Jump to content

Menu

How to help ds....ACT/SAT testing


Recommended Posts

My son (a junior) has never taken either test. He has taken several practice ACT tests and here are the results:

 

(missing less than 5) in reading; science reasoning (missing about 5); english (missing about 10-15); and math (terrible....doesn't finish and misses a lot). I know these are just practice tests, but he's definitely got a pattern going here. Would it be better to take the SAT?

 

He's very much a visual/spatial learner. He actually does well in math when he's working on a particular concept, but when it's all together, he doesn't seem to know what to do when...if that makes sense. Any suggestions on how to help him?

 

He's taking the test in June and plans to take it again in the fall.

 

Thanks in advance!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It'd definitely be worth it to try a practice SAT to see how he does on it, then pick the better of the two.

 

In general, to try for a quick help with the Writing/English part get a hold of Strunk and White's book, "The Elements of Style" (if you don't already have it). It's a quick read and gives an overview of basic rules, etc.

 

For math... it sounds like an SAT or ACT review course would be very helpful. When one can't figure out the math when it's all together (as it is in testing situations), it's generally due to the student memorizing what to do for sections and being successful on tests, but not internalizing (truly grasping) what they are doing and why. It happens a lot to students both in homeschool and ps and using pretty much any curricula. Some can appear to be very good in math, but they are mainly good at memorizing steps to solve problems in specific situations. For what it's worth, that can be good enough to do the math for many jobs or in some college class situations, it just sure doesn't help on these tests!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The ACT math is at a higher level than the SAT math . It includes some beginning trig for instance, whereas SAT does not. On the other hand, SAT questions are often designed to be tricky and ACT's are designed to be more straightforward. I would work on solid math review and take the tests multiple times.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Use the practice test booklets as a way to review the math. Have your son go over all the problems he's missed by working through looking at the way they solved them. The math questions are worded completely differently on standardized tests than they are in the usual math books - our experience anyway. The more practice tests he does - with going over the ones he misses - the better. He'll learn to recognize what they're asking him to do with the problems and get better. It's also good to review his previous years of math books for any topics he's forgotten. It's hard to remember everything you did two years ago. Taking the tests is a good way to find out what you've forgotten, and then go back to that lesson and get up to speed.

 

I also think taking the SAT as well as the ACT is a good idea. If nothing else, the more practice of taking the tests in actual testing conditions, the better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...