The following chart suggests ACT and SAT goal scores to support and verify GPA on a college application.
GPA COMPATIBLE SCORES
ACT SAT
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+4.0 36 1570-1600
4.0 35 1530-1560
3.9 34 1490-1520
3.8 33 1450-1480
3.7 32 1420-1440
3.6 31 1390-1410
3.5 30 1360-1380
3.4 29 1330-1350
3.2-3.3 28 1300-1320
3.0-3.1 27 1260-1290
2.8-2.9 26 1230-1250
2.6-2.7 25 1200-1220
2.4-2.5 24 1160-1190
2.2-2.3 23 1130-1150
2.0-2.1 22 1100-1120
1.8-1.9 21 1060-1090
1.6-1.7 20 1030-1050
1.5 19 990-1020
1.4 18 960-980
1.3 17 920-950
1.2 16 880-910
1.1 15 830-870
1.0 14 780-820
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While every college will have its own desired GPA and entrance exam standards, these guidelines are based on a compilation of schools across the nation. If the student's GPA is significantly higher than the ACT or SAT would suggest, he or she should be prepared to introduce the disparity and provide a reasonable explanation on college application essays and interviews. For example, "I've always worked harder than the classroom teacher requires and taken advanced classes where I had to study longer and smarter than some other students. My grades are an indication of my commitment to challenging myself to achieve academic excellence."
If the entrance exam score is noticeably higher than the GPA, an explanation might include reference to an illness that was overcome or a "slow start Freshman year" that can be shown to have risen impressively over the next 2 years.
The best outcome is the highest possible GPA supported fully by the ACT or SAT result. But if the situation requires, a college essay about a hurdle that was overcome can counter anomalies.
Showing posts with label college admission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college admission. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Sunday, January 22, 2012
PLANNING YOUR COLLEGE VISITS
AHHH! The excitement and family bonding of piling into the car (or the train or the plane) and heading off to explore the many college locations that promise a bright future for our maturing young adults! (insert sound of screeching tires) But wait! This scenario is out of order. There are so many other considerations to make before packing a bag, not the least of which is a plan to implement upon arriving at the destination(s).
Let’s start at the beginning and forestall the fun part until we’re better prepared.
There are big schools and small ones, schools far away from home and those close by; schools offering a 4 year degree and others with graduate programs; schools his or her friends are attending and schools where nobody knows your name; the school mom, dad, brother, or sister went to and schools that mom, dad, brother, or sister wish they had. The choices are virtually limitless, injecting the need for a little preplanning.
STEP ONE: Make a list of potential colleges. Don’t limit yourself yet. At this point, 20 schools is not too many to handle and the list will decrease as you make informed decisions.
STEP TWO: Check online to see the qualifications each school seeks in their admission process. Compare the “wants” with your student’s academic and extracurricular history. Decisions at this step can revolve around either end of the spectrum: low GPA and ACT results will not be impressive to the College of William and Mary, but high scores may indicate that your academically gifted student will not be challenged sufficiently by schools with low standards.
STEP THREE: Visit your high school’s website to check for a link to Naviance. Follow the steps to check out the scattergram of recently admitted graduates from your high school to each college, based on GPA and standardized test scores. This information can be a second decision point academically or for other reasons.
I personally chose a college which no person from my high school had attended in the previous 3 years, but I had to wait until graduation to get the most current information. Your student may want to be “the only one” or part of a large contingent from the neighborhood. It's a question often neglected, yet a viable decision point.
STEP FOUR: Select an itinerary (or two or three). Try to limit the number of schools visited on each trip to a reasonable goal, maybe 3, that will avoid getting them confused. While the plan may be geography based, think about having one large campus on the same trip as a smaller one.
STEP FIVE: Contact the admissions department at each school on the itinerary and schedule a guided visit. This gets your name on the roster and gives you someone to answer questions.
STEP SIX: Have a standard list of questions so you can gather comparative information. Other issues will come up at each campus, but you will be assured of having the same baseline input from each school.
