Weekly Column Patrick OConnor College tests-- don't ACT out- find a way to do better!
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Just when the hallways at school were quieting down as seniors made their May 1 decisions, the cries of “Oh the madness!” are now coming from the juniors who have received their ACT scores from early April (yup, they’re online—the ones in the mail will come in about three weeks.) Even though many of these juniors should be studying for the APs they’re taking next week, all they can do is stare at their e-mail from Iowa and say “How did this happen?” If this is your first ACT, calm down—it happens to almost everyone. No matter how much you practice, there’s nothing to replace the first ACT experience… except of course, the second ACT experience, provided you score higher. Several juniors have asked if a re-take of the ACT is in order. The answer (of course) is—it depends. If something unusual happened the day you took the test—if you weren’t feeling well, if there was a fire drill in the middle, if you felt nervous about the test, or (true story!) if you fell asleep during the test, or if you walked out from the test and said “I can do better”, a re-take is most likely in order—see if you can sign up for June.
On the other hand, some students simply look at the scores and want them to be higher—so they wonder about a re-take. The best answer I can give here is to consider if you really feel you can score higher—it’s great to *want* the scores to be higher, but do you think you gave the ACT your best shot? If you’re not sure, and you want to give it another go, by all means make it happen…
…but before you register, consider if you’re ready for a re-take. For example, some students feel a particular score was surprisingly low—for many students, this is the
First, if your reading comprehension needs improvement, there’s a good chance you scored lower on the Science section as well—because the Science section is really a
Second, since improving reading comprehension generally takes time, June might not be the best time for an ACT re-take, so this might wait until September. If this freaks you out, you might want to consider taking a Spring SAT, since only one of the three sections of the SAT emphasize the kind of reading the ACT Reading portion does. Again, there’s nothing hard and fast about these rules, but if you find yourself needing some time to sharpen your reading skills, and you want to get a decent set of scores, the plan may be to do a Spring SAT, followed by a Fall ACT—and remember, the scores from the September ACT will be delivered to colleges around October 8th,, just in time to be used to review your killer application.
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