Skipping SAT/ACT

[sbgrace]

I have one child who likely wouldn't do well with standardized testing. I can't imagine that test prep for him is worth the time it would take.  

I know most colleges here are test optional. I am thinking community college to start is a better route for him anyway, but I don't want to close doors.

Are we ok to just not test? 

Edited March 1, 2022 by sbgrace

[Faith-manor]

Michigan community colleges often require base minimum ACT/SAT scores for placement, and students who do not present those will.be required to take similar style placement tests. The only avenue around this that I know is to do dual enrollment in high school. Some community colleges waive placement tests if the student had already demonstrated ability to handle the coursework without being placed in remediation first. If memory serves, on the ACT the minimum is an 18 in math in order to take college algebra. But I could be wrong. I haven't checked in the last couple of years.

[AbcdeDooDah]

We did not do either test. Kids went to community college first and transferred to university with no problems. 

I didn't have a high opinion of them to begin, but the scandal from a few years ago reinforced my opinion that they are not worth much.

[Grace Hopper]

It really depends on your kid. In our searches this year with my junior/senior, we’ve found that even the schools that are going test optional for admissions, the highest levels of scholarship awards require a test score to complete the application rubric. There are awards at lower levels [eta without a test score], but not the top tiers (and we are not stem, we found this at liberal arts schools, too). 
 

You can always take the test and opt to not share scores (but of course check the policies of colleges you’re interested in). IME test scores can serve to validate parent-assigned grades on home schooler transcripts. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Grace Hopper

[Murphy101]

What faith said. All colleges and even trade schools and CCs will require a standardized placement exam.  Even the ones who say they don’t, they actually do bc If you don’t supply an act or say, they will just give them one in house that doesn’t transfer to other schools.  For most of them it’s either a residual (which just means on site and you can’t send the score anywhere) ACT/sat or the terra nova.

eta: and yes it can affect financial aid. 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Murphy101

[catz]

I just want to mention my high school junior started dual enrolling without any testing and just a transcript this fall thanks to covid policies at a community college.  That is not consistent throughout the area, we looked at several of our closest CC's in our metro.  So you might want to check individual schools for their policies right now and especially policies for homeschoolers (assuming he is).  

And she got 3 A's fall semester.  I wasn't worried at all about readiness, but she is an anxious tester.  She will take the ACT this spring/summer but I expect her scores to be all over the place.  

ETA - to be clear, no community college here requires the ACT or SAT, but some may require accuplacer testing for placementif you don't have a test sscore.  At which point you may as well do the ACT or SAT because that can be usable other places.

Edited March 1, 2022 by catz

[Arcadia]

The California community college has gone test optional for placement. The student is basically placed by transcript and what the student wish. So my teens could take honors English as 11th graders but they choose the non honors version. They cannot take the ESL version. 
Our state universities UC/CSU are using SAT/ACT for placement in lieu of other placement scores like AP/IB/DE scores. My kids would be using their dual enrollment grades for placement so we don’t need to worry about SAT/ACT scores. 

[skimomma]

Unless you think the score will be too low for general CC admission, I'd just have him take it cold.  Don't waste time with prep.  You can always choose to not share it.  But if it is good enough, it will help with initial course placement.  The schools I have experience with, both CC and 4-year, have their placement guidelines right on their website so once you have a score you can check to see if it lines up with what you expect and then decide if you want to submit them or opt for the in-house testing.  

That said, due to Covid, dd never could take the SAT and only took the ACT (cold) after she was admitted to the university she now attends.  It is a test-optional school and she did not submit her scores.  She had already taken the ALEKS placement when taking DE courses so the score would not have been used for that anyway.  She only took the ACT when she did in order to qualify for merit aid.  However, there were other avenues for that qualification had she not been able to take it or did not get the score she needed.

[Ting Tang]

I haven't been through this, but Illinois state universities no longer require scores. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea just to take it and choose whether or not to share?

[Dmmetler]

Here, you need a 18 ACT to place into college Algebra and English classes for credit, or an equivalent on the Accuplacer. So either way, there will be a standardized test involved. And my child who attends a test optional LAC had to do placement tests for Math, English, and Spanish regardless of test scores-and prior college credits earned. So I would assume there will be a test somewhere-it just may not be on Saturday morning at the local high school. 

[Loowit]

My DD took the ACT but it was not used at CC.  Their placement was based on high school classes taken.  Unfortunately, they wouldn't accept homeschool transcripts as proof of math, so they told her she would have to take their placement test.  She took it all the way to the dean and got them to accept her homeschool classes, and did great from there.

I believe when she transferred to her four year college she had to submit her ACT scores along with her transcripts from both CC and high school.  But most of the colleges she applied to (and was accepted into and would have gotten great scholarships for) did not care about test scores because she had completed her AA degree and was transferring in as a junior.  So really, what is required will depend on what college you want to go to and what they require.

I would skip the testing if my child didn't want to take them and they weren't required for admission to the college(s) they would be applying to.  But I would know going in that could limit options.

[mommyoffive]

Very informative.  We are just now going down this road.  I think we are just going to have dd take the ACT.  I had no idea that so many schools were still test optional though.

[regentrude]

My uni is now test optional and no longer requires the ACT. 
The ACT score was never used for placement purposes anyway; there is a separate math placement test.

