The ACT is a huge part of a high school student's life. From the moment that student walks in the front doors of their high school, they start training for the biggest part of their life (up through high school, of course).
As a freshman, I took practice ACT exams at least one major time all the way through, and then multiple sectioned tests in my individual classes. The school set aside a day where all the freshman would meet in the auditorium and take a test that was similar to the ACT in terms of length and difficulty. This test helped determine our course schedules for the next year and predicted what our actual ACT scores would closely resemble.
As a sophomore, I took another of these practice tests with the rest of my class. The difficulty had gone up a bit to resemble what the common curriculum of the average sophomore level would be. I also had ACT practices in math and English. In math, the teachers provided the practice exam and then we would have to pass off each problem to our peers after we got our scores. Even the questions we answered correctly had to be passed off so as to make sure we knew thoroughly how to do each type of question on the exam.
My junior year, the school provided the actual ACT in the spring. This was absolutely nerve wracking. I have never in my life felt so much stress and pressure as I did on the day of that exam. I made sure to take all the early morning prep classes offered by my school prior to the test. I went home every day for a month and took a practice section of the test to prepare. I stayed after school and got help from my teachers. Every spare second I had was put into preparing for the ACT, and a lot of my school work was pushed to the side for a couple of weeks so that I could prepare.
Everything that I planned for my future rested on this test. If I didn't pass with a decent score then I could kiss my dream college goodbye. Above that, if I didn't get a high score then I could kiss any scholarships goodbye as well.
My studying ended up paying off and I felt very relieved when I opened up my ACT envelope that said I had received a 31. I have taken the exam once more since then, to try to raise my score for scholarship purposes, and it was equally stressful the second time.
A student's entire life rests on this test (or the SAT equivalent). It seems unfair to put so much pressure on a 17 year old. It seems unfair to test these students on math and science when those subjects probably won't carry much weight in their future careers anyways. It seems unfair to coddle a student all through high school and then throw this exam on them and let it determine their future. But that is how it is, and it is a very difficult process to complete as a student. It requires great determination and a whole lot of work to be able to pull off a score that will get you far in life.
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