A Second Chance: Taking the ACTs

A Second Chance

By Courtney Horst

Ahh colleges are saying that I need to take a standardized test! Now many think that the SAT’s are the only way to go, but maybe you didn’t do so well on them the first time around, and now you’re freaking out about your future. First calm down, your life isn’t over! There could be a lot of reasons that you didn’t do your best the first time around. Maybe sitting in the same room for close to 4 hours was so boring you couldn’t concentrate.  Or writing the essay threw you off track. Those tough vocab words couldn’t have been harder! Or maybe you’re simply just better at science and math than at reading and writing. If any of these are true, then I think that taking the ACT’s could raise your score!

First of all there’s the time issue, why do these tests have to take so long? The ACT only last 2 hours compared to the SAT’s which last 3 hours and 45 minutes. This made the test easier to get through. Whenever I approach a standardized test, I always dread the amount of time I’ll be sitting at a desk. When I took the ACT’s, the time seemed to fly by because it was almost two hours shorter than the SAT’s. In between sections we were given breaks, but everyone in my testing room opted to take shorter break to minimize our time at the test. During the ACT’s all the of the Math section is done together, but in the SAT’s it’s split into three different shorter sections. Personally, I liked the ACT approach better. Being able to spend time on one subject and not have to come back to it later made the test easier for me. I like knowing that I knocked out one whole subject out before getting ready to conquer the next one. The SAT approach was harder for me because I didn’t have time to focus. I felt like I constantly had to keep moving from subject to subject.

The ACT’s also don’t deduct points for wrong answers, so you never have to worry about if you should guess or not. During the SAT’s I was always debating if the answer I had come up with was worth a possible point deduction. But when I was taking the ACT’s, I never had to worry about losing points for guessing, so I felt less stressed while taking the test because I could answer each problem without fear.

Along with that, I found the ACT questions to be straightforward and clear. During the SAT’s, I wasted time trying to figure out what the vocabulary words meant and how they fit into the sentences, and I was wasting time as a result. But unlike the SAT’s, the ACT’s don’t have as much of an emphasis on vocabulary. So if you aren’t a skilled wordsmith you might do better on the ACTs. This is because the ACT is geared more for students who do better in the Math and Science world vs. the Reading and Writing one. And to some this can make all the difference in the score.

So if you were discouraged after getting your SAT scores back, maybe the ACT will suit your testing style better. When I got my SAT scores back I wasn’t pleased, but after being encouraged to take the ACT’s I was relieved to get a better score. So if you’re in the same boat as I was don’t stress just take the test!

For ACT testing dates and locations, see Miss Loh!