My daughter bombed her ACT - move on to SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She has been taking practice tests with composites ranging from 32-34. We were hoping she would be one and done. She ended up with:

English 35
Math 33
Reading 28
Science 24

Composite 30.

She is really upset. She knew she messed up Reading but Science is the lowest she has ever had. Does she try again or move onto SAT? We really can’t afford all these tests or submitting them to all the colleges. I had no idea how expensive all this testing gets.

Which practice tests did she take? Not all are same. You need to practice using old retired ACT exam tests.

Disagree. It has been said here and college confidential many times that the ACT has gotten much harder this year compared to previous years. OP was probably taking old tests and got over confident.

maybe, maybe not. but the scores are curved each test so it doesn't matter

How is the test curved? So many questions wrong get you lower scores. It just change.

There is no curve, per se. That's an urban legend. However, the tests are "normalized" so that one test is not tougher or easier than another administration of the test.

You know that the normalization to make sure that every year about 1% get a 34 or whatever... that is what it means to cure

A curve implies that how well you do on the test DEPENDS on how others fare on the same test. That's not how this works.

https://blog.prepscholar.com/act-curve

[Anonymous]

My son had identical scores. A few sessions with a tutor teaching him how to read the science questions fixed it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:She has been taking practice tests with composites ranging from 32-34. We were hoping she would be one and done. She ended up with:

English 35
Math 33
Reading 28
Science 24

Composite 30.

She is really upset. She knew she messed up Reading but Science is the lowest she has ever had. Does she try again or move onto SAT? We really can’t afford all these tests or submitting them to all the colleges. I had no idea how expensive all this testing gets.

My DD took the February ACT, and the Science section was surprisingly difficult. It required prior knowledge of the topic in order to answer the questions. It threw her (and countless others according to CC and Reddit) for a loop. Normally, the Science section is just about interpreting data and reading graphs. Not that time. In her case, she was able to superstore and a previous Science section was much better. She was able to raise the 2 sections that she needed. I would suggest she take it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30 means bombed?

For a higher achieving student looking for a top 50, even top 100. Yes, that is a poor ACT score.

OP, my child had the same issue. A lot of it was test anxiety and not retaining the passages she read which in turn led to more anxiety as time was running out. She looked at her watch so much more during then she said. Reading and Science are massive time management more than anything. Most of the science passages do not need to be read as the graphs are the answers to many questions.

Math and English are more skill and you can get thru them without worrying about time. I would practice reading and science shaving off time with each test. Highlight the old tests and where the answers actually are in the text vs reading the whole passage. I guarantee she can bump both of those scores to 30 minimum which would give her an ACT superscofe of 32 minimum.

[Anonymous]

Most public universities do not superscore. .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most public universities do not superscore. .

How about actually googling first? So many places superstore ACT now or at least will consider the highest subsections regardless of test dat, including UVA.

https://www.compassprep.com/superscore-and-score-choice/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most public universities do not superscore. .

Virginia Tech will even superscore *across* tests. Meaning, VT will combine SAT and ACT sections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She has been taking practice tests with composites ranging from 32-34. We were hoping she would be one and done. She ended up with:

English 35
Math 33
Reading 28
Science 24

Composite 30.

She is really upset. She knew she messed up Reading but Science is the lowest she has ever had. Does she try again or move onto SAT? We really can’t afford all these tests or submitting them to all the colleges. I had no idea how expensive all this testing gets.

My DD took the February ACT, and the Science section was surprisingly difficult. It required prior knowledge of the topic in order to answer the questions. It threw her (and countless others according to CC and Reddit) for a loop. Normally, the Science section is just about interpreting data and reading graphs. Not that time. In her case, she was able to superstore and a previous Science section was much better. She was able to raise the 2 sections that she needed. I would suggest she take it again.

That's interesting because my DS thought the Feb. ACT was the "easiest" ACT he ever took (compared the mock tests he had). Science in particular he got a 35. I attribute this to the private tutor we hired. There is a specific strategy to approaching the questions. I recommend OP explore with a tutor before having DD retake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. This is why kids can barely function these days!

What do you mean?

30i is a good score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30 means bombed?

For a higher achieving student looking for a top 50, even top 100. Yes, that is a poor ACT score.

OP, my child had the same issue. A lot of it was test anxiety and not retaining the passages she read which in turn led to more anxiety as time was running out. She looked at her watch so much more during then she said. Reading and Science are massive time management more than anything. Most of the science passages do not need to be read as the graphs are the answers to many questions.

Math and English are more skill and you can get thru them without worrying about time. I would practice reading and science shaving off time with each test. Highlight the old tests and where the answers actually are in the text vs reading the whole passage. I guarantee she can bump both of those scores to 30 minimum which would give her an ACT superscofe of 32 minimum.

Nonsense. Tons of kids at top 50 or 100 schools with a 30 ACT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She has been taking practice tests with composites ranging from 32-34. We were hoping she would be one and done. She ended up with:

English 35
Math 33
Reading 28
Science 24

Composite 30.

She is really upset. She knew she messed up Reading but Science is the lowest she has ever had. Does she try again or move onto SAT? We really can’t afford all these tests or submitting them to all the colleges. I had no idea how expensive all this testing gets.

My DD took the February ACT, and the Science section was surprisingly difficult. It required prior knowledge of the topic in order to answer the questions. It threw her (and countless others according to CC and Reddit) for a loop. Normally, the Science section is just about interpreting data and reading graphs. Not that time. In her case, she was able to superstore and a previous Science section was much better. She was able to raise the 2 sections that she needed. I would suggest she take it again.

That's interesting because my DS thought the Feb. ACT was the "easiest" ACT he ever took (compared the mock tests he had). Science in particular he got a 35. I attribute this to the private tutor we hired. There is a specific strategy to approaching the questions. I recommend OP explore with a tutor before having DD retake.

Strategy behind Science section is don’t try to answer “science” part of the question. Focus on what the problem is asking you to answer. Kids waste a lot of time trying to understand science aspect of the questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. This is why kids can barely function these days!

What do you mean?

30i is a good score.

PP here. No. Mostly that the parent is posting about this. So terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. This is why kids can barely function these days!

What do you mean?

30i is a good score.

PP here. No. Mostly that the parent is posting about this. So terrible.

What is so terrible? The fact that the parents are involved?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh my. This is why kids can barely function these days!

What do you mean?

30i is a good score.

PP here. No. Mostly that the parent is posting about this. So terrible.

Er, are you NEW to DCUM?

[Anonymous]

We took money out of the college fund we've been adding to for years to set our daughter up with 6 one-on-one tutoring sessions with an experienced ACT tutor for $150 per one hour session and I think it was worth every penny. The good ones book up way ahead of time so you'll need to look into this months ahead of time if it's not too late.

Also, a 30 on the ACT really is well above average. It may not get you into top schools but depending on what else you have to offer it won't automatically keep you out either.