STEP SEVEN: Take notes during and after the visit. Write down your opinions as soon as practical and include comments that will bring the specific school to mind, like “huge oak trees in quad.” Anything you can do to keep the memories organized will be helpful once you’re back home.
STEP EIGHT: Pack your bags. Remember that you’ll be walking around these campuses, so be warm (or cool) and have very comfortable shoes.
Have fun!!
Let’s start at the beginning and forestall the fun part until we’re better prepared.
There are big schools and small ones, schools far away from home and those close by; schools offering a 4 year degree and others with graduate programs; schools his or her friends are attending and schools where nobody knows your name; the school mom, dad, brother, or sister went to and schools that mom, dad, brother, or sister wish they had. The choices are virtually limitless, injecting the need for a little preplanning.
STEP ONE: Make a list of potential colleges. Don’t limit yourself yet. At this point, 20 schools is not too many to handle and the list will decrease as you make informed decisions.
STEP TWO: Check online to see the qualifications each school seeks in their admission process. Compare the “wants” with your student’s academic and extracurricular history. Decisions at this step can revolve around either end of the spectrum: low GPA and ACT results will not be impressive to the College of William and Mary, but high scores may indicate that your academically gifted student will not be challenged sufficiently by schools with low standards.
STEP THREE: Visit your high school’s website to check for a link to Naviance. Follow the steps to check out the scattergram of recently admitted graduates from your high school to each college, based on GPA and standardized test scores. This information can be a second decision point academically or for other reasons.
I personally chose a college which no person from my high school had attended in the previous 3 years, but I had to wait until graduation to get the most current information. Your student may want to be “the only one” or part of a large contingent from the neighborhood. It's a question often neglected, yet a viable decision point.
STEP FOUR: Select an itinerary (or two or three). Try to limit the number of schools visited on each trip to a reasonable goal, maybe 3, that will avoid getting them confused. While the plan may be geography based, think about having one large campus on the same trip as a smaller one.
STEP FIVE: Contact the admissions department at each school on the itinerary and schedule a guided visit. This gets your name on the roster and gives you someone to answer questions.
STEP SIX: Have a standard list of questions so you can gather comparative information. Other issues will come up at each campus, but you will be assured of having the same baseline input from each school.
STEP SEVEN: Take notes during and after the visit. Write down your opinions as soon as practical and include comments that will bring the specific school to mind, like “huge oak trees in quad.” Anything you can do to keep the memories organized will be helpful once you’re back home.
STEP EIGHT: Pack your bags. Remember that you’ll be walking around these campuses, so be warm (or cool) and have very comfortable shoes.
Have fun!!
Thursday, June 2, 2011
A SPECTACULAR GPA IS NOT ENOUGH
A contact of mine from the internet, Josh Barsch, provides timely insights into college admissions and scholarship applications through his blog and emails. Today I ran across his take on the uselessness of the grade point average when comparing students from a wide variety of educational situations.
Josh’s comments in a nutshell:
“A nationwide grade-inflation epidemic over the last 10 years has
killed the significance of a high GPA... At some point in the recent past, someone decided that the horror of seeing the letter "D" or "F" on a report card did much more
long-term damage to a kid than, say, not knowing how to read, write
or spell. Lots of parents agreed, and convinced schools that even
though Johnny still doesn't know what a comma is, he still deserves
a B in English... (T)he quality of education in our country
varies so widely that a 4.0 student ... at one school might flunk out at another. It also works the other way; a solid B-C student at a rigorous academic high school
may have the brains to blow through the system with a 4.0 or better
at a weaker school.” (judgejosh@givemescholarships.com)
I couldn’t agree with my colleague more. Even within the same school system, one teacher may grade on an entirely different scale than another teaching the same subject. Many of my students have heard me say that I want them to be the first to correctly answer a question on the first day of class; it creates a positive perception of the student in the teacher’s mind and could become a self-fulfilling prophecy resulting in a better grade.
The GPA is not the end-all, be-all in college admissions but it is still part of the permanent scholastic record and will be seen by every college to which the student applies. A high GPA is more appealing that a low one and college-bound students should strive to achieve the highest potential number. The key is to highlight that spectacular academic average by supporting it with a comparable ACT or SAT score.
