I have followed the advice someone gave me years ago to test early and often so my son has taken the ACT each year since 7th grade. He is currently a junior and after some self-study using The Real ACT and after school group tutoring, he got a 33 (E-31, M-32, R-32, S-35). Hallelujah! He took it again in Dec because he still needed the Writing portion for a couple of schools on his radar. Unfortunately, that score dropped to 30, with a 9 on the Writing component.
Today his school administed the ACT as a state requirement but his test was voided because his phone’s alarm went off during the exam (it was across the room in his coat pocket, very soft, didn’t bother anyone and it occurred at the end of the writing) so we will never know what score he would have received. Because he is not a stellar student, with a unweighted 3.5 gpa and has only a couple of sports as ECs, we are imagining the ACT to be really important in admissions decision in his case.
He will have taken AP Physics for two years and AP Calc by the time he graduates along with four PLTW courses and CAD. He plans to apply to Purdue and UWMadison for Engineering. Those schools will have to receive both sets of scores in order to comply with the Writing requirement.
He does not want to take the test again and I am looking for some objective parties to weigh in since we do not have any experts in our corner. I realize statisically that he is not likely to increase his score, but at least matching it would send a better message to his top schools than a significantly lower score like the December one. Maybe I am too hard on him. Thoughts?
Could you find some information that describes possible merit aid or admissions to Honors’ colleges at the school he is considering with a keen eye?
You might want to show that a slightly better performance on the ACT might open doors or making both his and your life easier. All of that in exchange of a couple of early rising on a given day.
If all fails, contract him as it would be a chore. In other words, the next time he asks for an allowance, tell him he can earn it easily and you will pay him 15 bucks or more per hour. Sixty dollars might sound good to any teenager.
If he is a junior, why not focus now on getting whatever gains are possible on the GPA front? That would at least put the ACT conversation on the back burner for now. He may just need a break. Universities look at both GPA and test scores. You can both viisit collegedata.com to see the stats of enrolled freshmen for the universities he is interested in. You can run net price calculators with different ACT scores and see what comes up. That could possible lead to a retake if he is willing - even September would be okay for a test date.
BTW, both the engrg programs you have listed are fairly competitive, I think. And the listed ACT scores/ grades for the universities are for all freshman - the engrg. colleges will most likely have higher stats.
A 33 is a very good score. I am not an expert on this, but I believe that most schools look at the highest score. If you can get him to take it one more time, then I would probably make a point NOT to send the scores to any school unless he does better than his 33.
Purdue and UW-Madison are wonderful schools for engineering. I don’t know about Purdue, but for Madison you do not directly enter the engineering college but have to apply when you are student there. If he is instate to either of these schools, he probably would have an easier time with his ACT score, even with a lower GPA, than an out of state student applying.
My sons were involved with PLTW at their engineering high school, and completed quite a few AP tests. My oldest was admitted to University of Minnesota, another excellent engineering school. The average ACT for the College of Science and Engineering there I believe is 32, so it can be hard to be admitted. My other two ended up at the University of Alabama since their ACT scores were 32 or above and tuition is covered (plus they each get $2500 per year for being in engineering). My middle son there is a CS major and will be interning at a major CS company this summer. My youngest is completing his 2nd semester, first year, and seems to enjoy the EE program there. This school is ABET accredited so they are learning the same thing as they would at Madison or Purdue. Just thought I would bring this up as another option.
Did you know that some schools require that a student send in their entire testing history? If he has taken the test every year, it is going to look like the ACT is his main extracurricular activity!
A 33 is great. Just send both scores. A lot of schools don’t even require the writing portion of the test. If he applies to any of those he can just send the 33 which is awesome. At least give him a few weeks off before you bring it up again. He may be willing to take it again in June or September, but I think if you make him take it in April you aren’t going to get a very good effort out of him. The night before my daughter took the ACT test for the second time, she cried because she was nervous. She did go up a couple points on the second test, but we never even considered seeing if she could bump it up higher because of the tears. She had a score that was good enough to get her into every school she applied to and it was enough to qualify her for the highest merit awards at those schools.
Just checking for clarity here. This student is in the middle of his junior year, and has taken the ACT five times already. He has a fine score. Ypu say you think it’s unlikely that his score will improve. So…why take the test a sixth time?
When folks say test early and often, I thought that meant starting their Junior year of HS, maybe end of sophomore year, not in MS.
I totally understand why this kid would not want to take this test…again.
If the colleges your son wants to apply to do not require the writing component of the ACT, then he has a 33 and if he got a higher score it would make him look like a slacker becuase his GPA would be much lower than his ACT would indicate he’s capable of. If the college’s he’s applying to do require him to have the writing sub-score then he “only” has a 30 which is actually itself a very solid score by most standards. In this case maybe he should retake the ACT with the writing component. What you might want to do is read very carefully the standardized test section of the admissions websites for colleges he is applying to or perhaps you might call their admission office directly to ask them whether they would consider the 33 and the writing component of the 2nd ACT test.
