Any downside to taking ACT as 10th grader?

[Plateau Mama]

So my daughter just got her practice ACT scores back and she did very, very well. So now I'm thinking she should just take the ACT this year and be done with it. Then she can focus on National Merit/SAT next year.

 

Any downside to taking it as a 10th grader?

[regentrude]

can't think of any

[Dmmetler]

Nope-and it would be a help for Dual Enrollment or taking a college class, too.

 

 

[Plateau Mama]

Thanks! I didn't think so but this is my first time to the party so I'm still figuring out how all this works.

 

She won't be doing duel enrollment but she might take some college classes this summer if she doesn't end up interning in the science lab at the university which is her first choice.

[Joules]

I don't think so.  The only downside I have ever seen to taking the test early was one student who developed test anxiety, and I think might not have if there had been another year of maturity allowed.  

[Plateau Mama]

She definitely doesn't have test anxiety. She felt the Practice ACT was extremely easy and her test score reflects that as well.

[EKS]

When you say practice ACT, do you mean out of the real ACT practice book at home or something else?

[hopskipjump]

Since she did well and wants to be one-and-done, I can't think of any downside!

 

I'd just make sure the prep test she took was an actual ACT test since all of the ACT prep books don't contain actual ACT tests (and you may already know that... I'm just typing it here in case someone else reads this question and is wondering the same thing!)

 

And, I'd suggest taking the ACT with essay unless she is 100% sure that the schools she's applying to do not require the writing score. DDs first ACT score was unusable to most of the unis she applied to because of that omission.

 

The only "downside" to taking the ACT early that I learned of was that many Ivy League schools require ALL Test scores to be sent in. So, a student who took the test several times would have the expense of sending in many scores ... and if some of those scores weren't "Ivy" material, there's no hiding it.

 

Doesn't sound like that'd be a problem for your dd, so go for it! :)

[Plateau Mama]

The test was the actual test, given through her private school.

 

She is not planning any Ivy's. Several schools in CA, including Stanford, and several highly selective in various places.

[Arcadia]

She is not planning any Ivy's. Several schools in CA, including Stanford, and several highly selective in various places.

 

UC requires ACT with writing. http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/requirements/examination/index.html

 

10th grade isn't too early. Good luck to your daughter.

 

ETA:

Stanford OHS accepts ACT if your daughter wants to take a class or a bunch of classes from there.

"Applicants for Grades 11–12: PSAT or SAT, PLAN or ACT"

Edited December 10, 2015 by Arcadia

[Plateau Mama]

So just an FYI. ACT scores taken before Junior Are not accepted by colleges. So, she will be taking them in October, which is the first test offered next school year.

[Arcadia]

So just an FYI. ACT scores taken before Junior Are not accepted by colleges.

 

Which colleges?  I just check Stanford (which is local to me), UC and CSU admissions webpages and did not see that criteria. All I found was that my kids would not need to submit ACT and/or SAT test scores taken while in middle school which are used for Talent Search purposes.

 

 

ETA:

I just checked MIT and Princeton as well (andomly picking colleges not in west coast) and they do not have that criteria. MIT doesn't need a writing score for ACT or SAT even for future applicants and they superscore .

Edited December 16, 2015 by Arcadia

[regentrude]

Which colleges?  I just check Stanford (which is local to me), UC and CSU admissions webpages and did not see that criteria. All I found was that my kids would not need to submit ACT and/or SAT test scores taken while in middle school which are used for Talent Search purposes.

 

I'd be interested to see which college it is, too, since the above was our experience as well. None of DD's schools would have had an issue with her 10th grade scores.

 

[Plateau Mama]

The college advisor at school just said that ACT scores taken in 10th grade were not accepted by colleges.

[Julie of KY]

The college advisor at school just said that ACT scores taken in 10th grade were not accepted by colleges.

 

I've never heard this either and I don't think it's true. Maybe someone is mixing up tests as PSAT doesn't "count" in 10th grade.

