I may be going to college next year.
- Thread starter Bulerias
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I got a 32 without reading a prep book or taking a prep course or anything. You either know it or don't... a prep book won't change your score more than a point or two probably... at most.
That's not true. Standardized testing is not just "you know it or you don't" for some people. Like for me, someone who takes tests on the slower side (because I'm more careful, etc.), couldn't completely finish any of the sections on the SAT (except for one). And there are tons of other things ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#Criticism ) Colleges are realizing that the tests are being looked at too much and some are offering alternatives.DarthGohan1 said:
Pichubro
Senior Member
If this has not been said: Don't trust tests. Pressure, environment, etc. changes everything unless if your mind and body are prepared. You could know everything and still bomb tests.
Am I not right?
Am I not right?
I agree that test results can be misleading. There's this girl in my grade who supposedly had a hangover (and I know she's a drinker) the morning of the ACT, and she got a 26 or 27, I think... and she's smart, but not super smart or anything...
Yeh. I'll tell you another thing about taking the SAT: Not only is there little time, there's hardly any breaks. You're going for hours without breathing...Pichubro said:
Really, you're rushing, you're sweating, you're trying to think, but the instructor who's being paid overtime to pretend he/she is doing something productive told you there was 5 minutes left and you still have a lot of questions to do. You've got way too much stress... times up, start the next section. Over and over for hours. After a while you get more and more tired and your body starts to slow/shut down. Your hand is cramped and smudged from your pencil... it's way too stuffy in the room... You can't think about anything really...
(edit: Of course, for the people who can finish in the given time... they can take a nice break, freshen up, clear their mind... yah, is this biased or what? So here I am, doing the best I do... and no, I'm not dumb... I won't brag about my grades though... but yah... I couldn't finish, and now colleges will thing I didn't know what I was doing. The College Board doesn't know what their doing. They can't even make up their minds about what's to be tested. And how is it standardized if there are two different tests in the country?)
Oh by the way, another thing that's not entirely the College Board's fault (SAT creator)... I saw somebody cheat by going back to another section. Should I have told someone? I don't know. They probably wouldn't believe me or care anyway. Oh and another thing... the instructor stopped a section before time was even up. Then after a while she realized and was like "my bad"... but she didn't give us any extra time. She also had no idea what was going on... students using calculators when they weren't suppose to, etc... These people don't know how to take their job seriously. But hey, what do they care? They're being paid to sit there and make sure each student hands in a test at the end.
Tennis=Life
Senior Member
When I did the practice (practice as in the real test however it doesn't count) SAT and ACT I remember always finishing before the deadline (I think...I did SAT in 7th grade ACT in 8th). But it's not like I did great or anything 
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Well on the SAT, you have 25 minutes to write an essay and they expected it to be well written... And apparently if you fill it with droning nonsense, you'll get a better score.Bulerias said:I am also sort of a slow test taker. I DETEST time limits...stormcommander said:
@ Pichu - Oh yeah, I know that. Luckily I rarely get nervous.
Well, I'll actually be taking the ACT, where the written test is optional. But I'll do it if I still have enough time to...stormcommander said:Well on the SAT, you have 25 minutes to write an essay and they expected it to be well written... And apparently if you fill it with droning nonsense, you'll get a better score.Bulerias said:I am also sort of a slow test taker. I DETEST time limits...stormcommander said:
@ Pichu - Oh yeah, I know that. Luckily I rarely get nervous.
But man, the SAT sounds horrible . . .
