College Entrance Exams
August 28, 2007
Like it or not, college entrance exams play a very important part in the whole college entrance experience. There are two college entrance exams � the SAT and the ACT. Deciding which one to take is something that should be researched and discussed with your counselor.
Students actually start preparing for these tests at a very early age when they begin to learn to read. Sounds kind of corny, but students that read more have a better vocabulary, have a more complete understanding of the English Language and in turn have better comprehension and writing skills. These skills lead to better test scores.
The same applies to Math and Science skills. As students progress through more difficult Math classes their skills in the areas of Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry become more solid, which leads to better Math scores. Even though the Science part of the ACT is more of a reasoning test, students that have taken more Science classes tend to do better because they have seen more graphs, more charts, and practiced using reason to figure out problems.
Much is made of prep courses. The best preparation for entrance exams is having a good solid foundation in school and working your hardest in class. Aside from that, the best thing a student could do to help themselves is not to go into a test cold. Understand what it looks like, know what the time allowed feels like and feel as comfortable and as un anxiousness as possible. With that in mind, students should take a few practice tests under conditions that are as similar to the test as possible. The ACT is given Saturday mornings at 8AM � get up one Saturday and take a full (almost 4 hour) practice test. See what it is like, how tired you get, and how hard it is to concentrate. It is strongly recommended students buy an ACT or SAT practice book from a bookstore that has a few, full practice tests in them.
The school does help students do some prep work for these tests. Math and English teachers usually do some prep work with juniors before the winter and spring tests. The school also gives every sophomore the PLAN test � an ACT pre-test designed for sophomores. The PLAN gives the student a good prediction of what they would score on the ACT. In October, juniors also have the opportunity to sign up and take the PSAT � the Preliminary SAT. This test not only serves as a practice test, but is also used as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
It is highly recommended that students BEGIN taking the ACT and SAT in December of their junior year.
Important Links
CLICK HERE TO PRACTICE FOR THE ACT
To read more about the tests, register and get in touch with the companies that develop and administer these tests, please use the following links:
For the ACT and its family of tests - ACT
For the SAT and its family of tests - The College Board