I see no drawback to skipping the test - UNLESS you want to compete for merit scholarships. A "holistic" evaluation without test scores is very difficult, and the transcript and records should pack some serious punch to make up for the lack of easy-to-interpret test scores.

[katilac]

7 hours ago, Ting Tang said:

I haven't been through this, but Illinois state universities no longer require scores. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea just to take it and choose whether or not to share?

You can start with a practice test at home, there's no reason to take it 'for real' the very first time. Taking the test and reviewing answers is a form of prep in itself. 

It's fine to choose not to do tons of prep, but every student will benefit from understanding at least the basics of the test. They should know the number of questions and the time for each test, that there is no penalty for guessing, and at least simple strategies like letter of the day (guess with the same letter throughout the test). Something as simple as knowing that the English section highly values concise answers can lead to many more correct answers right away (tons of kids go for the long, 'flowery' answers when they are unsure, and that is almost always the wrong choice). 

There is a huge middle ground in between hours of prep every week and taking the test completely cold. 

[sbgrace]

It's sounding like he can't get around standardized tests either way. I didn't realize that. 

I'm now wishing I would have tried to pursue accomodations (he has ADHD and autism). It seemed so difficult for a homeschooler to do that, and he hasn't had recent evals. It looks like I need to pursue new evaluations. I'll call his pediatrician tomorrow to see if there are options for that. I imagine it's going to be hard given his age and our rural location. Ugh.  

 

 

 

[Farrar]

My kid just got into all the schools he applied to test optional. He got plenty of merit aid.

You can't always skip it. Depends on your state, goals, circumstances, etc. However, more people can skip it than realize.

[Arcadia]

11 minutes ago, sbgrace said:

 

I'm now wishing I would have tried to pursue accomodations (he has ADHD and autism). It seemed so difficult for a homeschooler to do that, and he hasn't had recent evals. It looks like I need to pursue new evaluations.

He might need more recent evaluations for the community college’s disability office when he takes classes there.

[klmama]

If you don't think he'll do well on the ACT, there are lots of schools that are test optional. Some are not test optional for homeschoolers, though.  You'd need to verify with admissions; website info is not always current. 

As someone above mentioned, there may still be a placement test, regardless of taking the ACT.  If he attends a college that requires that, I encourage you to help him prepare for that, too.  My dc has a few friends who did very well in high school math, but they didn't prep for the Accuplacer at community college and were put back several levels due to simple algebra mistakes.  Here's a website that has online test practice options for Accuplacer, ACT, and a bunch of others.  I have no idea how accurately it reflects those tests, but it's a place to start.  

[Carrie12345]

My *impression* is that the accuplacer tests are much less stressful.  I don’t know how the content and scoring compare.  Dd only took the English placement exam and we were in and out of the building in well under an hour, so I assume the math is somewhere in that same time length. It was a simple matter of someone turning the computer on and then walking out of the room. It had a timer, but she didn’t have to wait for the next section.
Dd scored pretty darn high, while she hadn’t scored very well on a practice PSAT in a laid back co-op environment.

[Wheres Toto]

Ds just started at our local CC without any SAT or ACT.   He did take the Accuplacer but it was much easier than scheduling the SAT with all the covid changes of scheduling and restrictions by the schools.    I did intend for him to take the SAT but dates were cancelled and then he really wanted to start at the CC so we just ended up skipping it.   

When he took the tests, ds hadn't done any standardized tests since he was around 7 years old (which was the SAGES-2 for a GT program).   The English was easy but he purposely answered a questions "wrong" when it was asking about they/them for non-gendered singular pronoun.  He had to take a two week prep class before taking his regular English. 

The math had one basic section and when he did well on that, it automatically continued into the advanced section.   He was able to go right into Pre-Calculus based on that score.   

Ds does not get anxious at all about tests (see the deliberately answering questions wrong) but he felt like the test was pretty easy.  At the time of the tests, he had just finished Essentials in Literature 9 and was/is about 1/2 way through Math U See Pre-Calculus.  

[fairfarmhand]

I've had 2 kids take accuplacer tests. They both found them way less stressful than the ACT and did fine on them.

[klmama]

The issue with taking Accuplacer without reviewing for it is that once you miss too many in a section, it stops letting you continue.  So, it pays to review all the pre-algebra, algebra 1, etc., up to wherever you are, so that you can do okay on those sections and help it place you appropriately.  It's not like the ACT, which just gives your overall score, regardless of how many you may have missed at a particular level.

[catz]

6 minutes ago, klmama said:

The issue with taking Accuplacer without reviewing for it is that once you miss too many in a section, it stops letting you continue.  So, it pays to review all the pre-algebra, algebra 1, etc., up to wherever you are, so that you can do okay on those sections and help it place you appropriately.  It's not like the ACT, which just gives your overall score, regardless of how many you may have missed at a particular level.

This is true.  My first born went to dual enroll in CC with a good enough ACT score to place in Calc at our flagship university but the CC made him take the Accuplacer for math anyway.  He hadn't looked at the format or reviewed prior, so he got stuck early and was placed in college algebra lol.  We decided to finish his math at home, it worked out but I think a few hours of review and familiarity would have made all the difference with that.  

Edited March 2, 2022 by catz

[City Mouse]

My DD took one just because the one 4-year school that he applied to required it, but there was no required score. He didn’t study or practice in advance. There was no concern about what his results might be.