The 3.5 student who earns a 22 on the ACT is actually supporting a GPA of only 2.2 or 2.3. To adequately display knowledge akin to a 3.0 or higher, the student should be aiming for an ACT score in the upper 20’s. By the time the cumulative classroom average reaches 3.6, an ACT score of 30 or higher is required. For students in the top tier of academics, taking honors and AP classes, an ACT result of “nearly perfect” is a reasonable goal.
The important point to recognizing that a lovely GPA alone will not guarantee college admission or scholarship awards is that classroom success needs to be reinforced with a similarly impressive measurement that places all applicants on similar footing. The ACT and SAT college entrance exams are panoramic assessments which standardize scores across the country and allow colleges to evaluate the potential of a wide range of students with a single yardstick.
Want to know what ACT score would be required to parallel your GPA or academic percentage? Post a comment on this blog and I’ll send the chart “Translating a Composite Average...” that I use to help students set a goal for ACT study.
Josh’s comments in a nutshell:
“A nationwide grade-inflation epidemic over the last 10 years has
killed the significance of a high GPA... At some point in the recent past, someone decided that the horror of seeing the letter "D" or "F" on a report card did much more
long-term damage to a kid than, say, not knowing how to read, write
or spell. Lots of parents agreed, and convinced schools that even
though Johnny still doesn't know what a comma is, he still deserves
a B in English... (T)he quality of education in our country
varies so widely that a 4.0 student ... at one school might flunk out at another. It also works the other way; a solid B-C student at a rigorous academic high school
may have the brains to blow through the system with a 4.0 or better
at a weaker school.” (judgejosh@givemescholarships.com)
I couldn’t agree with my colleague more. Even within the same school system, one teacher may grade on an entirely different scale than another teaching the same subject. Many of my students have heard me say that I want them to be the first to correctly answer a question on the first day of class; it creates a positive perception of the student in the teacher’s mind and could become a self-fulfilling prophecy resulting in a better grade.
The GPA is not the end-all, be-all in college admissions but it is still part of the permanent scholastic record and will be seen by every college to which the student applies. A high GPA is more appealing that a low one and college-bound students should strive to achieve the highest potential number. The key is to highlight that spectacular academic average by supporting it with a comparable ACT or SAT score.
The 3.5 student who earns a 22 on the ACT is actually supporting a GPA of only 2.2 or 2.3. To adequately display knowledge akin to a 3.0 or higher, the student should be aiming for an ACT score in the upper 20’s. By the time the cumulative classroom average reaches 3.6, an ACT score of 30 or higher is required. For students in the top tier of academics, taking honors and AP classes, an ACT result of “nearly perfect” is a reasonable goal.
The important point to recognizing that a lovely GPA alone will not guarantee college admission or scholarship awards is that classroom success needs to be reinforced with a similarly impressive measurement that places all applicants on similar footing. The ACT and SAT college entrance exams are panoramic assessments which standardize scores across the country and allow colleges to evaluate the potential of a wide range of students with a single yardstick.
Want to know what ACT score would be required to parallel your GPA or academic percentage? Post a comment on this blog and I’ll send the chart “Translating a Composite Average...” that I use to help students set a goal for ACT study.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
EARLY DECISION COLLEGE APPLICATION
Recently, several parents have called our office to find out more about early admission to college. There are primary questions to be answered before making the stringent commitment to “Early Decision” or the lesser decision to apply for “Early Admission.”
First, a distinction between the two. Early Admission allows a student to apply ahead of time and find out, perhaps in mid-December, whether acceptance has been granted. It permits the student to continue applying to other colleges through the Regular Admission process and delay making a final decision until Spring.
Early Decision, on the other hand, is a resolution on the part of the student to attend that college if accepted, to apply to only that one college, and to withdraw applications to any other colleges. Colleges actually communicate the student information, so don’t try to cheat. Applying through early decision is a non-reversable agreement to attend that school if accepted. Generally, the only way to get out of the contract is by providing proof that the tuition cannot be covered, even with loans.
