Any other students take the ACT this morning?

[Pegasus]

How did they find the exam compared to the real ACT practice tests?

 

DD took it this morning and thought the English and reading were just like the practice tests. She found the science section to be a bit more technical and she ran across a couple additional math questions that she hasn't gotten to yet in her studies.

 

Her main complaint when it was all over was the temperature of the room, so remember to have your students take a sweater or light jacket.

 

Now the waiting for the results begins. :001_smile:

[cbollin]

pretty much same thing over here... except she had her jacket.

 

now the waiting begins....

 

:)

 

-crystal

[MicheleinMN]

Ds, 16, took it for the first time today. He didn't say a word about how he felt about any of the tests. (And he wore an extra layer for the test.)

 

I'm glad it's over for now.

[Miss Marple]

Both my 11th and 12th graders took it. It was nice to hear that the person in charge actually wrote the start and stop time on the board and called 5 minute warnings. That is something that has not happened routinely :(

 

About the test: they both said that the math was again more difficult (they took the April test as well) and think that they have ramped up the math a bit. Strange because both of these boys are great at math and are taking college algebra and college trig concurrently. So I'm curious about this...

 

They both felt that the English section was much easier than usual. They never have trouble with the reading or the science and thought those were just average.

 

But the math thing...makes me wonder...anyone else have kids that are mathy but think that the ACT math has gotten harder? Or could it be that it's harder because the boys are working on higher level maths right now and maybe their lower level skills need tweaking due to lack of use?

 

FWIW, they did no prep this time because we had planned to do the Oct test. But found out that the Oct test was the same day as a wedding the boys will be in...so we hustled to get the Sept. test.

[Wildcat]

 

They both felt that the English section was much easier than usual. They never have trouble with the reading or the science and thought those were just average.

 

But the math thing...makes me wonder...anyone else have kids that are mathy but think that the ACT math has gotten harder? Or could it be that it's harder because the boys are working on higher level maths right now and maybe their lower level skills need tweaking due to lack of use?

 

My child also thought the English was easier than before (June), but found the math to be on a par with June's test.

 

I would guess your theory is correct about the lower level skills needing refreshing.... this has been our school of thought, as well. My child is in Calculus (98s and 99s in all previous math classes) and has a hard time with the math portion of the test. :glare:

[elizabeth]

Same here. Dd took the SAT and performed beautifully but felt the math was very hard compared to the practice tests on the ACT. She also felt the English and writing portions were far too easy and would give no indication a student could perform well at a college level of reading. The math gave her a fright although she is done with Trig and did VERY well on the SAT. Go figure.:confused:

[creekland]

It might help to remember that your students are only being compared to other students taking the test that day. It doesn't really matter how many "they" got correct in and of itself, but how many they got correct compared to everyone else. If there's a question or two that stymied practically everyone, it won't count against them.

 

When testing companies make tests harder (NOT hard to do even within the same level of math) they are generally doing it to distinguish between the tippy top kids - trying to fool another one or two of each hundred testers - so that top 1% can remain just 1%. If they have 2% that scores perfectly on the section, their test isn't working correctly. If they remove an "easy" question and replace it with a "very hard" question it seems like a harder test (it is), but since 98 - 99% of the kids are going to miss the question (maybe a little less for the good guessers), it won't affect the scores of those kids. They keep the percentages the same to keep their score percentiles the same to match this:

 

http://www.actstudent.org/scores/norms1.html

 

Where your student fit in among the testers for this test is where the score will adjust to.

[mamajudy]

DS took the ACT and said that the science and math sections seemed harder than the practice tests he had taken. He didn't feel good about the test at all. Very disappointing. We'll see how the scores turn out.

[ThisIsTheDay]

Dd took it yesterday. She said it was similar to the test prep book. There were only ten kids in her small classroom; she doesn't know how many were in other rooms.

 

The teacher was great about announcing the time, and at the 5? minute mark, dd filled in the rest of the circles on the math portion before going back to see if she could answer any more. I was proud of her for remembering to do that, as I'd forgotten to remind her.

 

It was an unfamiliar school about 30 mins. away, and she'll be taking her SAT for the second time at that same school next month. She'll be glad when this testing is over.