<p>Mine!!!! My Junior son is scheduled. I sure wish he had had more prep time - he just has little free time between homework (lots) and EC's...he did spend a little time with the REAL ACT book. </p>
<p>We'll use this first test as a guide for the next. And to help us decide if we should sign him up for one of the local Prep classes at one of our high schools. </p>
<p>Anyone else have a first-timer????</p>
<p>My junior son is also taking the exam for the first time on Saturday. He is also signed up for SAT (likely NMSF in SD) in January and ACT again in February. Hopefully that will be the end of his standardized test days until graduate school. He has prepped quite a bit using the real ACT. He took a full length exam last Saturday and did start to get fatigued (didn't quite finish the reading section). He ended up with a 31 in spite of his failure to complete the exam. He is a very slow (but thorough) reader so he knows he needs to push himself on the reading (and slightly on science). On math and English he is consistenly scoring 33-35 so they should be his saving grace.</p>
<p>Good luck to your son!</p>
<p>My son also is noted for being a steady, but slow test taker. He knows he has to speed it up for this standardized testing. He just likes being really thourough. But these tests really don't allow for that. I'm worried that will be his weak point.</p>
<p>raising my hand also. There are many parents of juniors in the 2010 thread who are first time takers. Good luck to both of your kids also!</p>
<p>We're joining the group too. Jr S will be there Saturday. He's actually quite excited to take it and see how he does. He did some online prep -- 2 practice tests -- and did well. He liked the ACT practices more than the PSATs.</p>
<p>He's not sure when he will take his first SAT. We were thinking March, but may move that up to January.</p>
<p>BengalMom, D was originally going to do SAT in Jan, but she is liking the ACT practice and might decide not to take the SAT. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like ACT scores come in from Dec before the Jan signup date.</p>
<p>jackief -- yes, I can't imagine any testing organization moving that quickly. But it would be nice!
I think S might go ahead with the Jan. SAT just to give it a try. But he will definitely be anxious to get his ACT scores back ASAP. Any idea how long they usually take? How do we get the scores, anyway? I cannot remember how we got D's years ago.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone taking it this Saturday. I just hope S is feeling ok -- he has been fighting this horrible sinus infection that is going around here. But his antibiotics seem to be working (not so for poor H -- back to the Dr for him). S is still dealing with the broken thumbs but has smaller orthotics now and can write pretty well. :)</p>
<p>BengalMom ~ the ACT website indicates the multiple choice scores for the December exam will be posted on-line beginning 12/29 and by 2/6 at the latest. The Writing score will be available approximately 2 weeks after your multiple choice scores. Maybe you will be lucky and get your son's scores will be available before the SAT sign-up. </p>
<p>Good luck to your son - hope he is feeling better.</p>
<p>abasket:</p>
<p>the ACT is ALL about working quickly; speed is of the essence, particularly on the science section.</p>
<p>Bengalmom: tell your kid not to fret if the real thing seems harder....based on numerous postings over the past two years, most posters report that ACT's online tests are "easy" relative to the Red Book and the real day.</p>
<p>DS took ACT the first time in this past Oct and got a decent score. He did go to one of those test prep centers to take a simulated test once in summer. Other than that, he did not do any additional prep.</p>
<p>DS felt very comfortable about the ACT format. He has signed up to take ACt again with writing in Feb 2009. He will be done with this test if he can get 2 ~3 more points above his first try.</p>
<p>Thanks, mom2010grad. At least the wait should be shorter than that for the PSAT.</p>
<p>bluebayou -- ouch. I think I will wait to tell him until after the test when I hear how he thinks he did. :)</p>
<p>B-mom: my suggestion would be let him know that each point is as good as any other so that he is no blind-sided by the hardness of a passage, and then continue the downward spiral for the next two hours (as my kid did).</p>
<p>My D will be there too. She took one practice test before registering, but that's it for prep. It's a busy time of year - really, the whole year is busy for her, so prep just isn't happening. I know she feels bad about it because all of her friends are going to prep classes or have tutors, but I don't see how she could fit test prep into her already packed schedule. She took the SAT last Saturday, so we're "looking forward" to receiving those results in a few weeks. No plan to take it in January, but if she has to retake, then it'll probably be in March. ACT will most likely have to wait until June if she wants to retake. </p>
<p>Now, I have a question for all of you. What scores would you say are high enough? My D is a bit of a perfectionist and no matter what score she gets, she's going to want to retake - so at what score would you say that's high enough? At the moment, she has mostly reachy schools in mind, and she does have the grades for them - but I don't want her to have to devote too much time to the standardized tests when she has so much else going on in her life.</p>
<p>^^what scores are good? </p>
<p>All the standard tests report statistics. For 2008, a score of 32 - 33 are 99% and 34 - 36 are 100%. So, in my opinion, a 34 or higher should satisfy a perfectionist.</p>
<p>To us, the goal is to get as high a score as possible to qualify for as much merit aid as possible (for schools who base merit scholarships/scholarship days based on ACT scores). </p>
<p>We would be THRILLED with a 30.</p>
<p>^^ the question was about a perfectionist.</p>
<p>Also, if my understanding is correct, all "big" merit scholarship (full tuition, for example) has a minimum ACT or SAT to qualify. That does not mean everyone who has the qualifying test score will get the $$. Only "small" merit scholarships (a couple thousand)are 100% test score based.</p>
<p>Not necessarily true. My D's school offers scholarships starting at $9,000 mostly based on test scores. And it goes up from there....</p>
<p>Son taking ACT this weekend. Did the SAT last weekend and hopefully that will be IT!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, DadII and others. I was thinking that 34 would be my cutoff for her too - but that's only if she insists. If she's satsified with her score, no matter what it is, then I will be too. I just know how she is - and I want to have a reasonable discussion with her when the time comes. She did well on the practice test she took, so it's possible that score is within the realm of possibility.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone!!</p>
<p>S has laready decided he will take the ACT twice and probably the SAT twice. So he isn't too worried about this Saturday, but would like to do well to lessen the presure for next time.
Now bluebayou has me scared ;) that he may not do nearly as well as he did with the online practice tests. Actually, I was wondering how he could do that well -- a 33 and 35. D, my brainiac, took the ACT twice and scored a 34 and 35.</p>