Some colleges have either one or both of these options intended to benefit certain students and the college itself. For the college, it provides separation of extremely devoted applicants from those who are less determined and also gives a fast start to enrolling the next year’s population. For applicants who have their hearts set on that one, perfect school, it provides the opportunity to find out if the school will accept them or if the search must continue.
Individual schools, of course, are looking for specific criteria for their student body. Grades, college admission tests, extracurricular activities, essays, and a host of other qualifications will influence the college’s choices. Early application of either type may show the school that the student is organized, consistent, and certainly decisive, all qualities that bode well for success in college.
It is risky, however, to assume that early application will give a student a greater probability of acceptance. Ivy League schools’ admission data from 2009 indicate a slightly higher acceptance rate for early applications than for regular deadlines, but these schools also have clearly defined qualifications and well-publicized standards that tend to dissuade marginal candidates from trying for early decision at a “stretch” school. Brown University states in its website, “The Board of Admissions makes the same decisions under early decision that it would make under the regular admission plan.” According to admissionsconsultants.com, “The most selective colleges currently admit 25% to 50% of their total students from the early admissions pool,” leaving at least half of the class positions open to regular admission applicants.
One important consideration related to early applications involves tuition, scholarships, and grant awards.
Early acceptance is usually not accompanied by financial aid package information which may be forthcoming no sooner than for regular admission students. The College Board cautions, “Your child should not apply under ... early decision ... if planning to weigh offers and financial aid packages from several colleges later in the spring.” Some schools admit that early decision students are guaranteed attendees and may not receive bonuses like larger scholarships in order to entice highly qualified students to enroll.
Needs-based financial awards, of course, are based on family income and assets, so the monetary package is the same regardless of early or regular admission. Merit awards at many schools are based on clearly defined criteria and rarely provide an extra “reward” for students just because they apply early.
Other issues revolve strictly around the individual student. If success as a senior would fill in gaps in the student’s resume, later application to college may represent a stronger, more desirable portrait of true potential. Higher college entrance exam scores, elevations in classroom grades, or volunteer experiences may be later in coming but can enhance a college application. Students needing this extra boost may benefit by applying to colleges in the Regular Admission Process.
Answer these questions before deciding to apply to college early.
1. Have you thoroughly investigated possible schools, including researching the school’s reputation, matriculation statistics, job placement results, location, and course offerings?
2. Have you visited the school during all seasons, talked with current students and alumni, and discussed your qualifications and goals with the admissions department?
3. Is this the one and only college you want to attend?
4. Is your application as strong as it will ever be?
5. Will the financial aid package influence your college choice?
If you answered “yes” to questions 1 through 4 and “no” to question 5, you are ready to apply early. Start filling out that application form and the financial aid questionnaire!
First, a distinction between the two. Early Admission allows a student to apply ahead of time and find out, perhaps in mid-December, whether acceptance has been granted. It permits the student to continue applying to other colleges through the Regular Admission process and delay making a final decision until Spring.
Early Decision, on the other hand, is a resolution on the part of the student to attend that college if accepted, to apply to only that one college, and to withdraw applications to any other colleges. Colleges actually communicate the student information, so don’t try to cheat. Applying through early decision is a non-reversable agreement to attend that school if accepted. Generally, the only way to get out of the contract is by providing proof that the tuition cannot be covered, even with loans.
Some colleges have either one or both of these options intended to benefit certain students and the college itself. For the college, it provides separation of extremely devoted applicants from those who are less determined and also gives a fast start to enrolling the next year’s population. For applicants who have their hearts set on that one, perfect school, it provides the opportunity to find out if the school will accept them or if the search must continue.
Individual schools, of course, are looking for specific criteria for their student body. Grades, college admission tests, extracurricular activities, essays, and a host of other qualifications will influence the college’s choices. Early application of either type may show the school that the student is organized, consistent, and certainly decisive, all qualities that bode well for success in college.
