What are the pros & cons of taking the ACT/SAT as a Sophomore?

[OmahaBlueDog]

OBkid1 has done very well in school. She took the PSAT last year and looks to do it again this year.

In terms of test readiness, my thought is that the math is usually the biggest obstacle. OBkid1 is already through Algebra II, and will be taking Stat this year (In this part of Nebraska, we do 4 "blocks" each semester instead of 6-7 classes; students take 1-year classes in a semester, so I don't know if she'll have Stat in Fall or Spring).

I'm thinking taking the ACT now could be good practice. Any thoughts pro or con?

[elleng]

1. I agree; practice.

[Warpy]

2. They used to give the PSAT

which was a shorter, cheaper practice run for the kids who were on the college track. It was either late in the sophomore year or early in the junior year, can't remember because there were so damn many scholarship tests I was taking by then that they all blurred together, but I vaguely remember the PSAT coming late in the junior year and the SAT early in the senior year.

Look into whether or not they still give the PSAT. If not, the junior year would be the best time to take a practice ACT or SAT. It would identify problem areas the student would work on before the real thing.

The sophomore year might be a bit soon. After all, there are three years of learning yet to do, all of which will be reflected in the "real" SAT or ACT.

[OmahaBlueDog]

4. She took it last year.

She'll take it again this year and next. Next year is the big PSAT, as it is the qualification for the National Merit Scholarship.

[Kalidurga]

3. I can't think of any cons.

Practice imo is always a good thing. There are also practice books available so you might want to invest in those as well.

[longship]

5. I have experience in this.

I was employed by an intense SAT trainer on the SAT mathematics exams.

The one technique we knew actually worked was taking practice exams over and over again. Plus, we would do a post-mortem analysis of the more difficult problems.

In the many classes I held, scores on practice tests, including two actual SAT tests (one midway and the second at the end of the class) all students improved, frequently by a large measure.

BTW, these were highly driven students. Some were seventh grade, first semester algebra students. But most were 10th graders.

It was a very fun job, and a refreshing change to teaching 9th grade algebra at a huge, at risk high school.

So, in short, practice definitely helps. The more, the better.

[zazen]

6. I cannot recommend the site "College Confidential" enough

Not that all of the free advice will even seem sane, but following the comments of something like one million parents, teenagers, newly admitted and then matriculated college students, and their counselors, gave me invaluable insight into the CRAZY new process of college admissions.

I've worked around universities all my life, and this is the most brutally competitive admissions environment in the history of higher education. We've just gone through it personally, and the ultimate irrelevance of the SAT was stunning (given the pressure on students to achieve perfect scores). I mean, you need a decent score as a baseline, but that's it.

For example, I've known SEVERAL students who had near perfect SATs, at least 30 hours of AP credit, awards, started non-profits, studied at universities since middle school, who DID NOT GET INTO IVY'S. It doesn't mean I think the Ivy's are the end all be all, but the fact is is that there are hundreds of stellar students competing for every slot that used to draw 10 stellar students 20-30 years ago. Soooo, those stellar students have to take slots of schools in the top 50, which displaces those to the top 100 and top 500, and so forth.

I just wish we had known the enormity of this. While mine still is going to an Ivy on a huge scholarship, the process was brutal getting there, and we would have taken an entirely different strategy.

Oh, UG admissions is much more about what I call "central casting" than the slate of extracurriculars and test scores. They want a particular character--usually about 1500-2000 per school--so that they can then sell that panoply of personalities as their "UG experience."

The essay and recommendations were THE make or break element.

Graduate school is much easier to enter, because it's based on straight out academic accomplishment. UG admissions seem to be looking for newspaper stories.

[Fresh_Start]

7. here's bit of a comparison, that might help you chose

SAT vs. ACT: Choose Wisely
Posted: 03/ 1/11 11:47 PM ET
It's not difficult to understand why the ACT has managed to gain market share in America's coastal urban centers. Plain and simple, it's a more straightforward test, less intimidating than its more established counterpart. For example, students can rely heavily on how words sound to identify errors in the ACT English section. By contrast, the SAT test writers purposefully insert words within long, compound sentences that make identifying common errors like subject-verb agreement nearly impossible without knowledge of grammatical rules. Other examples: in the Reading section, ACT questions refer to the passage directly preceding them. On the SAT, questions are often about two separate passages that deal with the same topic. To answer correctly, students must be able to predict how the author of one passage might feel about a statement made by the author of another passage discussing the same topic. In math, however, the ACT requires a broader range of knowledge than the SAT. Students must be proficient in trigonometry, a branch of mathematics left out of the SAT. Still, ACT questions remain direct and multiple-choice answers are typically integers that, to varying degrees, can be evaluated using common sense. SAT math multiple-choice answers, by contrast, often contain one or more variables, a trick designed to make simple algebraic problems appear insurmountable.

[OmahaBlueDog]

8. Nebraska scools heavily lean toward the ACT

This is in part for the very simple reason that many kids here apply to UNL and UNO, and they both use the ACT. The SAT is offered, but, it is administered far less frequently and at far fewer locations than the ACT.

[mbperrin]

9. The only reason to even practice is to reduce anxiety about the actual makeup of the test.

To that end, practice, but when the student is feeling comfortable, nothing more is to be gained.

I took the PSAT once and the SAT once, and scored 10 points less than perfect on the SAT. That was good enough.

If multiple attempts seem to be making your student nervous, stop.

These tests are both good measures of lifetime knowledge and as such, are not subject to much improvement without real improvement overall by the student.

I take my own students through the state tests here in the first 6 weeks of class, and never speak of it again. I have a lifetime average of 98% of my students passing those tests, and I work with inclusion and at-risk kids only.

Good testing!