When is the best time to take the ACT
June 4, 2019Get Smarter Prep

When is the best time to take the ACT?

When is the best time to take the ACT?

 

When is the best time to take the ACT? That depends. What do you have going on? The answer is going to be different for everyone. However, we are going to break down every ACT test date to see which one best suits students’ schedules.   

 

Test Dates

Honestly, most of our tutors at Get Smarter Prep like the July test date best. Test prep generally begins towards the end of May, which means school is out.  Students don’t have to worry about finals, graduation parties for their friends, or the chaos that comes with the end of the school year. However, if your family tends to vacation before the middle of July, then we have problem. It’s best to take a look at your schedule and plan accordingly. If you don’t take a vacation or plan for a holiday later in the summer, then the July ACT is a great fit!

 

Maybe you’re traveling all summer and the June or July ACT isn’t a fit for you. Now we are getting into the September ACT, which begins test prep at the end of July. The next available test date is October. This test date is great for several reasons.  Students are already back into the swing of school, which means they are getting used to a schedule and back to studying.  Adding on test prep for the ACT would be like adding in extra class. However, depending on which sports and extra-curricular activities students are involved in could be too much for a number of students. Keep in mind, our courses are 8-10 weeks long. Private tutoring is anywhere between 3-15 hours depending on the students’ goals and availability.

 

What about the December test? Another great option for students who want to complete the ACT before finals begin. Also, it’s cold outside. What else is there to do? Plus, students can go into Winter Break knowing they’ve completed the ACT. It’s a win win situation.

 

If not the December test, then perhaps the February ACT? Prep for the February test generally begins at the end of December. Why not get a jump start on studying while still on Winter Break? This test date is a great test for Juniors to take! By this point in your high school career you’ve most likely taken Algebra, Geometry, Biology, and Chemistry, which is the bulk of the Math section. Plus, there is still time to prep and take an additional test if need be.  

 

April showers bring May flowers…so they say. But, it’s a test date worth looking into. Test prep for the April test begins at the end of February. If you want to be completely finished with ACT test prep before thinking about finals, then this is the test date for you! Also, if you take the test in April and do well, then you don’t have to think about it while on summer vacation or while completing college applications.

 

June promises summer and test prep? At least at the beginning of June. The June ACT is great for students who don’t mind doubling down on finals as well as ACT prep. Test prep begins mid-April right up to the week leading up to the test.  Students will have about 2-3 weeks after school is out to prep for the June test.  If students can manage finals with the promise of summer vacation surrounding this test date, then it’s a date worth considering.

 

Regardless of which test date you choose, Get Smarter Prep will help you every step of the way. From July to June, we will help you pick the best test date for you and help you prepare for the score you need for the school you want.

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Adversity Score
May 22, 2019Get Smarter Prep

Adversity Score

The College Board is rolling out an adversity score calculating each students’ level of adversity based on a scale from 1 to 100. They named it the Environmental Context Dashboard.  The ECD is designed to provide admissions officers with information about where a student comes from, but is it an accurate tool?  In today’s blog post, we are going to break down how The College Board is rating adversity and what students and parents need to know moving forward.

Collecting Data

First, let’s look at how The College Board rates students on the 1 to 100 scale. The scale is broken down into two categories: Neighborhood measure and high school measure. Neighborhood measure is comprised of income, family structure, housing, educational attainment, and likelihood of being a victim of a crime. High school measure is comprised of income, family structure, housing, and educational attainment.

The collected data is taken from public data sources, including census data and The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, as well as College Board’s own data, which presents a view of school and neighborhood context for a student. Based on the data pulled for each student’s categories the Dashboard then gives that student a rating from 1 corresponding to the least disadvantaged and 100 to the most disadvantaged.

Adversity Scale
A screenshot of the Dashboard

The thought process behind the adversity score is to show how a students’ SAT score compares to those of other students in their school and provide admissions officers with a better context about an applicant’s neighborhood and high school.

The ECD was piloted to 50 colleges. Among those colleges and universities were Yale, Florida State, Michigan, and Trinity. Ultimately, the hope was to “make it more likely that students who demonstrate strength and resourcefulness in overcoming challenges are more likely to be admitted to college.”

