ACT testing took place today for our Juniors. I know it was a long morning. Please share suggestions with the up and coming test takers...What did you do to prepare? With what areas of the test did you feel comfortable? What would you do differently?
You may not have liked taking the test, but that is a part of our educational reality. Knowing that, we need to tackle the challenges with the best attitudes we can. Share your ideas. Help out everyone who has yet to take the test.
Thanks.
Truthfully I didn't really do much to prepare for the ACT, but there are practice tests that can be taken. The areas that I felt most comfortable with were the reading and English parts because I usually do better in that area. Something that I would do differently is study math more. I struggled on the math portion. I took stats last semester and algebra two last year so it has been a while since I took any math. Taking algebra two and pre calc would help with the ACT and I think that AP English has helped as well even though we do not focus on grammar a whole lot.
ReplyDeleteI do not think the actual test was the problem. The problems people were having were related to the fact that we took the test on a school day. My class finished late so instead of having 30 minutes for lunch, we had five. By then the school lunch had been put away and the staff would not allow my class to get food off campus. The lunch staff had to bring everything back out for us but by then almost all of the food was gone. I only had a piece of bread with cheese on it with a few carrots. Then we had to go back to class. I was to physically and mentally exhausted to pay attention in my classes. I think that the school should have the ACT on Saturdays to avoid these problems.
ReplyDeleteI also like Nate did not do much to prepare for the ACT. Overall the ACT wasn't too bad. English I may have considered the easiest as long as you have grammatical knowledge. Math wasn't too bad but you definitely want to have taken pre-calculus before taking the ACT. Science as long as you can comprehend graphs you should be fine. Reading is all about pacing yourself. I give myself three minutes to read each passage and five minutes to answer the ten questions that go along with it.
ReplyDeleteThe thing I didn't like when I took the ACT for the second time was that it was during the school day. I liked it better waking up on a Saturday, coming in and taking it, and then being able to go home and just relax. After four hours of testing your brain is a bit fried! Having to go back to classes led to a lack of focus.
To be honest I did do much to prepare for the test. We did little workshop things during school for a few days that I feel could really help on the ACT. They give you a good idea of what to expect. The areas of the test I felt most confortable in were the math and english. I think that reading and science are both difficult and I find myself crunched for time at the end. I think students should practice timing for the ACT and learn how to manage it in the most efficient way. I liked taking the test on a achool day because we are used to getting up at early to come to school. We arre used to sleeping in on a Saturday morning. One thing I would change would be the time we have once the test is done. Students should be offered some time to relax and have a break after they have completed the test. I also think that a part of the school should be blockd off that day just for the test taking rooms becasue it can get loud and distracting even with a few kids out in the hall.
ReplyDeletesorry for the grammer mistakes...I am tired
ReplyDeleteI as the ones before me that commented, did not prepare well for the test. There are things that could've been done to prepare me for this. One such thing could've been the practice ACT passages. The only actual issue that I had was the noise around me. It was really distracting when trying to concentrate and this could be avoided by putting all of the kids take the ACT in one wing of the school. Taking it during school ensured that kids showed up. This should continue to be done.
ReplyDeleteI didn't prepare much for the test. My most comfortable part of the ACT would probably be math and science for me which are my best subjects. Things to do differently would be give us time to eat lunch. I think they should do what they do for AP where they can go off and get lunch and be back my 4th block. I also think that they need to control the noise level outside, I heard music playing during my test and that was very distracting. Otherwise, I really liked doing it during the school day because it saved another day of coming into school.
ReplyDeleteI had already taken my ACT and was somewhat happy with me score. I have to admit i did not study for the test but i wish i would have. I think if the teachers took a couple days out of the week before the ACT would be very helpful. The easiest test for me was the English. I believe i need to get better at comprehending what i read. Many people i have talked to have felt this way so i like the idea of reading alot and then answering questions. This may not be fun but i think it would be helpful. The science portion of the test was difficult because it is really just looking at graphs and reading all the information within 30 minutes.
ReplyDeleteI did not prepare very much either. The math and English sections went pretty well for me. The science portion was all right as well because all it was was reading graphs and answering some very general science questions. The reading part wasn't too bad either, especially if you take AP English as a junior because the readings that Mrs. DeBruin gives us are much harder then the pieces the ACT gives us and the reading questions are more content, inference, and word definitions, as opposed to rhetorical devices. I didn't mind having the ACT during the school day. However, I would have liked to have had an hour off or so after the test to mentally cool down, instead of having 15 minutes to eat a mediocre lunch then rushing to my afternoon classes.
ReplyDeleteHonestly I didn't prepare much for the test. I felt really comfortable with the math and science portions of the test. I change the locations of where the test were taken. It was very noisy at times during the test and that got somewhat distracting. I would also consider the possibility of giving the kids a longer time for lunch after to make sure they got a break after a difficult test.
ReplyDeleteI did not prepare outside of the school prep we did earlier in the year. The easiest test for me was English. The hardest was science. I think the next time around I am going to do more prep to help with my timing because I did run out of time on many of the tests. I did not like taking it during school while classes where going on. At some points it got loud and I could not concentrate. I think the school would treat the ACT like they do AP testing because it would be less stressful. We should take it during the week in a different lcation and let us have an extended lunch to destress.
ReplyDeleteIn all truthfulness I didn't prepare for the ACT. Everyone says you should but the practice test is different than the actual ACT. Just get a good nights sleep and eat breakfast and always remember to stay calm. When I opened the test I realized that it looked just like the ACT prep tests that we've taken before. That's actually how I made it through the test, just thinking that it was another prep test and I should try to do the best I can. The test I feel the most comfortable in is in the English and Math, yes the Math gets harder towards the end but they're easier than the Reading and Science. Always remember any answer is better than no answer if you are running out of time. If there could be anything different it would be the fact that it was rescheduled for a school day.
ReplyDeleteThe test itself wasn't a problem for me, excluding science. I didn't do any outside preparation. Surprisingly, taking the test was not as scary as I thought it would be. Teachers and administrators stress the ACT so much that many students (myself included) come to believe it's incredibly difficult and painful to take, but in reality it wasn't all that hard. My best advice is to try your hardest on the practice tests like the ACT aspire, get a good amount of sleep, eat breakfast, and don't stress over it because you can always take it again if you don't like the results.
ReplyDeleteI took the test in the fall already and had spent some time studying using an ACT prep book. Hopefully, my score will go up from last time. I recommend using a book like this. It gives you real questions and specific reason why answer are/are not correct. I wish the reading test had more time, but there's not much we can do about that. I also felt that lunch was too rushed for some students...we should have had at least 45 minutes to eat lunch and recover before going to actual classes. Other than that, I liked taking it during school because I have work/coaching on the weekend.
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