Since he started early and reached a plateau already. I really don’t see the point to retake it again unless he has been getting higher practice scores than 33 consistently. ACT 33 is good enough for Purdue or UWisc for engineering but not for merit money.
Despite what you may have heard on CC, the 33 is 99th percentile ACT composite; the 30 is a 95th percentile composite. Your son’s constraint is the 3.5, and the rigor of his curriculum, while quite admirable, doesn’t completely compensate for that.
If he wants a shot at a school as selective as UW-Madison, my thought would be to keep him far, far away from additional standardized testing (where he is more likely to regress to the mean than improve) and challenge him to invest that study time into busting his butt and running the table with A’s this semester so he’ll at least head into app season with an upward trend. That will do him a lot more good than another point on the ACT.
Well, someone gave you bad advice all those years ago! One of my kids took a standardized test in middle school for 7th & 8th grade for talent search purposes (and it was a great springboard for her to some opportunities), but she didn’t keep testing every year. Your kid is burned out. Can’t blame him.
Most of the students, I know, are the ones who tell the parents when and where to pay the test bill. Three of my son’s schools asked for his full history of testing. He only took his SAT and ACT once, I believe. All I did was hand over the credit card when they needed to pay the fee. You son has learned the test.
His unweighted gpa might not match his test scores and he may be viewed as a “slacker”. He “has only a couple of sports”. Wow this kid is being pushed.
It’s the intrinsic value that will matter when he takes his courses at the university, unless you plan on going with him. If he is not self-motivated and is used to being pushed (extrinsically), he will have a really hard year and may not make it through basic courses, let alone engineering if that is what you’ve picked for him.
Your son has been taking the ACT since the 7th grade? Why? I get taking the SAT in 7th grade to get into CTY or other GT program but otherwise, I don’t see the point. I thought I made my daughter take the ACT early when she took it in June of her sophomore year; and I shook my head when one girl took me she was taking the ACT in October of her sophomore year. I can’t imagine taking this exam every year since 7th grade.
Your child has unweighted GPA of 3.5. A score of 30 aligns nicely with this GPA; 33 is great. You really don’t want to be so low GPA-high test score lopsided, otherwise your son has to explain the rather low GPA relative to the ACT score. If you don’t think these scores are adequate for Purdue or Wisconsin, look for better academic matches. Don’t forget to choose two safety schools your son likes and will be happy to attend.
If your son has been retaking the ACT since 7th grade, I would back off now. Diminishing returns may have set in. Many schools definitely ask for all scores.
His top score is very good, as many have pointed out. Check if Purdue and UW-Madison require all scores or whether you can select the 33 and the next better one, presumably the one from the year before. In fact, the 33 is perfectly good by itself; look at the component scores, they are all consistently in the top __th percentile. Look them up here:
Everyone want to know why the child starting taking the ACT in seventh grade. Well, that’s when the various talent programs such as Duke TIP give it.
After that, if one wants to dual enroll in my state in ninth grade one is required to make a 30 on the ACT. That means the kids have to take it in eighth grade or prior to entering ninth grade, as both of my children did. The kids don’t need to take it in ninth grade, but in tenth grade they should take it as many times as possible in order to get a high score.
I have a nephew who took the ACT eight times. His first score was a 24; his last score was a 34. This earned him the designation of STAR Student (the single highest ACT in school, or if two or more kids in one school have 35 or above, all of them), which is a big deal in my state. So taking the test repeatedly certainly paid off for my nephew. For what it’s worth, he apparently has a slow processing speed, which made it difficult for him to finish the test in the time allowed. Early during his ACT process I urged him to have a professional declare him officially learning disabled, but he made the 34 without any accommodations.
A 33 is a great score on the ACT, but a 34 is much better, and a 35 or higher sends every head turning. Have the child take the test, and if the new score is below 33, have the test cancelled.
When reviewing applications, seeing a kid has taken a test that many times to obtain whatever score is a negative, so the best score would keep him out of the best schools that require all the scores reported. He has learned the test, that is not saying anything good. And you can’t cancel a test after you know the score, only before the Wednesday following the test day, long before scores are out.
Agree, wacky thread. I have seen those little people (the middle schoolers) weaving among the big kids at the test center with their parent walking in tow. All you can do is feel for the kid as they begin their parent’s quest to HYPS.
Concern with OP’s student is they don’t seem to have much else to offer other than that 33 and they need more than that these days at many schools, particularly engineering.
Earl. Yes, for the TIP programs, the standardized tests are required easier. But this OP mentioned NOTHING about the TIP programs. Just said she had her kid test early…and often.
And even IF the TIP programs were in the mix…this kid has taken the ACT five times. That’s plenty.