<p>Since it has been 25 years since I took the ACT, I am hoping you more recent test takers can make some recommendations for my daughter.</p>
<p>She is a HS junior and took her first ACT on 12/9. I forced her to take a cheap prep class at her HS, which she reluctantly attended. I was not impressed with it since they canceled two classes and didn't go over the writing section at all. She would not do any test prep outside of class.</p>
<p>That last number has me the most concerned. She wants to major in advertising. I think this is a good fit for her since she is creative and artistic, but since advertising is often within the College of Communication or Journalism, I think the writing score is going to hurt her and would like her to retake. She is competely undecided about where to go to school. I think she will most likely end up at a large midwest state u, but she has talked about wanting a large city like Chicago or Philadelphia.</p>
<p>Do you have any suggestions on how she can better prepare for the next test? There are $700 prep courses in our area offered by the major test prep companies. Are these worth it, or should she use books and online courses? Or am I wasting my time and money if she isn't motivated to do better?</p>
<p>She's really going to need to mostly motivate herself. Being early in her junior year it's probably a little early for her to need to worry to much. don't put too much pressure on her yet. I would mostly recommend just using test prep books. I think with a 28 junior year and no prep, she should be able to break 30 next year without too much extra work.</p>
<p>Writing is going to be the hardest to improve if your daughter isn't motivated. Even if she is capable of writing a higher-scoring essay, she has to put the effort in on test day, and writing requires a lot more motivation than answering multiple-choice questions. Does she realize that admissions people at the colleges she sends scores to will be able to read her actual essay?</p>
<p>If you can convince her to go along, I'd suggest trying a few things before spending a lot of money. If your daughter put down her high school code when she registered, her guidance counselor should be able to see her essay online. She could ask him/her to print it out for her. Then she could take it to an English teacher for advice, and maybe even rework it for practice. The sample essays and scoring explanations on ACT's website are another good free resource. Just reading through those could help a lot, and it only takes a few minutes. And if she didn't practice for the writing test at all, she should do better next time just because she's done it once.</p>
<p>If it helps, I doubt your daughter's intended major makes it any worse that she didn't do so well on the writing test. I don't think very many schools use different admissions criteria for different majors within the same college (e.g., the liberal arts college), especially since kids change majors so often anyway.</p>
<p>If she knows what schools she intends to apply to, you should check to see if they require the writing test. If some don't, then she might want to take it without writing next time.</p>
<p>I did not realize that anybody would be able to see her essay. I will have her ask the guidance counselor to print it out for her to have others review.</p>
<p>You probably already know how the Writing section of the ACT is scored, but if you don't, here's a short explanation. Two "trained readers" read your daughter's essay and assign it a score on a scale of 1-6. When those two scores are added up, you get the final 12 score. If there's anything more than a point difference between those two readers, a third and final reader reviews it. </p>
<p>What's the point of telling you this? If your daughter received a 6 for the writing, it's safe to assume that two readers assigned her a score of 3. Since ACT shares the criteria for each score 1-6, maybe after you & her look at her essay, you'll be able to better determine where she can improve. Here are some things found in a 3 (6) score:
*shows understanding of task and takes a position of the issue
*development is brief or unclear
*little or no "movement" aka transitions between ideas, too repititious
*organization is simple and ideas are logically grouped but there is little evidence of logically sequencing the ideas
*introduction and conclusion paragraphs underveloped
*although language shows control, sentences have little variety
*distracting errors</p>
<p>Many of these minor errors can be corrected by practicing and knowing what exactly ACT wants from the writing. Chances are your daughter is a very skilled writer and is well aware of the conventions of the English language. In fact, a low writing score from English-savvy people is more common than you might think (remember -- the avg ACT Writing score I think is 7-8). Students have "learned" how to write an essay from their English classes, but are not aware how to write one for the ACT. Prep books (like the REAL ACT & PR) and looking over prompts from past exams are the best way to figure this out. Don't waste 700$ on a prep course that will help your daughter only minimally.</p>
<p>On a final note, if your daughter isn't eager to improve her writing score with help outside of a class, you might want to remind her that MANY colleges are reviewing the ACT Writing section to determine how much weight they will put in it. Regardless of the final amount, it does count for something.</p>
<p>Thanks Saint-Paul. The only negative comment on her score report was that she did not give enough examples. If that was the only problem, she should be able to do better next time. She will be taking a more extensive review course, so she should be much better prepared for the April test.</p>