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Here in NC, the ACT satisfies the state requirement for an annual homeschool test. In 9th grade, my son sat the exam for a dual purpose, the aforementioned and practice on a college entrance exam. Since it was his first exposure to the ACT, he did not do the writing portion.

 

Now, in 10th, he will again take the ACT for both purposes, but this time he is also including the writing portion.

 

My son is a good writer, but a slow and methodical writer. To help prepare him for this upcoming test and college test writing in general, we have had him do more writing with time constraints. When he has to regurgitate knowledge in response to a direct question, he is fine. But composing an essay with a time limit presents a problem for him if the topic does not resonate.

 

He has been writing essays and we have had "brain storming" discussions on how to respond to essay questions given in the past. This past week he gave a passionate argument on how a timed writing test on a random topic should not be a measure of one's writing ability. I happen to agree with him and commented that I hoped this would be his essay topic on Saturday when he takes the ACT. :D

 

Any last minute advise, particularly from your students who have been there and done that? Or from the Society of English Majors? Or from the Quadrant of Slow and Methodical Writers?

 

I have heard that even natural writers can slip when the topic is squirrelly.

 

All advice and commiseration welcome.

 

By the way, last year his score on the multiple choice was very respectable, his reading score particularly good. The optional ACT writing test comes after all of the multiple choice testing--after the kids have been sitting there for hours. Add this to my son's burden. He thinks while pacing.

 

Jane

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who is an excellent writer but on the slow side.

 

When practicing for the test, certain topic questions would really throw him-he would sit and stare at the paper and finally eek out a few sentences before his time expired.

 

However, if he was comfortable with the topic, he could produce a solid, interesting essay within the time frame. I tried coaching him, but his brain is rather stubborn (extremely bright with adhd tendencies). We never made much progress in that area.

 

He lucked out and got an inspiring essay question on test day, scoring a 10/12. :svengo:

 

I'm sorry to be of absolutely no help at all, but I wanted to commiserate.:001_smile:

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One suggestion for this next week, since you're under a timed constraint, is simply to have your son do a timed essay every day. I don't know how the ACT website works yet (in fact, my oldest will be doing the ACT in June, so in the near future I'll become familiar), but I think that the SAT website offers sample topics. Perhaps the ACT website does the same thing. If so, just randomly pick out one topic every day, set the timer for 30 minutes, and have him write. (Although, I'm probably belaboring the point, because I have a feeling you're already planning on doing this!) Your son may surprise you on the date of the test. My oldest has struggled with time limits for quite a while (with writing). This is merely anecdotal, but I signed her up for driver's ed. last summer at our local p.s. The teacher had the kids read articles in driver's magazines (why??) and write a one-page synopsis in 10 minutes. She would routinely do 1-1/2 pages in that time period. Granted, this was not an essay, but it did require speedwriting. And again, she may have done better because she knew it didn't count for anything. I'm not sure how writing a summary of a car magazine article helped the kids become better drivers, but that's beside the point. :D

 

 

My dear oldest daughter also has difficulty with the time constraints. I signed her up for Julie Bogart's Bravewriter class in January---the SAT/ACT Timed Essay writing class. (BTW, I think there's another one coming up soon here in May, if you want to consider that. Going through that class would be too late for this next weekend's ACT test, but if you have to take the test again, it might help prepare him for that.) I thought Julie's class was great, but my daughter struggled tremendously with the time constraints. Finally Julie encouraged her, via the public forum (where all the kids' works were posted) to finish the essay topic and just tell her how long it took her to write. It took her 75 minutes, and Julie kindly gave her a score based on that. I thought the class was excellent, Julie's instructions were very clear and encouraging. I think my oldest's difficulty with the class were due to her more ponderous nature in areas of writing and some of her own natural inhibitions. I would recommend that class without hesitation. It was all done on a public forum, but Julie moderated the class so that all comments were positive (hence the term "Bravewriter").

 

Here's Julie's website: http://www.bravewriter.com/Classes/spring_2008.html#LA

 

Scroll down to the bottom of the page, to where it says, "SAT/ACT Essay Writing." That's the class, and it looks like the dates are May 5-May 30.

