My D will be a senior in HS this Fall and we live in VA (very high achieving school district). She is straight A student, 4.2 GPA I think, just earned her EMT cert, volunteers weekly at rescue squad and got accepted into a competitive nursing HS program (every other day at home school taking core classes), has been a class officer one year and very active in youth group leadership. The problem is she scores very poorly on standardized tests. She’s only taken each once so far but got a 22 on ACT and 1020 on SAT. She’s going to take them again but she’s just so scared she won’t get in to any good nursing program. Any advice?
May want to evaluate what is going on for her testing. Could she have a reading disability, has she been tested for that ?
Look at Mind Fish on line to get coaching on test taking. She has to be able to take timed tests to become a nurse and learn clinical skills. There is a nursing certification test required in most states. So its good to figure out a test taking strategy if she wants to become a nurse. If its nerves, she can try techniques to calm down, or maybe its her test taking strategy (skip questions one does not know,) that she needs to work on.
Is her test scores lopsided, math better than reading or visa versa, or all are about equal scores? If she is lopsided then work on the weakest subject.
Today students actually study for the ACT or SAT on line using Khan Academy. Wealthy families pay for Mind Fish
or a similar service to increase test scores. She still has this summer to improve her test taking abilities.
If you and your daughter are willing and financially able to consider private colleges, there are a number of good direct entry nursing programs at Pennsylvania colleges that would be happy to accept your daughter with a ACT of 22. At some of them, she would probably be eligible for merit scholarships. I believe PA has the largest number of direct entry BSN programs in the country.
A 2-2 program may work out, because it would allow your student to prove her ability in college classes… Most programs in Va. and Md. are 2-2.