[EKS]

Do you mean that she took the PLAN? If so, be aware that the percentiles are based on national norms and not college bound norms.

Edited December 16, 2015 by EKS

[Plateau Mama]

I've never heard this either and I don't think it's true. Maybe someone is mixing up tests as PSAT doesn't "count" in 10th grade.

She definitly wasn't talking PSAT. I don't know why she said it but this woman knows her stuff and if she says not to take it this year then I'm going to believe her. She did say she should take the first test offered next year.

 

We are still waiting on PSAT scores, but she said that if she wanted to take the SAT also then she spends the summer studying for SAT and take it the week after the PSAT next year.

[regentrude]

The college advisor at school just said that ACT scores taken in 10th grade were not accepted by colleges.

 

As such a blanket statement, it is most definitely not correct.

It may not be accepted by certain colleges.

 

I would not rely on the word of a school advisor and prefer to consult the admissions websites of the colleges directly.

 

[Plateau Mama]

.

 

I would not rely on the word of a school advisor and prefer to consult the admissions websites of the colleges directly.

 

Which would be a good idea if one had finalized their college choices, but my daughter, as I'm sure most sophomores do not have a final list yet. If it's true that some don't accept them then I'm not going to waste her time making her take it this year. And then needlessly requiring her to take it again because she took it too early and a college she wants to go to won't accept her first score.

 

In the big picture waiting is no big deal. It was a box to check off but taking it in October still gets it done plenty early before the college application stress comes.

[BlsdMama]

She definitly wasn't talking PSAT. I don't know why she said it but this woman knows her stuff and if she says not to take it this year then I'm going to believe her. She did say she should take the first test offered next year.

 

We are still waiting on PSAT scores, but she said that if she wanted to take the SAT also then she spends the summer studying for SAT and take it the week after the PSAT next year.

 

 

So has your daughter taken the actual ACT already or has only taken PLAN (or some practice ACT) at this point?  If so, you might want to take it just to make sure her actual scores meet or exceed expectation - the forecasted scores.  I think it's always a good idea to take the real thing sophomore or early junior year so that you have time (if needed) to study or tweak scores as needed.

[regentrude]

Which would be a good idea if one had finalized their college choices, but my daughter, as I'm sure most sophomores do not have a final list yet. If it's true that some don't accept them then I'm not going to waste her time making her take it this year. And then needlessly requiring her to take it again because she took it too early and a college she wants to go to won't accept her first score.

 

In the big picture waiting is no big deal. It was a box to check off but taking it in October still gets it done plenty early before the college application stress comes.

 

Just to clarify: I have absolutely no issue with you having your DD take the test in junior year.

I have an issue with a school counselor giving blanket advice that is incorrect for most colleges.

[RootAnn]

The college advisor at school just said that ACT scores taken in 10th grade were not accepted by colleges.

 

I don't know why she said it but this woman knows her stuff and if she says not to take it this year then I'm going to believe her.

 

I obviously don't know this woman & you do, but I have had experience with high school counselors laying down blanket statements that are not true in their entirety. In this case, there may be some schools which don't accept standardized test scores from sophomore year, but most/many will take them. In searching specifically on the internet, I couldn't find any colleges who specified that they wouldn't take ACT/SAT scores from before Junior year. (Here's one very short thread on College Confidential about this.) I'd be curious which schools this woman believes won't take them?

 

Most places recommend taking these tests Junior year because of the normal math progression and that you might be most prepared during Junior year. Other places admit that taking them for the first time sophomore or even freshman year would allow more targeted test prep time. 

 

Taking them Sophomore year is a fairly common practice among top students in top schools. You'll find many mentions of taking the ACT for the first time (but usually not the last) on College Confidential. (10th graders taking the ACT, Do I send my ACT scores as a Sophomore?, ACT Sophomore)  College Confidential is very competitive, so you'll see kids who got a 34 their Sophomore year talking about retaking the ACT. So, keep that in mind when venturing over there.

