ACT's and SAT's

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blackbrandt

That Darn College Student
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Just a question for all of you.

1. How many of you have taken these?
2. If you are looking at hiring somebody, do you ACTUALLY care about what that stupid number of a score is?
3. Do you think studying for these tests is useful?

I have been taking practice ACT's. The first one I took, I got a 25. Second one? 23. I took one today. 21.

Apparently, this means that taking practice ACT's is a waste of time to simply lower your score.


I absolutely hate them. They are simply a 3.5 hour waste of time to determine how much you have studied for them.
 
Just a question for all of you.

1. How many of you have taken these?
2. If you are looking at hiring somebody, do you ACTUALLY care about what that stupid number of a score is?
3. Do you think studying for these tests is useful?

I have been taking practice ACT's. The first one I took, I got a 25. Second one? 23. I took one today. 21.

Apparently, this means that taking practice ACT's is a waste of time to simply lower your score.


I absolutely hate them. They are simply a 3.5 hour waste of time to determine how much you have studied for them.
1. I think I've taken maybe 6, both practice and actual ones.
2. As I see it, this is less for potential employers, more for colleges. I don't know about your college situation, but ACTs are everything here. Just as important as your GPA. Maybe more so.
3. Absolutely. The idea is to get familiar with the kind of questions that are going to be asked. They always ask variations on the same kinds of questions. Know what questions they are asking and prepare for them. This might mean not just taking practice ACTs, but studying what concepts will be on the test.

Trust me. I've had worse experiences then you've had. The first practice one I took, I had the flu (high fever, nausea, massive headache, runny nose). I'm sure the entire testing center could hear me blowing my nose and coughing. I fell asleep half way through the reading section, and woke up not remembering where I was. I think I got a 19. I didn't complain much about the other ones.

Also, focus on what you really need to study. I did great on the Math sections of practice tests (30-34) but did terrible on the reading (23-26). For some reason I only worked hard to boost my math score, maybe it was just more fun to study math because I kept getting higher scores. Looking back, I really wished I had done better on studying reading. That section brought my total score down a few points that really wouldn't be hard to make up if I had worked a little harder.
Good luck and remember that the only thing the ACT measures is how good you are at taking the ACT.

Alex
 
I took ACT way back when and only because it was requirement for college admission. No employer has ever asked me my score.
 
Just a question for all of you.
2. If you are looking at hiring somebody, do you ACTUALLY care about what that stupid number of a score is?

I've interviewed hundreds of applicants for reallllllyyyy good jobs over the years, and ACT/SAT score has never been a topic of discussion. I have never heard of an employer using these metrics as a basis for a hiring decision.

Having said that, a high ACT/SAT score will greatly simplify the college application process for you and help you get into the college that you really want, so do as well as you can on the test!

James
 
It's not for employers --- they will probably never ask your score and would probably consider it weird if you mentioned them in an interview. The tests are for college admissions, and they can be very important, especially for state schools with score and GPA-driven admissions. Some schools take a lot more into consideration than others, but all will look at scores.

You might want to consider a class on how to take the tests. Knowledge of the subject matter is the most important thing, but so is your test-taking strategy. You can definitely boost your scores with good strategy.
 
I took the ACT once because it was required for college admission. My score was good enough that I had no desire to take it again.

The colleges that I was applying to did not require the SAT so I never took it.

While I never exactly took a prep course, I did have a high school English class (rhetoric) in which we learned a great deal of English vocabulary, how words were constructed, common Greek, French, and Latin prefixes and suffixes and at some point before the common date when many of us took the ACT and SAT test our teacher threw in a week of working on those weird comparison questions (A is to B, like C is to what?) that you never see anywhere but on standardized test. I am certain that semester of English significantly increased my test score. There are a number of thing on those tests that they simply do not teach in school. Just studying math and English will help but you cannot study things that you've never seen before. For that reason, a good prep class, if it is properly constructed, can be very beneficial.

I have never, ever heard of an employer that gives a rats tail what your score was. Neither do they care, if you have a college degree, what your grades were in high school. That "permanent record" that your high school guidance counselor used threaten you with? No one ever looks. No one cares.

Being familiar with these tests will also help if you ever go in certain directions during and after college because engineers take the Engineer in Training exam (8 hours), pharmacists take the license exam, I think there is an exam to get into law school (but I'm not sure), and a whole lot of people take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) to get into graduate school. But then again, today's students take so many standardized tests that they are already horribly familiar with them. But that's a rant for another day...
 
OK.... so better question. If I have an absolutely terrible ACT score (<25)... does this basically ruin any chance I have of getting into a decent college?
 
OK.... so better question. If I have an absolutely terrible ACT score (<25)... does this basically ruin any chance I have of getting into a decent college?

