- Jul 4, 2014
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My DD has verballed to a really strong academic school and is a 2019. She's a good student, but not top of her class. The University she wants to go to and has verballed to requires a 24 on ACT to get admitted. She didn't get the score on her 1st attempt, and was about 4 points off. Were taking the test again next month and using ACT tutoring program. Hopefully she eventually gets the score in the next year. But if she doesn't get it, at what point do you give up on it and look at other schools? If we wait too long, we could blow any chance at a scholarship. Wonder if anybody has been in this boat?
She really likes this school, but we did have some other schools showing interest before verballing.
Don't give up. If that's where she wants to go, she'll find a way to get herself there.
Just a couple of tips when DD took the ACT. The first time DD wrote it was December of her sophomore year. She did an ACT prep program. When she wrote the diagnostic for the first time (without having any exposure to any standardize tests), she scored a 29. It was a good score. But she needed to be in the 99th percentile to be seriously considered by some of the NESCAC and NEWMAC schools (she's a tiny pitcher - 5'3"). So here's what we did to help her get there. But before I go into the tips, a lot of this will fall on the shoulders of your DD and that's why I said, if that's where she wants to go, she'll find a way to get herself there.
Here's tip #1:
Going for prep is not enough. Your DD needs to write practice tests regularly. I cannot emphasize enough the amount of practice she needs to do. And when I say practice, I mean writing practice tests. DD did an 8 week intensive prep course (ran us an insane amount of money) - with 6 hour lessons every Saturday and Sunday for 8 weeks. Going to lessons is one thing, but you cannot get better without the practice. Here's a prime example of what happened before she started practicing seriously: After her weekend lessons, DD would write 1 test and even with the prep, she was still scoring 30, maybe 31. I did a ton of research and every thing I read said, "practice, practice, practice". So half way through the program, we switched gears. Every night, after her homework, she'd do one section of a practice test, regardless how late it was.
Tip #2: There's a ton of practice tests available for free on the web. I printed off over half a dozen full actual tests from past years. I also purchased that giant Red ACT book but to be honest, there was so many free tests that she hardly touched the book I purchased. And every night she'd write a section (not the entire test - just a section - ie. English - Reading, or Math or Science) and score it.
Tip #3: Once she'd scored it, we'd sit and discuss what she did wrong. If they were careless mistakes, she'd explain what she would do to stop making these mistakes. If it wasn't something she understood or needed to learn, she'd take that to her prep course the following weekend and learn the material. By writing countless practice tests, she truly got better.
Tip #4: Write each section like you would in an actual test setting. Silence with a watch next to you. Each test will tell you how much time you have for each section. This way, you can time yourself better. Running out of time is the costliest mistake you can make on a standardize test because it's preventable.
By changing the way she learnt, DD's "home score" went from 30/31 to 34-36 as she neared her actual writing date. The first time she wrote it in her sophomore year, she scored a 34 (and chewed her nails to the quick - despite all that practice, she was nervous as hell!). The 2nd time she wrote it in her junior year she scored a 35. She did admit to me that she regretted not putting in the effort for her 2nd write. She felt that she could have done better. She didn't prepare as well as she did her first write. (Even she recognizes it.)
Anyway, she coached one of her teammates using the same method and her teammate scored a 29 on her first write. Her teammate's first diagnostic was a 22. The secret is in the practice.
Finally, Tip #5: I guarantee you that a great score will get your DD a LOT of looks - even if she's tiny or not very fast. DD got more looks with her score than the other pitchers on our team who threw substantially faster and who were taller than her. For example, at the Colorado Fireworks at one particular game, there were 13 college coaches watching our game. Of the 13, 10 were there specifically to see DD and she's the smallest of ALL her teammates.
Hope this helps.