My son’s high school is administering the ACT to all juniors net week. (We only just received notification this week, although it is possible we missed an earlier communication!). My question is this- he took it in the fall and has a score he is happy with. 35 composite: 33 Math, 34 Science, 35 Reading, 36 English. He is hoping to get into a competitive engineering program, while being realistic that some of the highest rank schools will remain a stretch.
I’m finally getting to my question Since the test is free and offered during the school day, should he just take it in the off chance he can bring his math and science up for super scoring? Or, is it actually better to just leave well enough alone? I’m assuming they can’t force him to take it again. For his applications: He will have a compelling personal story, excellent grades and challenging class load, but won’t have a high number of ECs.
Our dd’s school did the same thing. DD actually did worse with the February test. Her superscore went up by a point but I think she would have looked stronger to have a one and done.
Is the school administered ACT a state and/or graduation requirement? Our state mandates all students to take the school/state sponsored SAT as a graduation requirement.
@Mwfan1921 - wow, I’m not sure. I’ll have him check tomorrow. We only moved here a couple years ago. I didn’t realize a state would have it as a requirement
If it were my son, I wouldn’t have him take it again if he didn’t have to. That’s a great score. Hard to go up; easier to go down! You never know the curve.
Call down to the admin dept to find out if he really needs to take it. Our state requires it too, in place of old standardized testing, (but were aren’t in your position with that high of scores!)
Make sure that you are not forced to take it, you may have to provide the school with evidence and scores of his previous test. I would do that in a heartbeat over risking a school based resit. I wouldn’t leave it in his hands though, you should call.
If you are in NC, the state requires the test, but I think if he has his scores, he can ask not to take the test. As long as he has reached the benchmark- which he has, they should let him out of it.
My son had a 34 when his school offered it for everyone for free. He didn’t want to prepare for it and I felt the risk was higher of his score going down. So I fought for a waiver and he didn’t retake it.
If your son is super motivated to go for a 36, then he could retake it. Otherwise, I’d have him be done with it.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I did a bit more research and it is a state required test (NC). I emailed the school administration to see if he could skip since he has good scores already, but no response. The one hitch I can see to it is that he took ACT without writing, and I think they do the full ACT plus writing. If he does end up having to take it again, I don’t think it will harm him since he isn’t looking at schools that require you to report all scores. He should just be able to send the score from October. At least, that is my interpretation of things- so feel free to correct me! He is my oldest kid so all of this seems 10x more complex than when I went to college.
The writing is not likely to be any stipulation, our state's mandated ACT only introduced the writing this year AFAIK. The biggest pain was the lack of writing forced kids to resit, period.
BUT. it is prudent to check that the schools your kid is applying to don’t stipulate writing, while we all know how ridiculous the ACT writing is, some schools did only look at tests with writing. This seems to be less common than it was, but just do due diligence.
If there is a state mandate for this test…there will also be a make up date for those who are out the day of the first test…at least I believe that is the case here. You don’t get a skip because you aren’t there.
If this student is applying to schools where he can pick and choose which scores to send…then just take the test. He doesn’t have to use it if it’s lower.
I read someplace that in terms of admissions, there isn’t no statistical gain between a 35 and 36 on the ACT. He needs to put his efforts into the other parts of his application.
In our school system they allow another test to stand in. It is state mandated but not a grad requirement till class of 2021 but again other tests can stand in even at that point. (We will be SAT mandated for grad but many other scores will work — ACT/ACCUPLACER/ETC. They just want an official test score to prove the student has met HS requirements. I have a hard time believing they won’t accept an ACT score from another sitting. I guess I would have begged forgiveness versus asked permission.
I would most definitely not let my kid take another ACT test possibly less prepped and risk an issue. One only need read over the ACT Wrongly Accusing Cheating thread to realize what a huge score discrepancy can do.
Our public school will not allow scores from earlier tests on the EXPLORE or ACT exams. The EXPLORE test for high school placement is given on a Saturday so it is a waste of time to have to repeat it.
Do the schools think getting a high score is a fluke?
If he does take the test, try to have him set aside a little time to go over the math questions he got wrong in the last test. Just review a little. With a 33, there won’t be much to review, and hopefully, the ones he got wrong are centered around one topic.
"He is hoping to get into a competitive engineering program, while being realistic that some of the highest rank schools will remain a stretch. "
for that reason I WOULD recommend he take it again.
have him bone up on missed math and science questions before taking the test.
hopefully he is taking both advanced math and science classes. If so, his score in those areas, which are important for STEM programs, WILL go up.
OP - Those are nice scores! Did you and your son expect him to do as well as that, or do you think he got a good outcome given everything else you know about him?
If he isn’t going to prep for the test, the odds are better he’ll do worse than they are they he’ll do better.
If he did much better than expected, the second try may also be worse.
Since the test is free and offered during the school day, should he just take it in the off chance he can bring his math and science up for super scoring? Or, is it actually better to just leave well enough alone? I’m assuming they can’t force him to take it again. For his applications: He will have a compelling personal story, excellent grades and challenging class load, but won’t have a high number of ECs.