Need To Know: Preparing Your Student for the ACT

After months of preparation and plenty of nail-biting, local high school students will have Scantron sheets on the brain as they sit down this week to take the Michigan Merit Exam (MME), the ACT and the WorkKeys job skills and assessment test.

“In general, Birmingham high school students want to go to top colleges,” said Rebecca Goldberg, a seventh-grade teacher at and founder of Michigan Test Prep, an ACT preparatory course. “And the kids all know the score they need to be considered for admission to those schools.”

To get those top scores, Michigan students will be sitting down to three days of testing Tuesday through Thursday, during which they will take the three tests, all administered by the Michigan Department of Education.

While the MME and WorkKeys tests are used to assess college readiness, the ACT is a college admissions exam, the scores of which will be sent to colleges and universities across the country and used to help determine which students are admitted to schools.

Students can take the ACT more than once in an attempt to boost their scores, but at their own cost. The next exam dates April 9 and June 11, when it’s offered nationally. For students who want help boosting their scores, there’s no shortage of local training centers.

Reaching for the top

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, composite ACT scores required by the eight Ivy League schools — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and Yale — ranged from 29 to 34 in 2008. A perfect score on the ACT, achieved by less than one-10th of 1 percent of test-takers, is a 36.

Scores required by Michigan schools vary. For the middle 50th percentile of students accepted in 2010 — that is, students with scores in middle half, or from the 25th through the 75th percentiles — the average ACT scores for entering these schools were:

• University of Michigan: 28-32
• Michigan State University: 23-28
• Western Michigan University: 22.5
• Albion College: 25
• Central Michigan University: 23
• Grand Valley State University: 22-26

Goldberg said students are often anxious about the ACT, given the importance the test plays in the college admission process.

“Kids hear of students scoring a 29 on the ACT and still being denied to schools like U of M,” she said. “That can be stressful.”

Help to score your best

For Birmingham students already looking for more training — from private tutoring to classroom and online prep courses — there are plenty of options.

Michigan Test Prep offers a local option. Founded last year, Goldberg said 45-60 students have already gone through the program, which uses computer analytics to define an individual’s strengths and weaknesses.

On the first day of the program, which she runs from her home, students take a practice version of the ACT. Their results are analyzed to identify areas that need improvement.

“A program is then tailored to that student’s areas of weakness, and we work to improve those areas,” Goldberg said. “The areas in which students may think they need more help in actuality often are not their areas of greatest weakness. The test identifies that.”

Goldberg said that on average, students who go through her program see their scores increase by 3 points from the day they take the initial practice test to their last day of the program. 

“It’s a real confidence booster for them when they see that improvement,” she said.

Prepping for the test in the classroom

Vivian Christy, academic dean for Marian High School in Bloomfield Hills, said that while prep courses and tutoring are helpful, ACT skills are also integrated into the school’s everyday curriculum.

“For example, our English department teaches the vocabulary of the ACT as well as the writing requirements,” Christy said.

Marian recently hosted Luke Brindle, a representative from the Princeton Review, to conduct a two-hour ACT workshop for sophomores and juniors. The Feb. 9 workshop provided students with general test-taking strategies as well as strategies specific to the ACT.

Quick tips for ACT success

While preparation for the ACT focuses on the test itself, it also includes simple tips to make test day less stressful.

Goldberg meets with students the day before the actual test to review test-taking strategies and remind them of last-minute tips.

“I stress to the kids that they must bring their ID with them,” she said. “I remind that they will be sitting for the test for four hours, so when they first get to the room, they shouldn’t sit down immediately. I also encourage them to take advantage of the built-in break, even if they don’t need a snack or to use the restroom. They should get up and move around.”

For students who haven’t taken a prep course, though, Goldberg has plenty of tips for those looking to score well this week.

• Take practice tests: Practice tests not only familiarize you with the format of the test, they also help you identify areas of weakness that you can work on to improve before the actual exam.
• Know the test format: The format of the ACT is always the same and consists of the following types of questions: analogies, sentence completion, reading comprehension, math multiple-choice and quantitative comparisons. The ACT also includes an optional writing test, which is required by some colleges but not by all. Knowing how questions are phrased and what they’re getting at will ensure you’re not caught off-guard on test day. In addition to knowing the types of questions, it’s also important to familiarize yourself with section directions.
• Prepare physically for the test: Get plenty of sleep the night before the exam. You’ll be sitting for four hours as you work your way through the test, so it’ll help to have a good night’s sleep behind you. Also, be sure to eat a well-balanced breakfast and bring along a snack that you can eat during the break.
• Review general test-taking strategies: You can skip a tough question and come back to it. All questions are scored the same and you won’t be penalized for a wrong answer, which means you should leave no question unanswered. If you finish before time is called, go back and review your answers. Be sure to clean up any eraser marks that bleed into bubbles you didn’t intend to fill in. Pace yourself by not spending too much time on any one passage. Bring a watch.
• Relax your mind: Perhaps this is easier said than done, but some relaxation techniques can help should panic set in. Take a few deep, calming breaths. Remind yourself that this is nothing you haven’t seen before and that you’re prepared. Then, make a note of the time so you can budget it wisely and focus your nervous energy on the question at hand.