 

My point, and other's points, is that you might want to 'trust but verify' anything this woman (or us strangers on the internet) say. Do your own research.

[EKS]

So has your daughter taken the actual ACT already or has only taken PLAN (or some practice ACT) at this point?  If so, you might want to take it just to make sure her actual scores meet or exceed expectation - the forecasted scores.  I think it's always a good idea to take the real thing sophomore or early junior year so that you have time (if needed) to study or tweak scores as needed.

 

This.

 

If she took the PLAN, it is important to know that it is a much easier test than the ACT and that the percentiles will most likely be higher because the comparison group is different.

[Dmmetler]

FWIW, I know the school I used to teach at has accepted kids where the only ACT score was from 7th grade, which is when the top 5% or so are encouraged to take it for Duke TIPS (almost no one does other talent searches here, even the kids who are in the 30+ range on the ACT in 7th and could almost certainly qualify for The CTY SET program, which requires a 700 score on either reading or math). In many cases, I think that was a mistake, because while they often had scores that qualified them for the state scholarship (and I can see ordering a score in that range be retained from 7th), in most cases they did have room to improve, and a 34 at 10th grade is going to open more doors than a 28 from 7th.

 

But in general, a score is a score, and at least here, they just want it to meet the cutoff (for admissions, for state scholarship, for honors programs, for automatic scholarships...)

[plansrme]

If I had a dollar for every wrong thing a GC has told me, I would have a lot of dollars. BUT, that said, I would schedule the ACT when the required math is still fresh. If that is tenth grade, yippee! All the test prep in the world is great, but there is a lot to be said for having it fresh from a good class.

[Plateau Mama]

If I had a dollar for every wrong thing a GC has told me, I would have a lot of dollars. BUT, that said, I would schedule the ACT when the required math is still fresh. If that is tenth grade, yippee! All the test prep in the world is great, but there is a lot to be said for having it fresh from a good class.

Just for the record this wasn't a Guidance counselor. My daughter is at a private, highly competitive, college prep school on an academic scholarship. This lady has owned her own college prep/guidance company for years and getting kids into college is her only job. She is very good at it from what I've seen and students have told me. I will ask her why she said that but I'm sure she had a good reason.

 

As for taking it when the math was fresh, that was one of the reasons I wanted to take it and be done. But in reality she took those classes years ago and obviously it didn't matter. At all. Of the four sections she really only has room for improvement in one section of the 4. Even saying she needs to improve there is crazy talk IMO.

 

The test wasn't PLAN as far as I know. There is a list online and her scores went under the Practice a ACT, but there is a spot for PLAN and others. I don't even know what that it. It was the practice ACT. All the Sopomores and Juniors take the Practice ACT & PSAT every year.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I was at a conference a few years ago with a woman who owned a business focused on college prep. For the most part she was good, but she kept saying that you had to be in an approved AP course from a College Board trained teacher to take an AP exam. She also said that only juniors and seniors could take AP classes and exams. There are at least three errors in those statements. (Students don't have to take a course to sit for the exam, though exams are all registered for through a high school giving that test. For a course to be an official AP course the syllabus goes through a course audit, but teachers are not required to attend CB workshops or be certified as AP teachers. Younger students can do AP courses and exams. )

 

Even when I asked her pointed questions during the session and again in question time afterward she insisted she was right. She was giving out the same wrong infor a month later at another conference. I ended up researching the topic and sending her screenshots from the College Board website to show her the nuances of their policy.

 

The point of the story isn't that the person you heard from is completely wrong in everything. But she may be overstating the situation. I haven't found schools that require scores within two years, but it doesn't mean there are none who do so. What I have seen is that junior year and senior year are incredibly packed. A student who can get their testing done earlier buys themselves breathing room.