It is risky, however, to assume that early application will give a student a greater probability of acceptance. Ivy League schools’ admission data from 2009 indicate a slightly higher acceptance rate for early applications than for regular deadlines, but these schools also have clearly defined qualifications and well-publicized standards that tend to dissuade marginal candidates from trying for early decision at a “stretch” school. Brown University states in its website, “The Board of Admissions makes the same decisions under early decision that it would make under the regular admission plan.” According to admissionsconsultants.com, “The most selective colleges currently admit 25% to 50% of their total students from the early admissions pool,” leaving at least half of the class positions open to regular admission applicants.
One important consideration related to early applications involves tuition, scholarships, and grant awards.
Early acceptance is usually not accompanied by financial aid package information which may be forthcoming no sooner than for regular admission students. The College Board cautions, “Your child should not apply under ... early decision ... if planning to weigh offers and financial aid packages from several colleges later in the spring.” Some schools admit that early decision students are guaranteed attendees and may not receive bonuses like larger scholarships in order to entice highly qualified students to enroll.
Needs-based financial awards, of course, are based on family income and assets, so the monetary package is the same regardless of early or regular admission. Merit awards at many schools are based on clearly defined criteria and rarely provide an extra “reward” for students just because they apply early.
Other issues revolve strictly around the individual student. If success as a senior would fill in gaps in the student’s resume, later application to college may represent a stronger, more desirable portrait of true potential. Higher college entrance exam scores, elevations in classroom grades, or volunteer experiences may be later in coming but can enhance a college application. Students needing this extra boost may benefit by applying to colleges in the Regular Admission Process.
Answer these questions before deciding to apply to college early.
1. Have you thoroughly investigated possible schools, including researching the school’s reputation, matriculation statistics, job placement results, location, and course offerings?
2. Have you visited the school during all seasons, talked with current students and alumni, and discussed your qualifications and goals with the admissions department?
3. Is this the one and only college you want to attend?
4. Is your application as strong as it will ever be?
5. Will the financial aid package influence your college choice?
If you answered “yes” to questions 1 through 4 and “no” to question 5, you are ready to apply early. Start filling out that application form and the financial aid questionnaire!
Saturday, July 3, 2010
4 MISCONCEPTIONS THAT MAY BE LIMITING YOUR ACT SCORE
Would you like to do better on tests like the ACT? Who wouldn’t? You may need to reexamine your preconceptions about studying, testing, and interpreting test results in order to demonstrate your true potential.
Perhaps you believe your school success means that you don’t even need to study. You might believe that a few “cramming” sessions the week before will be sufficient. Perhaps you believe that preparing won’t help improve your score anyway. You might have convinced yourself that you “never do well in testing situations,” so why bother. You might even believe that the school you want to attend doesn’t place much value on test scores. You might believe that you can make up for a low test score through social popularity, sports success, extracurricular activities, or a family legacy.
To be blunt, these misconceptions may be the very reason for mediocre success. While any one or more of them might seem reasonable based on your past experience, relying on history to predict the future may limit your ability to improve on the past. A disappointing test result may be nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This post looks at 4 preconceptions that might be holding you back.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #1: Either you know it or you don’t.
There is a whole branch of philosophy that examines the question, “If you know, does it naturally follow that you know that you know?” As a philosophy major in college, I argued strongly that knowledge is not necessarily self-evident. As a teacher, I was continuously amazed to know the answer to a student’s question that I had never before thought about consciously. As a parent, I was sometimes disappointed to discover that something untoward that I had suspected would happen, subsequently did happen, indicating that my suspicion was actually knowledge.
Think about a course you took a year or two ago.....Geometry for example. Do you remember the Pythagorean Theorem? Chances are you do, although it might take some prodding to make the connection: "A squared plus B squared equals C squared," to find the hypotenuse and legs of a triangle.
