Take the ACT
The ACT is an entrance exam for four year universities. If you are planning to go to a four year university, you should take the ACT.
The ACT is offered six times a school year. Its a four hour test on Saturday mornings. Most of the ACT is multiple choice, with scan-tron, fill-in-the-bubble answers. You can use a calculator on the Math section.
The ACT has four sections, English (Grammar), Reading, Science, and Math. Each section gets it's own score. Then, all the sections average together to get a composite score.
The ACT also has an option Writing test, which is obviously not multiple choice as you'll be writing. Some universities like you to take the ACT Writing test, and some don't care. Check with your chosen schools before making the decision to take or not take the writing test. The writing test score does not average in with the other four section scores to create your composite score; it stays separate.
When you take the ACT, you can choose four universities to send your scores to. ACT will send your scores to those universities; you don't have to do anything. If you want to send your scores to more schools, ACT will charge you a small fee.
On the February and April dates, the ACT is offered right here at Adams-Friendship High School. For the other dates, you'll have to travel to another school to take the test. You can pick where to go to take the test when you register for the test.
We recommend waiting until the spring of your Junior year to take the ACT for the first time. We want you to have as much knowledge and skill shoved into your heads from school as you can. The test does include advanced math and science concepts. In addition, in American Experience this year, we'll be practicing and developing many of the reading, analysis and grammar skills the ACT will expect you to apply.
Still, you want to budget time to take the test twice. It is absolutely okay, and really kind of expected, to take the ACT more than once. In fact, most people take it twice. After experiencing the ACT structure and process, most students score better the second time.
Don't start taking the ACT to late. In the past, we've seen good students not get accepted to college because their ACT scores weren't back in time.
The ACT top score is a 36. (Odd scoring system, I know.) An average score is around a 22. Of course, you want to shoot for as high a score as you can get.
Each university individually determines how high they want their new students to have scored on the ACT. In fact, some individual programs will determine minimum scores to get into that program. Check the application or registration or "Perspective New Student" information for the universities or program you are considering for what ACT scores they are looking for. Look for new student averages, too. That will tell you what competition you are going up against.
Furthermore, when you are applying for scholarships, some scholarships will ask for your ACT score. The higher you score, the more money you may get!
The ACT does cost some money:
ACT Test with no optional writing test: $35
ACT with the optional writing test: $50
If your family qualifies for free and reduced lunch, you don't have to pay for the ACT. Go to the guidance office to get an ACT waiver. Literally, it's just a letter. They already have it written. They just need to sign it. If you're worried about how to pay for the ACT, go ask Mr. Hill or Ms. Opsahl for the waiver letter. You can use the waiver for up to two times taking the ACT.
Not planning on going to a four-year university? Technical colleges will also accept the ACT instead of the Accuplacer. In the future, Wisconsin is considering using the ACT as a mandatory junior-year standardized test.
Not planning on going to a four-year university in the Mid-west or Central United States? Colleges on both the East and West Coast often use the SAT, another college entrance exam. However, even if they are most used to the SAT, they'll still accept your ACT score. They have a conversion table they use to convert your ACT score into an equivalent SAT score.
You can sign up for the ACT in the guidance office during any ELT. Feel free to use their computers. Plan for that whole half an hour to sign up for the ACT; the first time you register, you have to take an interest inventory that takes a while.
When you register, you'll also have to upload a picture of yourself. That's part of ACT's security, to verify who you are and prevent people cheating on the test. Come prepared with a decent and appropriate picture you can access on a flash drive or on the interent.
When you register, you'll also need the Adams-Friendship School Code: 500-005. (It's a palindrome!)
In American Experience this year, we'll take some practice ACT Reading and English tests and talk about hints for both of those tests. Still, we recommend taking an ACT prep course or visiting the ACT website to practice some questions, get a handle on the structure of the test, and see what skills you will need to apply so you can start mentally preparing.
The ACT is offered six times a school year. Its a four hour test on Saturday mornings. Most of the ACT is multiple choice, with scan-tron, fill-in-the-bubble answers. You can use a calculator on the Math section.
The ACT has four sections, English (Grammar), Reading, Science, and Math. Each section gets it's own score. Then, all the sections average together to get a composite score.
The ACT also has an option Writing test, which is obviously not multiple choice as you'll be writing. Some universities like you to take the ACT Writing test, and some don't care. Check with your chosen schools before making the decision to take or not take the writing test. The writing test score does not average in with the other four section scores to create your composite score; it stays separate.
