Is it worth it to prep for the ACT test?

[duragezic]

Because of my stupidity and laziness and lack of ambition, I only have two chances to take the ACT test before the semester end (when scholarships are calculated). At my high school, it is required to get scholarships (its like 75% gpa, 25% ACT score). So finally I signed up for the next test and I see there's a lot of "practice" tests and the like. They say "it gets you used to the questions, etc..." but I'm not really sure how helpful that is. I mean you can't study for an ACT test because you just gotta remember stuff from last couple years.

Should I look into that crap or just say f*ck it and take it? I'd still have one more chance anyhow.

Also, I'm kinda curious as to what ACT scores other ATers got.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

i got a 33/34 (cant rememeber) and didn't prep
good luck

 

[shiner]

I took it at 7am after partying all night and while I was still drunk.....in fact I don't even remember taking it all that well and I scored a 28.....standardized tests are crap and don't prove a thing.

 

[duragezic]

Wow, those are good scores, especially the 33/34. Well then I guess I'll just forget about it till the morning of the test and see how I do.

 

[MrBond]

Two chances doesn't seem like much to me, especially if scholarship money is riding on it. My parents wanted me to take it as much as possible, so I ended up taking it like 5 times. I was pretty consistant though through the first four (26-26-27-26) and wasn't going to put much of an effort into the last time.

Took it and got a 29 . I think I was so relaxed that I actually did better.

I missed out on two scholarships that would have completly paid for my tuition because of my ACT scores. 30 was the minimum for full tuition at my college and 32 would have gotten me a guaranteed $5000/yr for 4 years. For the second scholarship, there were two people with higher scores then me in my HS, a 31 and a 30. We all had 4.0 GPA's, so they went to ACT scores to award it. I almost think if I had pushed a little harder with the prep (especially the reading) I'd have broken 30 at least.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

i want a scholarship
i didn't get jack, all i got was a 1k scholarship for my highschool's california standardized testing BS

 

[duragezic]

Yah I know I only want it for the scholarships because the community college I'll be going to doesn't require and teh colleges I'm looking at to go to after are all plenty easy to get in.

The worst thing is that we just got our MEAP (Michigan standardized test) results back and I scored well enough to get the $2500 for college... except like two days after getting the results I get a letter that says the money used for that may be for health care instead (cause the money originally came from tobacco company settlement), so I won't know till Nov when the proposal is on the ballot whether or not I'll get it...

 

[RU482]

I got a 27, which was 2nd or 3rd in my class. My class rank as far as grades were concerned was just below 50%...right in the middle

 

[Mani]

The ACT is a ridiculously easy test. If you can't make heads or tails of it, you're probably too stupid for college anyway.

It's a pure endurance test, the ability to focus for 3 hours on a test is the only thing test prep helps.

 

[BornStar]

I got a 31 with no preperation whatsoever. It's easy.

 

[SpongeBob]

The ACT is a joke. I partied the night before and still managed a 32.

 

[lykaon78]

The first time I took it I got a 23 in the English section (whatever it is officially called).

Took it again after 3-4 hours of self study test prep for that area and got a 27.

Everything I heard is that you should only be able to improve/decrease any one category -2 to 2 points on subsequent tests with out studying. The 4 points I improved could probably be linked to the extra preperation I did.

I would take the test the first time, the study the sections you want to improve. A 27 overall will get you in to most good public schools so depending on your goals, don't sweat it too much.

-Lykaon78