Yes and no.. Some colleges don't require ACT scores but do require SAT scores and some its the other way around. It depends on where you're applying. If the college does require the ACT then a 25 won't look that good. I would suggest taking a look at the colleges you are applying to and see if they require it or not. Like Alex said study the certain topics that are dragging your score down and go from there.
 
GPA and ACT matter, but are not the sole factors that determine whether you are offered admission. The link I posted should allow you to find the "typical" ACT and GPA scores for any/all schools you might be considering.
 
It really matters where you're going to apply. For example embry-riddle doesn't require the ACT or the SAT (but are highly recommended). They make the majority of their decision through GPA, transcripts, service hours, etc..
 
OK.... so better question. If I have an absolutely terrible ACT score (<25)... does this basically ruin any chance I have of getting into a decent college?
Not at all. I was accepted into a very good school, some might even say fantastic and my SAT's were nothing to engrave on a tombstone.
 
Just a question for all of you.

1. How many of you have taken these?
2. If you are looking at hiring somebody, do you ACTUALLY care about what that stupid number of a score is?
3. Do you think studying for these tests is useful?

I have been taking practice ACT's. The first one I took, I got a 25. Second one? 23. I took one today. 21.

Apparently, this means that taking practice ACT's is a waste of time to simply lower your score.


I absolutely hate them. They are simply a 3.5 hour waste of time to determine how much you have studied for them.

1. I only took the SAT, but many of my friends choose to take the ACT over the SAT.
2. Like others said, standardized tests are pretty much solely used for college admission.
3. I wouldn't call it studying, I would call it practicing/learning the tests. I took a class with princeton review, and while the teaching part was OK, I really found taking 5-6 full practice tests very helpful in learning the test.
It's all about learning their tricks - if you go through enough questions, eventually you get to a point where you've seen every question format, all the tricks and confusing wording aren't new, only the specific content. Take the essay for example - there's a very specific format they want, and if you prepare a few generic argument points ahead of time and follow the format, you can easily double your essay score from a 5 to a 10 by just giving them what they want.

Also remember that you'll probably do better on the real thing - it's hard when taking a boring, no fun "practice test" to put in your true best perfomance, and that may be why your scores are declining. Maybe take one every 2 weeks for 2-3 months, reviewing questions and an SAT book 1-2 times a week for an hour. I started out with an 1850 on my first practice SAT, and after slowly improving on the next 5 practice tests with princeton review, and learning the test and how to pace myself, on the real SAT test I scored much, much better.
 
I work in education and would offer a couple of opinions. As many have stated, ACT and SAT scores are valuable for college admissions. The score requirements for different institutions varies. Bigschool.edu may require an ACT of 26 or more for admission on academic merit alone. If you really want to go there and have a lower ACT you may have to start somewhere else, prove yourself academically, and then transfer.

Beyond admissions, many scholarships are tied to ACT/SAT scores. If your ACT scores are above 26 or so scholarship offers start to come in - schools will begin to compete for you. The higher your scores - the more they offer you. All that being said, once you gain admission to the school of your choice these scores cease to matter. Once admitted it's all on you.
 
Agree with what others have said...ACT and SAT scores are mainly for college admissions. No employer I've ever heard of cares about them.

Also, test scores have very little to do with actual college aptitude. My ACT was 36/32 and my SAT was 760/720 in 1985, which certainly helped getting into the Colorado school for wayward children back in the day...but my actual college scores were pretty abysmal my first year. My study habits sucked in high school because I could be lazy...which was not the way to approach college. Most colleges look for more than just test scores...GPA, extra-curricular activities, type of classes, etc.

I will say this...if your scores are going down...you may be overthinking the questions. Usually, the first answer is the correct one.

FC
 
I actually heard that a growing number of schools are dropping the ACT and SAT scores as they are finding no correlation to academic performance in college.

I have never heard of an employer caring anything at all about your scores. Nobody ever asked about GPA either. We almost never asked about school at all. Asking about them would probably violate some HR policy where I used to work. And, where I used to work we were given standardized questions by Human Resources to use in job interviews. We always worked in teams of three. Once each of us picked our 2 or 3 questions from the list of about 30, we were required to ask all candidates the exact same questions. We could only deviate from the questions to follow up on something the candidate said. The questions were stupid and I always went off script.
 
Even academic performance isn't everything. A friend and I were applying to the same school. He worked extremely hard in High School and even earned his associates degree before graduating. He had a better GPA and only a slightly lower ACT then mine. With his accomplishments in school, he was miles ahead of me academically. However, I got in and he didn't. I can only really attribute this to rocketry. I really emphasized my involvement in rocketry and engineering. Apparently that alone made me stand out enough to give me an advantage over the kids with high ACTs and GPAs. How you do in school isn't everything. Just try to make yourself a well-rounded, interesting person.

