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ACT or SAT tests: Did you finish all sections of the whole test in the allotted time?


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My 16yo dd finished all the sections on the SAT with time to go back and look over her work, but she did skip questions.

 

When she took the ACT yesterday, she did not finish any of the sections. What she did was quickly work through all the problems, randomly choosing an answer for the problems she didn't get immediately and marking those with question marks in her test booklet. She was going to go back to try to work on those problems at the end, but she didn't have time.

 

Yesterday was the first time any of my kids have taken the ACT.

She only had one break. They did the first two sections, took a 10 minute break, did the next two sections, stopped for about one minute for the few people who were not taking the writing portion to leave, and immediately did the writing section.

Is that typical?

 

 

 

 

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First time for both dc's Saturday. Both finished everything. Dd just finished science barely, with no time to check. On practice tests she had been finishing with time to spare. Ds had no problems, finished science 10minutes early -- Not sure who to worry about!

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No, my kids who have taken them haven't. Their reading speeds have slowed them down. The ACT was a bad fit for my dyslexics be of it. DS's SAT scores were significantly higher. The SR section of the ACT was always his lowest score bc he was in reading fatigue by then. (Ironically the same kid completed 200-300 level math and physics classes in high school.)

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My son has accommodations and can finish with extra time.

 

In normal time, he would only be able to finish the math section - nothing with reading.  Looking over the samples of the new SAT it looks like the math will have much more reading involved in the problems so I'm not sure if he'd be able to do that in the given time.

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Dd had to guess on 3 in the math section because she only had a minute or two left. She guessed on about 7 in the math section last year.

 

She was able to finish the other sections, but was not feeling completely well (she came home with a fever) and said the science (last section) was a slog to get through.  She didn't take the writing.

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Can you explain the highlighted part further? Does the ACT have significantly more reading that the SAT???

Yes. And the ACT has all of the specific subject sections completed at one time. The SAT rotates between CR and math so they get a reading intensive break during the math sections. By the time he hit the SR section on the ACT he was in serious reading fatigue.

 

We never pursued extra time.

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Can you explain the highlighted part further? Does the ACT have significantly more reading that the SAT???

Imo, the reading section on the ACT is vastly different than the reading on the SAT.  The SAT reading passages are at a  higher reading level than the passages on the ACT, and the SAT rewards kids with advanced vocabularies.  The ACT reading section is more of a test of speed and rewards kids who are able to skim a passage quickly.

 

The science section of the ACT is also mainly a speed reading test.  The student must be able to interpret graphs and skim passages quickly.  Actual science knowledge, while helpful, is not necessary.

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