different things. Any chance you’re from Madison? I saw quite a few cars with Madison magnets.
Follow-up note on Gettysburg. While on the tour, I picked up a student paper. There was a weekly math problem contest which I read to S21 that night in the hotel. He spent some time on it and not surprisingly hit a roadblock (after all he is a 15yr old soph attempting a college level math contest). In any event, I emailed the professor running the contest to see if S21 was on the right path. Received a detailed response today on how to solve the problem (including the answer). Thought that was really great of the professor to humor a HS sophomore!
First quarter finished up a bit ago. D21 had a 4.5 WGPA, she was very pleased as she also runs varsity cross country and is in 2 choirs. We don’t test prep, she might do a bit more than S18 did but it’s not our focus. Trying to figure out next year’s schedule. Following each class the track would be 5 AP which is not right for her, she runs all 3 seasons, varsity and needs some down time. She’ll do 3 or 4 max. Curious on everyone’s thoughts which to drop down a level:
AP Research (follow on to AP Seminar)
AP AB (could do honors)
AP physics (school only offers AP or level 2, which is GPA baseline)
APUSH (could do honors)
AP French ( really no other option)
Honors English (great professor)
If she skips AP Research, she’ll get an elective in its place.
For me, the first question I would ask is if there are any subjects that are especially time consuming, for which she has less ability, or aren’t of great interest to her. So if she’s not inherently a STEM kid, there might be some advantage to dropping down to honors as opposed to AP for Calc or Physics. At many schools, APUSH has a reputation for having lots of busy work and being overly time consuming so if History is not an area of interest, that might be the one to select as Honors.
As AP Research does not fall into a category that most colleges track (math, science, lit, history, foreign language), that seems somewhat less essential than the core subjects.
This probably hasn’t helped much - maybe just given you more complexity to think about! What does your daughter say?
Congrats on her great performance academically this year!
@mamaedefamilia part of the struggle is her not having a clear direction yet. I would say the math/science require more effort for her. Big brother,S18 was same in that regard. Got 5 on APUSH test, 3 on physics and AB. She works harder than him, overall. Definitely taking AP Comp Sci senior year, if she goes Stem, it will be in that direction. Might go to liberal arts school with business focus. Hate saying it, because a big part of me is glad, but without her “knowing” what she wants, it’s harder to plan.