Alex
 
Damn straight...Plus if that doesn't work out, there's always a career waiting for you as a Truck Driver! ;):rofl:

Whoa...:surprised: What am i laughing at?


Not funny dude.............well OK it was a little funny, but then again I am a Truck Driver (Nuclear Waste Transportation).
 
Don't worry about the test. I never took the SAT, just the ACT. The Air Force Academy told me I needed to take it again for a higher math score, so I went to the U.S. Military Academy, who was completely happy with my scores.
 
I took 'em both, and smoked 'em both, a long long time ago.

I took a practice version in 6th grade; mainly all that did was get teachers to yell at me for the next 4-5 years because I wasn't pulling straight 4.0 grades.

The tests helped (in fact, were crucial) in college admissions.

Nobody in the "real world" ever asked about them.

I think one time it came up as a topic of discussion in workplace bull sessions, I mentioned offhandedly my scores were 'fairly high,' someone said 'oh yeah prove it,' one thing led to another so I actually showed them the scoresheet.

:y::y::y:

I think actually that probably hurt me in that job because the big bosses decided I was 'overqualified' to be there and would eventually quit to go back to college (which I eventually did), so they never gave me raises or did much of anything to get me to stay there longterm.

If you're in a position now of planning to go to college, I would definitely recommend taking them; as others have posted, many colleges still use them in the admissions process.

As far as preparing/practicing, I wouldn't pay money to take a course or anything, but there are free 'practice versions' online you could take every couple of weeks which would probably help you prepare.

IMO the major factor in doing well in those tests is to be comfortable with that format of test-taking. I would not ascribe my high scores so much to being an absolute sooper genius as much as just having a knack for taking multiple-choice/short-answer tests.

One thing I would absolutely NOT do is cram or binge-study in the days before taking the test, especially the night before; more than anything else that will probably just raise your overall level of stress and nervousness. The night before the test, watch a goofy comedy movie and go to bed medium-early.
 
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Absolute score is not critical. What you want to look at are percentiles. The scores are not valid long enough for it to be useful to employers. However, many of the high level places like McKinsey, J.P. Morgan, and the like are über competitive due to the large number of people desirous of high six figure starting salaries. They have their own tests which you would have to take prior to being invited for an interview. People who do well on the SAT tend to do well on these tests too. In general those people don't need to study or take practice tests. My advise, study hard and get into the best school that you can. Good luck.
 
I took ACT way back when and only because it was requirement for college admission. No employer has ever asked me my score.

If they do ask, just do what I do and add them up and fling that number at them. The 27 always raises some eyebrows.:wink:
 
PM me. I'm a teacher, and I've been doing private ACT prep for years with lots of success. I'll send you my materials for free. If you started with a 25, 30 is easily attainable. And 30 translates into free college money... I got a 32 when I was in high school, and a 29 when I was ... ... less than 100% there. ..
 
OK.... so better question. If I have an absolutely terrible ACT score (<25)... does this basically ruin any chance I have of getting into a decent college?

25 isn't "absolutely terrible." The average ACT score in my engineering class was 28, so yes there were some strong minds in the class, but for the average to be 28 there still had to be more than a few at 25.

In less demanding fields 25 might be fairly respectable.

It depends on what you want to do.

Our daughter doesn't test well. She did poorly on the ACT more than once, but she is absolutely determined to get into nursing school. If she has a 28 she would probably be in already, but she is doing what others here have suggested. She got into school as a general education, "undetermined major" and is taking all of the pre-nursing coursework. Her grades are good and the guidance counselor says there is no reason to believe that she won't be accepted in the nursing program when she applies at the end of the year.

The numbers are an early attempt to tell them whether or not you are capable of doing the work. If you don't have the numbers they want, you just have to find another way to show them that you can do the work.
 
I actually heard that a growing number of schools are dropping the ACT and SAT scores as they are finding no correlation to academic performance in college.

I have never heard of an employer caring anything at all about your scores.....

Ok - I'm going to throw the curve ball here.

First - the lack of correlation between standardized test scores and academic performance has little to do with the tests and more to do with how we're teaching and gauging student response. We're not as interested in how students learn or think, just that they can meet state and national standards of information regurgitation. I would never consider attending a school that didn't require standardized test scores as part of the application. It tells me that they are more interested in money or public perception than how and what the students learn. Just my opinion on this one.

Second. I ask all my prospective employees to include copies of their standardized test scores. In 16 years of hiring scientists, I've found a near perfect correlation between good test scores and problem solving/learning capabilities in my employees (I hire people that are in the 90+ percentile). Obviously it's not the only attribute I look for, but I weigh it more than a person's experience, GPA, or even their degree. I'm obviously the odd man out here, but I wouldn't do it any other way (unless forced to do so by HR)
 
They are useful for getting scholarships for college, but after that, they're not really looked at anymore. Employers care about experiences, grades, and communication skills.
 
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