 

I would also highly recommend Cindy Marsch's tutorials with Writing Assessment Services. I've used her to help my older two girls through the Beginning and Intermediate levels of the progymnasmata (according to Cindy's classification systems). Anyway, when I registered for the GRE in December, I happened to be browsing Cindy's website. (BTW, she is also highly recommended by SWB, Andrew Pudewa, and many other classical educators.) I noticed that she is also now doing timed essay tutorials. So, I contacted her for myself, to get ready for the two timed essay tests I had to do for the GRE. They helped tremendously, and if you're interested in seeing an actual copy of how that tutorial was conducted, I could e-mail you a final copy so you could see the questions, the parameters, and my writing (not that it's that scintillating, but it would give you an idea of how she interweaves her comments into your writing, kwim?). I believe she has already started, or will start in the near future, these writing tutorials which are geared specifically towards timed essay writing. Again, I would also recommend Cindy's tutorials without hesitation.

 

Here's Cindy's link: http://members.aol.com/cmarsch786/

 

Scroll down to about the middle of the home page, where it says, "Criterion Online Writing Evaluation," underneath "News for Late Fall 2007."

 

Probably for my daughter, the format of Cindy's class (i.e., being a private tutorial via e-mail rather than posted in a public forum) would have been a better fit for my daughter. That's not to say Julie's class on the topic was inferior. In fact, Pam "SFSOM" in TN raved about Julie's class with one of her kids: he or she did the SAT/ACT writing class with Julie and really benefited from the instruction. However, even if I'd signed my oldest up with Cindy, she still may have had difficulty with the time constraints!

 

I agree wholeheartedly with your son: timed essay writing is difficult and is not a clear indicator of one's writing ability. It's one of those necessary evils: I guess it's done to ensure that absolutely no cheating on essays can take place, but it's very frustrating to some writers, like my daughter. On the other hand, when I had the girls do several tutorials with Cindy, it did help them to speed things up a bit. They were always so pokey before that it drove me nuts! Having her set the assignment pace really helped. However, I still had to keep after them.

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I've got the Real ACT prep guide and two others from the library (Princeton Review & Kaplan) that he is working through.

 

Personally, I found the methodology on tackling the essay to be the best in the Princeton book (p. 376-388, 2008 version). They give the student a framework and suggested outline to guide them. Although my son and I didn't think the actual student writing in the samples was that good, the suggested framework has been a big help to my son. He now understands how to organize his essay. He will be writing at least one practice essay each day this week leading up to the test.

 

I've also looked over several ACT writing prompts. Unlike the SAT prompts, which tend to be more philosophical, the ACT prompts seem to be topics facing a typical high school student. My son usually can come up with some ideas about the topic presented (e.g. school uniforms, internet filtering in the school library). We did come across the topic of eliminating study halls, though. My poor home schooled son didn't know what a study hall was. I'm am really praying (and please join me if you are so inclined) that the essay topic will be something that a homeschooled kid can relate to.

 

Also -- my son and I have been brainstorming topics that are currently "hot" in high schools so we can discuss them ahead of time. Maybe, just maybe, these discussions will help him on test day.

 

Please -- other WTM high school boarders -- share locally "hot" topic ideas here!

 

Here are some "hot" topics in my area:

 

* Should junk food be allowed in school vending machines?

 

* Should the school cafeteria be allowed to sell fattening/sugary items, like ice cream?

 

* Which is better for students -- standard class scheduling where each class meets every day or block scheduling where daily class periods are extended but classes only meet for 1 semester?

 

* Should students have to do mandatory community service to graduate from high school?

 

* Should the driving age be raised to 17?

