I got my ACT score report in the mail today

[Ava]

I'm disappointed in myself. :(

I got a 27.. which is a good score, 90th percentile, but if i want a scholarship to help pay for tuition an out of state school i have got to do better than that. :(

math is what brought me down... it's actually sort of funny though.. i did great with the geometry and trig part of the math section.. it was the algebra that hurt me. it's just been two years since i've done algebra.

i retake the test in april and then take the SAT and subject tests in may. i'm going to be doing a refresher course on algebra until then. i feel like a ditz for forgetting it, lol.

[KitchenWitch]

1. Unused math can become forgotten math.

I am sure you will be able to bump that score into the 30s.

:hi:

[Ava]

2. if i bring my math up it will significantly improve me score

i really did bad on the math since a majority of it was algebra, lol. :rofl:

that's the good thing about the act though.. you can retake it and choose your best score to report.

this time i'm going through and answering the ones i know first and then going back to answer the others. last time i went front to back and because of that ran out of time without getting a chance to read all the questions.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

3. I'm not sure whether or not I'm gonna do the ACTs.

SATs obviously, but maybe not ACTs. Depends on how well I do in the SATs and the few subject tests I'm considering. My PSAT scores were kick-ass, so as long as I don't drop from them, I'll be well happy. :)

[Ava]

4. if i'm anything like my mom(and i am) i'll do better on the SAT than the ACT

the act you have less time for more questions.. the sat you have more time for less questions, although they are supposed to be harder questions.. but for someone like me i like to have the time to work out the answers to all questions which is why the sat is probably better suited for me. i take it in may.

i'm taking both just to see which i do better in so that i can report that one to schools, lol.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

5. I took the old SATs, before the writing section, twice, once in 7th grade, once in 8th grade.

The new one I'm supposed to be taking in May (state-mandated), but I might be missing them because of, ironically, school, meaning I might have to take them in June instead. :eyes:

[Ava]

7. what grade are you in now?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

11. I'm a junior (in high school, of course!)

Feels weird to think I'm already almost 16 and a half, that I have my license, that in four months I'll officially be a senior.

:scared:

:D

[lightningandsnow]

13. You are, like, exactly the same age as me.

My parent's aren't letting me drive yet, though. I'm not allowed to drive at all until I'm 18. Which sucks, although I live in a big city so there's always the subway.

[Ava]

15. lucky.. i live in a small southern town

i really want to attend college in a big city to experience that.

[lightningandsnow]

19. Which is funny because...

I might be going to a small-town university.

The grass is always greener, huh?

[Ava]

23. guess it is!

my dream school is NYU.. has always been! i'd also like to attend tulane(i LOVE new orleans), texas at austin, or one of the university of california schools (UCLA and berkeley both rock).

[WritingIsMyReligion]

27. My mom wanted me to go to UT Austin.

I sort of balked when I realized what a monster school it is--SO many people. I'm turning into quite the private liberal arts effete, here. :rofl:

[Ava]

29. i like the fact it's so big

and also it's a great school and austin is just an AWESOME town... i fell in love with it when i visited.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

33. I'm scared-ish of big schools.

:scared:

Okay, not really. :P I haven't been down to Austin, though my parents have been probably 3 times and absolutely love the locale.

[Ava]

40. what's your top school right now?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

46. Probably University of Chicago.

I also like, so far, Oberlin and Dartmouth. I've been to U of C and Dartmouth, not Oberlin yet. And there are others that at least catch my attention. ;)

[Ava]

49. university of chicago is on my list

although when i tell anyone that they start chastising me saying that it's a snob school.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

51. Yeah, I sorta got that earlier right here on DU.

I absolutely love their curriculum though--so intense, yet so diverse. When I visited I was struck by how friggin' geeky/nerdy/random the place was, which made me laugh--exactly what I want in a school. I also like Chicago a lot, though of course U of C is in Hyde Park, not intense downtown Chicago.

[Ava]

55. chicago is awesome.. i have an aunt that lives there

and i can't say i'm too shocked you got there here.. i got the same whenever i posted about USC, lol.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

57. I have two aunts who live in the Chicago-an suburbs, about ten miles to the west.

Interesting city, for sure.

