Tera R.
A student picks up an ACT packet in the Career Center for information about taking the ACT test. She attended all of the available seminar prep sessions for the test before taking it December 12 and found them very beneficial.Seminar sessions prepare students for future ACT tests
by Tera R., journalism student
The sweat drops, stress swarms the mind, confusion hits, and, suddenly, time’s up. The instructor calls out, “Pencils down, please bring your booklets to the front.” A paranoid student looks up and realizes he wasn’t nearly as prepared for the ACT test as he thought he was. This seems to be a concern for many teachers knowing that their students walk in a room to take a big test, with little to no preparation. The school is now offering ACT prep sessions to help with this problem.
The prep sessions have started due to the fact that the school’s ACT scores are low; in fact, they’re below the national average. Students have good grades, but when ACT scores are received at the high school, the scores come back lower than what is expected. According to Linda Jones, English teacher, it seems that students won’t teach or prepare themselves for the test and instead want someone to help teach them and prepare them for what’s on the test.
Jones is doing something about this. She has recently brought up the idea of having different teachers instruct courses about the four subjects in the test. During seminar in early December, there were five sessions students could attend, each discussing a different subject on the test. The first session was more of an orientation from Don Krebs, principal, talking about how students should take and prepare for the test.
Jones taught the second session about English, which is a 45-minute test with 75 questions. In the seminar session, Jones covered grammar, grammar usage and conciseness or efficiency of sentences, such as watching for redundancy or wasted words. A referred motto to remember when looking for errors in a sentence is “when in doubt, take it out,” meaning if it doesn’t sound right in the sentence, it probably isn’t right.
This particular part of the test involves a student to read a passage. There are then questions over sentences or parts in the passage concerning sentence structure or sentence phrasing. For instance, the question could be about idioms, or when to use “who” or “whom”, or if the sentence should use “affect” or “effect.”
The third seminar session involved the mathematics portion, and was taught by Jessica Hurd, mathematics teacher. Hurd went over the layout of the test in her session. She also had students look at sample questions in a timed setting, and viewed easier ways to solve problems. In the actual test, students should expect algebraic and geometric questions. According to Hurd, anyone in Algebra II could take the math part of the test and do well.
In the fourth seminar, taught by Vanessa Eicher, Spanish instructor, students learned how to prepare themselves for the reading aspect. They covered how to look over and skim a passage, as well as considering the questions and answering them before or without looking at the answers so the multiple choice answers won’t fool a person. However, the test is timed, and students should be prepared for that aspect.
“Students should expect to read quickly,” Eicher said. “They should pace themselves carefully, so they do not spend too much time on any one part.”
The final seminar discussed good ways to prepare for the science portion. Christy Garretson, science teacher, assisted students to gain a better understanding of reading and interpreting the graphs in order to answer the 45 questions on the test.
These prep sessions are not the only way students can prepare themselves for the test. There are books and online preparation work students can look at.
“Our attempt with these sessions is to help, but students should still do some work on their own,” Jones said. “Any kind of drill and practice can help prepare for the test. Also, students should know how the test is put together and be aware it’s timed.”
A test may seem like a stressful situation for a student, especially when it is an important test for some students. However, students need to be calm while taking the test and prepare themselves mentally.
“Get a good night’s sleep, eat a good breakfast, and stay calm before the test,” Eicher said. “Start trying to take the test early so there is time to redo it as well. If it doesn’t go over well, you can do it again.”