When you take the ACT, you can choose four universities to send your scores to. ACT will send your scores to those universities; you don't have to do anything. If you want to send your scores to more schools, ACT will charge you a small fee.
On the February and April dates, the ACT is offered right here at Adams-Friendship High School. For the other dates, you'll have to travel to another school to take the test. You can pick where to go to take the test when you register for the test.
We recommend waiting until the spring of your Junior year to take the ACT for the first time. We want you to have as much knowledge and skill shoved into your heads from school as you can. The test does include advanced math and science concepts. In addition, in American Experience this year, we'll be practicing and developing many of the reading, analysis and grammar skills the ACT will expect you to apply.
Still, you want to budget time to take the test twice. It is absolutely okay, and really kind of expected, to take the ACT more than once. In fact, most people take it twice. After experiencing the ACT structure and process, most students score better the second time.
Don't start taking the ACT to late. In the past, we've seen good students not get accepted to college because their ACT scores weren't back in time.
The ACT top score is a 36. (Odd scoring system, I know.) An average score is around a 22. Of course, you want to shoot for as high a score as you can get.
Each university individually determines how high they want their new students to have scored on the ACT. In fact, some individual programs will determine minimum scores to get into that program. Check the application or registration or "Perspective New Student" information for the universities or program you are considering for what ACT scores they are looking for. Look for new student averages, too. That will tell you what competition you are going up against.
Furthermore, when you are applying for scholarships, some scholarships will ask for your ACT score. The higher you score, the more money you may get!
The ACT does cost some money:
ACT Test with no optional writing test: $35
ACT with the optional writing test: $50
If your family qualifies for free and reduced lunch, you don't have to pay for the ACT. Go to the guidance office to get an ACT waiver. Literally, it's just a letter. They already have it written. They just need to sign it. If you're worried about how to pay for the ACT, go ask Mr. Hill or Ms. Opsahl for the waiver letter. You can use the waiver for up to two times taking the ACT.
Not planning on going to a four-year university? Technical colleges will also accept the ACT instead of the Accuplacer. In the future, Wisconsin is considering using the ACT as a mandatory junior-year standardized test.
Not planning on going to a four-year university in the Mid-west or Central United States? Colleges on both the East and West Coast often use the SAT, another college entrance exam. However, even if they are most used to the SAT, they'll still accept your ACT score. They have a conversion table they use to convert your ACT score into an equivalent SAT score.
You can sign up for the ACT in the guidance office during any ELT. Feel free to use their computers. Plan for that whole half an hour to sign up for the ACT; the first time you register, you have to take an interest inventory that takes a while.
When you register, you'll also have to upload a picture of yourself. That's part of ACT's security, to verify who you are and prevent people cheating on the test. Come prepared with a decent and appropriate picture you can access on a flash drive or on the interent.
When you register, you'll also need the Adams-Friendship School Code: 500-005. (It's a palindrome!)
In American Experience this year, we'll take some practice ACT Reading and English tests and talk about hints for both of those tests. Still, we recommend taking an ACT prep course or visiting the ACT website to practice some questions, get a handle on the structure of the test, and see what skills you will need to apply so you can start mentally preparing.
The ACT and American Experience
Mrs. Kotlowski, Mrs. Ophsal, and Ms. Ringelspaugh crunched some numbers about the ACT. As we've discussed before, if you want to go to college, you'll need to take the ACT. The college uses your ACT score, in addition to your GPA, recommendation letters, and essay, to determine if they want to accept you for admission into their school. Therefore, it's important to get the highest ACT score that you can get.
In this data, you'll see the difference in scores between students who took American Experience and students who did not take American Experience. This data is from last year's students who took the ACT, many of this year's seniors and students who graduated last spring. We will not show you individual students ACT scores; these are averages of all the students who took the ACT from Adams-Friendship High School.
The ACT is scored out of 36 possible points.
In this data, you'll see the difference in scores between students who took American Experience and students who did not take American Experience. This data is from last year's students who took the ACT, many of this year's seniors and students who graduated last spring. We will not show you individual students ACT scores; these are averages of all the students who took the ACT from Adams-Friendship High School.
The ACT is scored out of 36 possible points.
This next chart looks specifically at the data from the ACT Writing test. The combined English/Writing score on the left is out of 36, like the other main ACT scores. The Writing Test and all the other subscores, basically all the other scores in this chart, are out of 12 possible points.