I wonder what would happen if I said I wanted to go to Bard or to Antioch? I don't--they're too crazy for me!--but it would sure be interesting. :D

[WritingIsMyReligion]

21. Haha, I live in an area with approximately ZERO public transportation.

Hence the reason why most anyone middle-class and above gets a license when 16 or 17, 18 at the latest. I have a license but no car to drive, which is frustrating suckage. x(

I was born September 91--what month are you? :)

[Ava]

26. did you start school early or skip a grade?

or are ya'll schools systems just different from ours?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

30. Cut-off date is October 15th, so I wasn't too young to start when I did.

I was still four for about the first week or two of kindergarten, and this year I was 15 for the first three weeks of school until I turned 16. Maine schools start late August or early September and end mid- to late-June.

[lightningandsnow]

31. December 1991.

Christmas Eve, as a matter of fact.

And I'm Jewish. Ha.

I guess that makes me the youngest member of the board? Or one of them at least?

[WritingIsMyReligion]

34. One of 'em, yeah.

:D

[lightningandsnow]

37. Maybe we should make a group for the young folk on here.

I mean, isn't there a "seniors" forum?

[Ava]

38. i think there are actually some younger members

there aren't too many of us here though, lol.

if you want a blogging site for political youngsters btw you should check out the place i set up:
http://avasarmy.com/


yup.. a shameless plug :rofl:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

42. You attention-plugger!

:rofl:

[Ava]

43. yup

psst.. you sign up too :rofl:

:P

[lightningandsnow]

66. I joined!

[Ava]

68. awesome! thanks

i'm trying to get it to grow.. we have several bloggers already. hopefully it'll keep growing ;) :hi:

[Ava]

14. junior here too

although i study on a senior and higher level i'm technically a junior. i can't wait to go to college and be on my own. i love my family but i can't wait to get away if you know what i mean. :rofl:

[lightningandsnow]

17. I can't wait for university, either!

Yeah... I'm looking to go kind of far away, get away from my parents a bit.

If you're "technically" a junior... what year were you born in? I was born in 1991.

[Ava]

20. i was born at the end of 1990

turned 17 in october.. i was always one of the first birthdays in my class at school and i hated it! lol

[WritingIsMyReligion]

25. Awww, you're 11 months older'n me.

I'm the kid who celebrates big milestone birthdays LAST of everyone in my year, or so it seems. Hell, I was four for the first 2 or so weeks of kindergarten. :D

[Ava]

28. see.. in 'bama i couldn't start kindergarten until i was 5

or else i'd be the same way.. guess 'bama is just different from you state though ;)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

35. Ya, we's weird up here....cold freezes our brains.

:D :D

[Ava]

44. and heat boils ours

;)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

47. I don't know how you stand it.

We go mad here when the temperature breaks 85--A/C on full blast everywhere, plenty of fans, etc. etc.

[Ava]

50. i love the warmer weather

we have a pool so it rocks.. we are also only a few hours drive from the gulf which is awesome.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

52. I'm a 15 minute drive from the ocean here.

It's nice. No pool, but there aren't too many in Maine--you only have 4 or 5 weeks in which you could use 'em. :D

[Ava]

54. well i'm about 4 hours from the gulf in florida

we live in a lake town and have a pool though so we really don't have to go to the beach for water unless we want to. part of the good thing about living in the south is that we have a longer period of time to have "fun in the sun" than you silly yankees :P

[lightningandsnow]

56. I'm jealous!

I still have to suffer through Canadian winter...

[Ava]

59. yeah.. i do hear that the north pole is cold

:rofl:

seriously though.. i don't think i could take that!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

61. But we get nice long winters!

SO much snow, it's really getting ridiculous. Also rather cold of late--it was 2 degrees when I woke up this morning. :D

[Ava]

63. we got baby snow here back awhile ago

but i'm more of a summer type person since i love swimming and love the jet skis even more!

i really like fall too though.. the trees are so pretty and the temp is perfect.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

65. Awwww....baby snow.

We must have had more than 100 inches this year. :D

[Ava]

67. don't you get tired of it?

i loved the snow we had, but i don't know if i could handle it every day!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

69. You do after a few months.

By this time most everyone is sick of it. It's been especially hard this year because we've had SO MUCH snow, especially in comparison to the last few years.

On the downside, "spring" does not exist as such in Maine. Winter is followed by mud season, followed by rain season, followed by fog season, followed by a spindly version of what others might call "summer." Suddenly it hits 85 or 90 and the state slows to a crawl. September and October are lovely fall, then November comes and the moans of winter begin to settle in.

:D

[Ava]

70. it's been in the 60's here this week

spring is coming! we get lots of rain(and tornadoes) during spring but the weather is pretty good.. during summer it gets hot, the 90's and some days in the 100's.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

71. Hahaha....it's been in the 20s, maybe 30s this week.

:scared:

[Ava]

72. yikes!