 

Last year ds missed the June SAT date because of summer college programs that had already started. This year there were major robotics and Science Olympiad competitions on the same date as the Dec SAT. If your student has actual ACT scores that would be a great milestone. (If she has an ACT account the scores should show up as reportable to colleges. )

 

Trust but verify. The counselor you heard or what folks here say. There is a reason I've spent so much time searching college board and various colleges' admissions pages.

[Cosmos]

My ds took the ACT in 9th grade. There were a few reasons he took it in addition to using it for college admissions in a few years. But his score was excellent and he doesn't plan to take it again. He has no idea at this point where he wants to go to college. Hopefully next year in 11th he'll start to get more clarity on that. If it turns out he needs to take it again to satisfy a particular institution, so be it.

 

I look at this this way. A student who does well enough to consider himself or herself "once and done" in 10th grade (or 9th grade) probably will have little difficulty taking again at the end of 11th or early 12th to get another high score (if it turns out to be necessary). On the other hand if they don't do as well as they want in 9th/10th, then it's great practice to have done it with plenty of time to prep for taking it in 11th/12th.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Cosmos

[plansrme]

I was at a conference a few years ago with a woman who owned a business focused on college prep. For the most part she was good, but she kept saying that you had to be in an approved AP course from a College Board trained teacher to take an AP exam. She also said that only juniors and seniors could take AP classes and exams. There are at least three errors in those statements. (Students don't have to take a course to sit for the exam, though exams are all registered for through a high school giving that test. For a course to be an official AP course the syllabus goes through a course audit, but teachers are not required to attend CB workshops or be certified as AP teachers. Younger students can do AP courses and exams. )

 

Even when I asked her pointed questions during the session and again in question time afterward she insisted she was right. She was giving out the same wrong infor a month later at another conference. I ended up researching the topic and sending her screenshots from the College Board website to show her the nuances of their policy.

 

The point of the story isn't that the person you heard from is completely wrong in everything. But she may be overstating the situation. I haven't found schools that require scores within two years, but it doesn't mean there are none who do so. What I have seen is that junior year and senior year are incredibly packed. A student who can get their testing done earlier buys themselves breathing room.

 

Last year ds missed the June SAT date because of summer college programs that had already started. This year there were major robotics and Science Olympiad competitions on the same date as the Dec SAT. If your student has actual ACT scores that would be a great milestone. (If she has an ACT account the scores should show up as reportable to colleges. )

 

Trust but verify. The counselor you heard or what folks here say. There is a reason I've spent so much time searching college board and various colleges' admissions pages.

I have a friend whose daughter is shocked that neither she not the other two applicants from her $47K/year private school got into a college with a 13% acceptance rate. The GC at her school led them all to believe that they would. Based on what?? Daughter is now devastated that this school did not need another rich white girl in their student body. The parents should not have bought this, obviously--I didn't think the girl was going to get in, and I am just an innocent bystander. But the level of ignorance I see from so-called college experts is astounding.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One other example of something becoming Conventional Wisdom that didn't stand up to investigation.  Several years ago, some students seemed to run into issues with Latin not being acceptable to colleges to meet the college admissions requirements.  Some students also found that even several years of Latin did not meet a college's graduation requirements for some degrees.

 

This led to a caution that students should be aware of requirements at schools they were interested in applying to and realize that if they did Latin, they might need to also take a modern foreign language.  No bad thing in itself.  Except when I've searched around, the only school I can find that specifies they do not consider Latin to meet the high school foreign language requirement for admissions purposes is the US Air Force Academy (and even then, there are families on this board with cadets accepted to USAFA with only Latin for foreign language).  IMHO, the possibility that one college out of thousands isn't a good reason to modify a high school foreign language plan.

 

It is good to be aware of possible issues.  A student set on attending USAFA probably wants to take a modern language.  A student who is applying to a school that requires recent test scores may need to retake the test as a junior.  But an exception is just that, not a general practice. 

 

WRT tests, our family experience is that it only gets more challenging to find time to fit in a testing date (let alone concentrated test prep) as students get older and busier.  It is a great feeling to have good score in hand.