Now, do you know the Distance Formula? ...the equation of a circle? ...the Pythagorean Identity from trigonometry? Since they are all just the Pythagorean Theorem in various forms, the answer is that you DO know each of these things. You may not have completed a trig course, but you already know one of the basic equations. You know it even though you don’t know that you know it. Sometimes a student will miss a question for lack of trying, thinking he or she doesn’t “know” how to find the right answer. The error is in giving up, not in the knowledge. Preparing for the test will highlight things that you know subconsciously and plant them in conscious memory.
The brain is like the maze of halls at school. There are many “lockers” that store information but lack of use may rust the lock needed to access the data. Review of prior knowledge can oil the lock and make it easier to get to what you know. Prior experience with the way a question may be asked can help you find the locker that holds applicable information without meandering around the halls like a Freshman. Rehearsal of possible question topics can improve the speed with which you can get to the right locker during crowded passing periods and apply appropriate knowledge.
Preparing for a test like the ACT can improve your score by increasing your chances of using applicable knowledge at appropriate times with greater speed.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #2: The ACT test score is the final goal.
Admittedly I am prejudice in my belief that the two concept sections, English and Math, are important topics well past Junior or Senior year of high school.
Knowledge of the basic grammar rules applied by the writers of the ACT in both the English and Reading sections can have major impact on success in college. Informal surveys have shown that appropriate use of the semicolon, for example, can unconsciously impress a teaching assistant reading an essay exam and result in a higher grade. (A similar impact may occur in the scoring of the optional Writing section of the ACT.) Application of simple rules like avoiding run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, and spelling of its-it’s allows a reader to follow your argument with less confusion, making your writing more impressive.
Many colleges require as many as 6 math credits for graduation and give a math competency test before allowing a student to take a college level math course. By maintaining high school math concepts, you can avoid the need to enroll in a remedial class at full tuition and zero credit. Especially for those who are not “math friendly,” precluding 1, 2, or even 3 additional semesters of elementary arithmetic should be a strong motivator for keeping up with the skills necessary for success in higher lever, required classes.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #3: One study plan is as good as every other.
While some study is better than no study, no single study plan is effective for all students. You need to know 1) where you stand now, 2) what your goal score is, 3) how you learn, 4) what distractors will present hurdles in your study plan and on testing day, and 5) what will be tested.
The most important of these issues is how you learn. There are many ways to prepare for the ACT and other standardized tests, each with strengths and weaknesses. In order to select the method which will be most effective for you as a unique test taker, you need to realistically exam your individual learning style. Read the Normal Genius blog from 5/7/10, “Selecting a Study Plan for the ACT.”
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #4: The only purpose of the ACT is to get into college.
While it is true that most colleges use standardized test scores as one of many criteria for college admission, ACT scores can also play an important role in qualifying for SCHOLARSHIPS. Every point you can add to your ACT score improves the chances that the college of your choice will recognize your talents and potential, will see that you have an important contribution to make to the student body, and will offer a tuition subsidy or cash stipend. Other organizations also use the ACT scores to award scholarships that can be used for tuition, housing, or expenses.
Whatever the size of a scholarship, it represents 2 impressive distinctions. On the one hand it is a tangible honor for your persistent hard work. But more importantly, it is a gift from you to the people who have supported you financially and emotionally through the challenging high school experience and to those who will be paying the extraordinary college expenses. The kudos that accompany both distinctions are well worth a few weeks of additional study.
Perhaps you believe your school success means that you don’t even need to study. You might believe that a few “cramming” sessions the week before will be sufficient. Perhaps you believe that preparing won’t help improve your score anyway. You might have convinced yourself that you “never do well in testing situations,” so why bother. You might even believe that the school you want to attend doesn’t place much value on test scores. You might believe that you can make up for a low test score through social popularity, sports success, extracurricular activities, or a family legacy.
To be blunt, these misconceptions may be the very reason for mediocre success. While any one or more of them might seem reasonable based on your past experience, relying on history to predict the future may limit your ability to improve on the past. A disappointing test result may be nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy.
This post looks at 4 preconceptions that might be holding you back.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #1: Either you know it or you don’t.