 

 

Please share other ideas,

Brenda

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I don't know if this is the least bit helpful, but one thing I can suggest is that the student take the topic sentence given, quickly pick a side to defend, then

 

1. Rewrite the argument as a thesis statement.

2. Come up with 3 pro statements and 2 cons.

3. Write a 4 sentence intro, which ends with the thesis statement, and goes from broad to narrow, like a funnel.

4. Each of the pro statements becomes the topic sentence of the next 3 paragraphs.

5. Add supporting details in the form of examples, quotes, etc. to each of the 3 paragraphs.

6. You can use the cons in the paragraphs also, if you can refute them.

7. Conclude with one paragraph that starts with the restatement of the thesis and the 3 pros. Go from narrow to broad.

 

This is from Write@Home. Practice getting those steps quickly. Princeton Review also has great tips. Make sure there's a little time left to check verb-subject agreement, and other mechanics. And number one, did I answer the question posed by the tester? That, apparently, is the biggest mistake kids make.

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Read the prompt. Respond to the prompt. Keep to the prompt!

 

I've done a fair amount of research regarding prepping for the essay tests (ACT & SAT). I've also guided my writing students in learning how to write for a timed test. Again and again students do not follow the prompt.

 

I try and totally take these prompts apart. What is it asking. What is it NOT asking! What topics answer the questions the prompt asks. What topics do NOT answer the question the prompt asks. We circle the key words within the prompt, especially words like

you

not

within

always

feel

think

 

 

Even my most astute students have a problem with this! They actually overthink the prompt many times and end up with an essay that is really off-topic.

 

Holly

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Read the prompt. Respond to the prompt. Keep to the prompt!

 

I've done a fair amount of research regarding prepping for the essay tests (ACT & SAT). I've also guided my writing students in learning how to write for a timed test. Again and again students do not follow the prompt.

 

I try and totally take these prompts apart. What is it asking. What is it NOT asking! What topics answer the questions the prompt asks. What topics do NOT answer the question the prompt asks. We circle the key words within the prompt, especially words like

you

not

within

always

feel

think

 

 

Even my most astute students have a problem with this! They actually overthink the prompt many times and end up with an essay that is really off-topic.

 

Holly

 

Julie had them focus on the key words, stick to the prompts, and she started the kids out with a longer time period within which to write (let's say about 45 minutes). Gradually that time period was shortened until the kids were doing sample SAT essays (25 minutes) and ACT essays (30 minutes).

 

Good advice, Holly!

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I just skimmed but I didn't see this mentioned: Write in active voice! Avoid passive voice as much as possible! This is vital to college-level writing.

 

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html

 

http://www.lavc.cc.ca.us/WCweb/activepassive.html

 

I've actually helped several of our friends (and my hubby) with their entrance essays for Master's programs and this was one of the main things I had to help them correct. Sometimes it sounds wordier and "fancier" to use the passive voice but it can make a sentence much more complicated than it needs to be.

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I would imagine that these tips would help the ACT essay writer too.

 

Of course the student should be widely read. Usually the essay has a prompt for which the student has to make a persuasive response. This instructor told the students to be able to write the typical five paragraph essay (yuck I know, but there it is). The introductory paragraph is first which should include what the argument is about. A hook should be used to bring the reader into the essay. There should be three points to substantiate the arguments. These three points will be developed into three different paragraphs. The three points would come from (1) a book or piece of work read (could be a quote or fictional character), (2) historic person or event, and (3) personal experience. Then wrap everything up quickly in a conclusion.

 

Unless your ds is an extremely fast writer, he needs to at least get through the introduction to paragraph four which is actually point #3. The expert test takers say that verbosity doesn't count, but I disagree. I believe in writing concise, but the big points comes from those who have written the most words.

 

Something else I learned from my ds's mistakes, write neatly and don't try to erase. If you make a mistake make one line through the mistake and go on. I believe that erasing takes up too much time and it causes the scanned copy not to come out well. You see, the essays are scanned and sent to the graders. They do not see the original written copy. I had my ds's scanned SAT essay sent to us, and I had a difficult time reading it. The scanner did not pick up the words that had been written over erased words (hope that made sense).

 

Also, the graders are looking for a prolific vocabulary. Many say that their student attains vocabulary from the books they read. Well, mine didn't. I wished that I had made him do a systematic vocabulary study. Even at this 11th hour, have your ds tuck a few words under his belt.

 

Of course, the best thing to do is practice under timed circumstances.

 

HTH,

Jan

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