Adversity Score Algorithm

Exactly how is the algorithm calculated? That’s a good question. Only The College Board knows. They aren’t divulging how a student is specifically rated on the adversity scale. Why? Who knows? Maybe it’s because there are a number of flaws within their system?

Since this ECD was brought up to level the playing field of adversity, it would be ironic if everyone knew the rules of the ECD. What if wealthy parents started playing their own version of College Admissions Scandal to make sure their students are admitted to a certain college. If everyone knows the exact breakdown of the adversity scale, who’s to say what people would do to tip the scales. Would you move to a different neighborhood? Switch schools? The possibilities are endless.

In a perfect world, every single student would be able to study hard, have equal opportunity, overcome adversity, and get into the school they want. However, that’s simply not the case. We understand what The College Board is trying to do, but what we don’t understand is how they can generalize every student.  Each student is different and has a different background story. An algorithm isn’t going to calculate their history.

What we do know is that the ACT and SAT are both widely accepted in every region of the United States. There is no regional bias between one or another. It’s also safe to say the ACT hasn’t produced their own version of an adversity score.  So, if you’re wavering between the SAT and the ACT, but don’t want to get pinpointed with an adversity score, stick with the ACT.

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ACT Specific Watches
March 6, 2019Get Smarter Prep

ACT Specific Watches

At Get Smarter Prep, we’ve received a few questions lately about watches designed specifically for use on the ACT and other standardized tests. At first glance, these devices might seem useful. They’re intended to help you track how many minutes you have left in a section and which question or passage you should be on. They come pre-programmed with the number of minutes and questions for each section. As a bonus, they’re silent, and therefore “ACT-approved.”

As great as they seem on the surface, though, we can’t recommend them, for several reasons.

Accuracy over Speed

Accuracy is more important than speed on the ACT. Getting to your goal score is about much more than rushing to make your way to the end of a particular section within the allotted time. Nearly every student struggles with time on the ACT, and nearly every student can reach their goal without completing every question.

An important part of your preparation for the ACT should be working out which questions deserve your time and attention and which ones do not. There might be one Reading passage that consistently gives you trouble, and perhaps skipping it boosts your Reading score. There might be one type of English question that you find especially tricky or time-consuming, and perhaps skipping those types of questions and saving them for the end is your best approach. Most students benefit from cutting loose the last 10 (or 15, or 20) Math questions in favor of spending more time on the earlier questions.

These watches assume you’re going straight through the section, at a rapid, constant pace, and this simply isn’t the best approach for most students.

Each Question is Different

Some questions are harder than others.

The most obvious example of this is the Math section. Math question #47 will almost certainly take you longer than question #3 – that’s fine, as question #47 will likely be trickier and involve a bit more work.

You are not a robot who can be counted upon to spend exactly one minute per Math question, or exactly 8 minutes and 45 seconds per Reading passage. Some questions and passages will take you more time, and some will take you less. If you’re constantly glancing at your wrist, though, comparing yourself to an inflexible standard, you’ll likely only grow frustrated and distracted from what’s most important – getting points.

Each Student is Different

The ACT is a predictable, standardized exam that behaves in predictable ways. Knowing how the ACT is set up allows students and tutors to plan and strategize. However, even though the test is standardized, students are not! Each student is going to have a slightly different path to their best test performance. It is important to be open to making those adjustments as you prepare, instead of trying to base your strategy on the watch. The ACT is stubborn and inflexible enough for all of us – we need to adjust and adapt in order to be successful.

Technology Sometimes Fails

If your test performance hinges too much on the watch at your wrist, what happens if it fails? If the battery dies, or some other mundane mechanical problem arises? Your best insulation against the timing restrictions of the ACT is practice and strategy. Having a plan, practicing the plan, and following the plan is much more reliable than counting on a piece of technology that may or may not reliably get you through the exam.

Proctors Might Object

All these products advertise that they are allowed on the ACT, but a glance at their Amazon reviews shows that there have been instances where proctors don’t allow the watch into the room. If you practice with it and come to depend on it, and then the proctor doesn’t allow it into the testing room, you may become frustrated, anxious, or discouraged. That’s not a recipe for success on test day!

 

We want to see you get the best score you can on the ACT, and we don’t think these watches are the best way to accomplish that. Practice and preparation are key, even if they are more work than picking up a new watch.

 

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