:scared:

[WritingIsMyReligion]

22. I know completely.

By this time next year I'll probably have heard back from many of my schools, or will be about to hear back...!!!

[Ava]

24. yup, exciting and scary at the same time huh?

;)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

36. Oui oui!

:)

[NNadir]

6. Doing math is not like riding a bike. It's more like playing an instrument.

Constant practice is recommended (and fun.)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

12. Recommended, sure. Fun?

:scared:

:P

[Ava]

16. was thinking the same thing

:rofl:

[NNadir]

32. It's like what people tell me about Opera.

You have to understand it to know how beautiful it is.

I don't understand Opera by the way. I don't get Opera at all.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

39. I don't hate math, just don't particularly like it.

Some things about it are really cool. My math grades don't particularly suffer, at least. :D

[NNadir]

48. I don't hate Opera.

I never had an Opera grade, but if Opera were required for life, I'd have a problem.

I'm not particularly good at things I don't like.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

53. Yeah, same.

:D

[lightningandsnow]

8. I'm glad I live in an area that doesn't have standardized testing.

Canada is wonderful.

I have anxiety issues and I tend to freak out a little during big tests - I usually do fine, it's just a rather unpleasant experience.

90th percentile sounds like a pretty good mark, though. Good luck on the re-test.

[Ava]

18. i freaked before the test

got myself wigged out which didn't help. this next time i'll know what the expect and be more "cool, calm, and collected" ;)

thanks!

[Fox Mulder]

9. I would've been happy with a 27.

I got a 26.

Edited to add that I'm not very good at taking timed tests.

[Ava]

10. 26 is a good score!

my thing is that there are some out of state and private schools i'd really love to go to and i need a scholarship to help pay for them if i do get accepted.

[Haole Girl]

41. I'm sure you'll do better next time

Study hard! :hug:

[Ava]

45. thanks

:pals:

[nickgutierrez]

58. That's what I got on the ACT my first time

I slightly preferred the SAT, although there's almost no difference between the two.

[Ava]

60. yeah.. although i'm retaking the act i'm taking the sat too

with extra studying i think i can improve my score by the time the next test date comes around ;)

[nickgutierrez]

62. Yep, should be no problem at all.

Especially if you know exactly what it is you need to improve, and it seems like you're headed in the right direction.

[Ava]

64. that's the good thing about the score report

it told me which sections of each subject i did good/bad on. algebra was my obvious weakness so i'm doing a refresher course on it over the next month or so.

[no name no slogan]

73. Uh, I got a 27 on my ACT

and ended up at a fairly decent private college.

It ain't all about scores. These days they put more weight on your grades and what you did in high school. I don't think you have too much to worry about.

[Ava]

74. my worry is about scholarships

i can't afford to go out of state without financial help so i'll have to get some sort of scholarship

[LeftyMom]

75. The redo should bump you up a few points.

If you haven't done a test taking skills course or software, that might help too, especially since you're not doing one of those standardized tests every ten minutes like most of your conventionally schooled peers. If you need anything to help with your verbal score (mine saved my butt, because I absolutely suck at math) knowing your greek and latin roots is enormously helpful, and probably the thing that helped my score the most (I got a 32, but they've probably changed things since, that was a few years ago.)

[Ava]

77. my reading and english scores were in the 30's

math is what hurt me too. thanks for the advice!

[rockymountaindem]

76. You'll probably do better the second time

I took both the SAT and the ACT twice and on both I did significantly better the second time around.

[Ava]

78. most people i know took the test at least twice and improved their score

i'm thankful for the score report because it tells me where i need to study more :hi:

[JanMichael]

79. Mine was a 24 - hung over and without my glasses or contacts.

Of course that was in 1985 and so far I've had a pretty good career so don't worry about it so much. Got my BA in 1991 and worked my way into city planning.

To explain the vision comment I was one of those contact only kids and the night before I went over to friends house got wasted and slept in the contacts so the next morning they were shit. They weren't the soft disposables like today, they were like $90 a set, so I only had one pair.

Anyway don't fret over test scores.


EDIT: I am horribly near sighted which means that could see clearly at that time at about 8" from the test. Basically I handicapped myself for a few beers...

[DarkTirade]

80. Don't feel bad, I haven't taken an algebra class in a while

and now that I'm back in school I had to start with a basic one because I couldn't remember a damn thing.

Of course, now that I'm doing it, it's all coming back to me and I'm bored out of my skull. D'oh.