<p>Hey I have a question for all you graduates out there who retook the ACT. What is the best month to take the ACT for the second time if I'm looking for a slight improvement. I want to make sure I have all my test scores well before the due date for applications so I can concentrate on perfecting my essay, app, and finishing up senior year 1st semester.</p>
<p>So Sept, Oct, or Dec? and Why?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Depends on what state you live in. I'm gonna take it in october, which is hopefully early enough for early decision, and in december for regular decision. But if you're fortunate enough to live in a state where the test is offered in Sept. DEFINITELY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THAT. Remember, you can take the test as many times as you want.
Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thanks. Another question: a lot of schools have a range of ACT scores that isn't as high IMO as their SAT scores comparatively. I know it's always nice to be above the range, but is it generally good enough to be close to the top of the range? ex. 32 in a range of 29-33</p>
<p>If you have a 32 on your ACT, that is fine. Pretty much any school in the nation would accept you if you had a decent grades/ECs with a 32.</p>
<p>I'm going into my Senior year, and will probably retake in Oct (no sept. in Colorado here).</p>
<p>Does anybody know anything about the September test -- easy or hard?</p>
<p>Scribner,
No one knows and it doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Oh, but Mrs. Ferguson it does matter. People here claim that the June test is easier, which may or may not be true, so I would also like to hear what they say about the September test.</p>
<p>There is not a shred of evidence that any test date tends to be easier than any other. Furthermore, if a test is easier, the curve will be tougher, so it comes out even anyway.</p>
<p>I'm traveling to Pennslyvania from NEW YORK to take it, in fact I am staying in a hotel the night before the test just so I can take it in September, but that may change </p>
<p>WILL I get my scores back by November 1st if I do the October test?</p>
<p>Mrs. Ferguson: Are you kidding? Have you not been reading what people say in this board?! There is tons of anecdotal evidence posted by a myriad of recent test takers. While you're at it, can you explain the "curve" for the ACT. I know at least one person says there is no curve -- that it's been determined well before anyone has taken the test.</p>
<p>PRiSM92289: I too am traveling six hours to another state to take the Septemeber test. I'm not sure if you'd get your results by November 1st if you took the October test, but I think you would at least be able to order early results and see how you did (minus essay). Why do you need it by that date?</p>
<p>early decision....</p>
<p>man i really need to take this test over again by november 1, and i don't think that i'll be able to.
Idk if i should drive to PA (i live in NJ), and allentown is only like an hour and a half away</p>
<p>Scribner,
Yes, I have been reading what people say on this board, and no one who claims that one test date tends to be easier than another has any good reason to believe that. I, on the other hand, have seen a number of released test forms for December, April, and June, with their score conversions, which make it quite clear that there is no such pattern.</p>
<p>And yes, unless you happen to be at one of the small group of October test centers that gets the new test forms, the score conversion for your test--what people call "the curve"--has been determined long ago.</p>
<p>See [thread=181667]this thread[/thread] and [thread=182128]this one[/thread] for more information.</p>
<p>OK, those threads you provided were just you saying the same thing. I, personally, never thought there was a curve for the ACT; but since I've found this message board, it seems almost everyone is convinced there is one. Is there any official literature from ACT that explains the scoring?</p>
<p>Scribner:
<a href="http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.actstudent.org/pdf/preparing.pdf</a>
Page 63.</p>
<p>This is what people usually mean when they talk about the ACT's "curve". This is just one example, by the way, and applies only to the test in that booklet. Each version of the test has a slightly different conversion table to compensate for very slight differences in difficulty.</p>
<p>I knew the practice tests were just graded using a conversion table, but are you sure the real one doesn't use a curve? Because otherwise the whole percentile thing is meaningless. And doesn't the SAT grade using a curve?</p>
<p>The SAT curves it by the experimental sections. That is, they compare the "scores on the experimental sections with the regular test" and then combine the experimental sections to make a new test.
I've read somewhere that questions on the SAT are used 5x before they are "retired".
BTW, study harder. Don't think taking it a different day will make your score go up. If that were the case, then everyone would go on that certain test day.</p>
<p>Scribner,
The practice tests are just old real tests and the conversion tables published with them are the actual tables that were used to figure scores when the tests were live. In a way, this is a curve, because it happens to force the final score distribution close to a bell curve (which only happens because kids don't change much from year to year), but it's not the kind of curve where your score depends on comparing you to "the rest of the class".</p>
<p>I'm not sure what this has to do with "the whole percentile thing". Your percentile ranking is how you compare to testers from the last 3 full years (a year being September through June), so if you test in June 2006 and your percentile ranking is 90 it means that 90% of testers from September 2002 to June 2005 scored the same as you or lower.</p>
<p>From the information on The College Board's website, it appears that their score conversion process is very similar.</p>
<p>
[quote]
so if you test in June 2006 and your percentile ranking is 90 it means that 90% of testers from September 2002 to June 2005 scored the same as you or lower
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Doesn't a 90 percentile mean that you scored higher than 90% of the test takers from September 2002 to June 2005?</p>
<p>Yep, jai6638 is right; Mrs. Ferguson just had it backwards.</p>
<p>
Usually, yes, that is how percentile works; however, the percentiles on the ACT are cumulative percents, which means that your percentile rank is the percentage of testers who scored lower than or the same as you--which is not the same as saying you scored higher than that percent of testers. With cumulative percents, unlike the other kind of percentile, you can be in the 100th percentile--but ACT doesn't currently report it that way for some reason. They convert the 100th percentile to the 99th.</p>
<p>See, here: ACT's</a> National Ranks</p>