Just recently, the Juniors at Woodmore took the ACT for free, and they also received their scores shortly after. Scores are on a 36-point scale, with a 36 being the highest possible score, and the average floating around a 20. It is a composite score of math, science, english, and reading. So why do people put so much importance on your performance on these four subjects in a 3-hour-long test?
By the time a student is a Junior, it’s time to start thinking about their future. For many students, that future is college. It’s no secret that applying to colleges is a stressful experience for many, as you have to hope that you get selected for the school you want to attend based only on a small snapshot of your life. It’s because this snapshot is so small that a strong ACT score is integral to convincing an admissions officer to let you in. Grades alone aren’t enough to get your point across in admissions, as they are not standardized like an ACT score. For example, based on how classes are weighted, two students who have gotten the same grades in the same classes could have GPAs of 4.0 or 4.5, or even 5.0. Performance on the ACT and other standardized tests, like the SAT, is measured in the same exact way for every student in the country who takes it.
It also seems like students are pushed to take the ACT more than once, and it isn’t immediately obvious why this is. Upon pondering it, however, it starts to become clearer. After taking the test once, you become more accustomed to timing yourself and doing your best, so you become more prepared for future testing. Additionally, you have the opportunity to superscore your ACT, which means you take the composite of your best scores for each section from each test. This will effectively inflate your score and have no negative effect if you do worse the second time. It is because of these reasons that taking the ACT more than once is an extremely smart decision for college-bound students.
Consider this a PSA to take the ACT seriously, and to take it again on any of the testing dates that can be found on the website if you want to improve your score. Good luck to all students who want to take the ACT again; it will only do you good.