There is a whole branch of philosophy that examines the question, “If you know, does it naturally follow that you know that you know?” As a philosophy major in college, I argued strongly that knowledge is not necessarily self-evident. As a teacher, I was continuously amazed to know the answer to a student’s question that I had never before thought about consciously. As a parent, I was sometimes disappointed to discover that something untoward that I had suspected would happen, subsequently did happen, indicating that my suspicion was actually knowledge.
Think about a course you took a year or two ago.....Geometry for example. Do you remember the Pythagorean Theorem? Chances are you do, although it might take some prodding to make the connection: "A squared plus B squared equals C squared," to find the hypotenuse and legs of a triangle.
Now, do you know the Distance Formula? ...the equation of a circle? ...the Pythagorean Identity from trigonometry? Since they are all just the Pythagorean Theorem in various forms, the answer is that you DO know each of these things. You may not have completed a trig course, but you already know one of the basic equations. You know it even though you don’t know that you know it. Sometimes a student will miss a question for lack of trying, thinking he or she doesn’t “know” how to find the right answer. The error is in giving up, not in the knowledge. Preparing for the test will highlight things that you know subconsciously and plant them in conscious memory.
The brain is like the maze of halls at school. There are many “lockers” that store information but lack of use may rust the lock needed to access the data. Review of prior knowledge can oil the lock and make it easier to get to what you know. Prior experience with the way a question may be asked can help you find the locker that holds applicable information without meandering around the halls like a Freshman. Rehearsal of possible question topics can improve the speed with which you can get to the right locker during crowded passing periods and apply appropriate knowledge.
Preparing for a test like the ACT can improve your score by increasing your chances of using applicable knowledge at appropriate times with greater speed.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #2: The ACT test score is the final goal.
Admittedly I am prejudice in my belief that the two concept sections, English and Math, are important topics well past Junior or Senior year of high school.
Knowledge of the basic grammar rules applied by the writers of the ACT in both the English and Reading sections can have major impact on success in college. Informal surveys have shown that appropriate use of the semicolon, for example, can unconsciously impress a teaching assistant reading an essay exam and result in a higher grade. (A similar impact may occur in the scoring of the optional Writing section of the ACT.) Application of simple rules like avoiding run-on sentences, subject-verb agreement, and spelling of its-it’s allows a reader to follow your argument with less confusion, making your writing more impressive.
Many colleges require as many as 6 math credits for graduation and give a math competency test before allowing a student to take a college level math course. By maintaining high school math concepts, you can avoid the need to enroll in a remedial class at full tuition and zero credit. Especially for those who are not “math friendly,” precluding 1, 2, or even 3 additional semesters of elementary arithmetic should be a strong motivator for keeping up with the skills necessary for success in higher lever, required classes.
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #3: One study plan is as good as every other.
While some study is better than no study, no single study plan is effective for all students. You need to know 1) where you stand now, 2) what your goal score is, 3) how you learn, 4) what distractors will present hurdles in your study plan and on testing day, and 5) what will be tested.
The most important of these issues is how you learn. There are many ways to prepare for the ACT and other standardized tests, each with strengths and weaknesses. In order to select the method which will be most effective for you as a unique test taker, you need to realistically exam your individual learning style. Read the Normal Genius blog from 5/7/10, “Selecting a Study Plan for the ACT.”
TESTING MISCONCEPTION #4: The only purpose of the ACT is to get into college.
While it is true that most colleges use standardized test scores as one of many criteria for college admission, ACT scores can also play an important role in qualifying for SCHOLARSHIPS. Every point you can add to your ACT score improves the chances that the college of your choice will recognize your talents and potential, will see that you have an important contribution to make to the student body, and will offer a tuition subsidy or cash stipend. Other organizations also use the ACT scores to award scholarships that can be used for tuition, housing, or expenses.
Whatever the size of a scholarship, it represents 2 impressive distinctions. On the one hand it is a tangible honor for your persistent hard work. But more importantly, it is a gift from you to the people who have supported you financially and emotionally through the challenging high school experience and to those who will be paying the extraordinary college expenses. The kudos that accompany both distinctions are well worth a few weeks of additional study.
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