Ugg I am fine with my 29 overall. Honestly I di great 30 and 32 in math and science and then I think it was 25 and 27 in English and reading... I just completely zoned out a couple times staring at a single question for like 5 minutes a couple times it was awful. I should not have tried the energy drink thing, I crashed before the end of it... But that was the second try after a 27 the first time so can't complain. All you people in the 30s... *shakes fist*
I have never really been to serious about that stuff though, too much stress if I take it too serious... Much rather do worse and remain calm and collected through it
I have never really been to serious about that stuff though, too much stress if I take it too serious... Much rather do worse and remain calm and collected through it
Woah, when some of you guys are like "I'm fine with 29", I realize that the University Of Minnesota's standards really... aren't that high. They say I can easily be accepted into the university with an ACT score of 26... is that a low score?Sporge27 said:Ugg I am fine with my 29 overall. Honestly I di great 30 and 32 in math and science and then I think it was 25 and 27 in English and reading... I just completely zoned out a couple times staring at a single question for like 5 minutes a couple times it was awful. I should not have tried the energy drink thing, I crashed before the end of it... But that was the second try after a 27 the first time so can't complain. All you people in the 30s... *shakes fist*
I have never really been to serious about that stuff though, too much stress if I take it too serious... Much rather do worse and remain calm and collected through it
NoBulerias said:Woah, when some of you guys are like "I'm fine with 29", I realize that the University Of Minnesota's standards really... aren't that high. They say I can easily be accepted into the university with an ACT score of 26... is that a low score?Sporge27 said:Ugg I am fine with my 29 overall. Honestly I di great 30 and 32 in math and science and then I think it was 25 and 27 in English and reading... I just completely zoned out a couple times staring at a single question for like 5 minutes a couple times it was awful. I should not have tried the energy drink thing, I crashed before the end of it... But that was the second try after a 27 the first time so can't complain. All you people in the 30s... *shakes fist*
I have never really been to serious about that stuff though, too much stress if I take it too serious... Much rather do worse and remain calm and collected through it
Well, what's the "average" ACT score?stormcommander said:NoBulerias said:Woah, when some of you guys are like "I'm fine with 29", I realize that the University Of Minnesota's standards really... aren't that high. They say I can easily be accepted into the university with an ACT score of 26... is that a low score?Sporge27 said:Ugg I am fine with my 29 overall. Honestly I di great 30 and 32 in math and science and then I think it was 25 and 27 in English and reading... I just completely zoned out a couple times staring at a single question for like 5 minutes a couple times it was awful. I should not have tried the energy drink thing, I crashed before the end of it... But that was the second try after a 27 the first time so can't complain. All you people in the 30s... *shakes fist*
I have never really been to serious about that stuff though, too much stress if I take it too serious... Much rather do worse and remain calm and collected through it
Too be honest I would say a 22 means you aren't doing bad but not great....
That might be a little high though.
Edit: Looking it up quickly it seems the national average is around 21, so yeah I wasn't far off in the guess I made.
That might be a little high though.
Edit: Looking it up quickly it seems the national average is around 21, so yeah I wasn't far off in the guess I made.
So, okay, let's assume that the national average is 21... is it really that difficult to bump it up an extra 5 points? I dunno, I said I rarely got nervous about tests, but I'm sort of, I dunno... Don't mean to brag or anything, but I've always been strong in math and writing, so I'm mostly worried about the science part of it. What's the science like? I can do well in physics and biology, but "applied science" and chemistry have never been my strong suits.Sporge27 said:
Well consider that a perfect score is a 36 and 21 being the average is like a C that is also average. So honestly you say you get straight A's so there shouldn't be much of a problem. As for the science part most o the time they give either a discussion or an experiment and you have to draw the conclusions from the data or debate shown.
I think for the Debate thing I had one on the big bang or a steady state model of the universe where both sides provide reasons to believe one way, and the key here is that both are still theoretical and of they will have a question like "If a scientist is somehow able to observe "something", then who's theory does it support?"
For experiment ones a lot of it is even just understanding how to read the data. Such as they will ask about how much rainfall was there on day x and there is a graph that should make it obvious. Now they could have some tricks in there that isn't quite that simple, perhaps you need to read a graph backwards, or they have a table that the data needs interpretation of or whatever, if you have a prep book there should be examples I would think....
I think for the Debate thing I had one on the big bang or a steady state model of the universe where both sides provide reasons to believe one way, and the key here is that both are still theoretical and of they will have a question like "If a scientist is somehow able to observe "something", then who's theory does it support?"
For experiment ones a lot of it is even just understanding how to read the data. Such as they will ask about how much rainfall was there on day x and there is a graph that should make it obvious. Now they could have some tricks in there that isn't quite that simple, perhaps you need to read a graph backwards, or they have a table that the data needs interpretation of or whatever, if you have a prep book there should be examples I would think....
I got a 28 when I took it in 8th grade, and 32 last spring... so I guess bumping it up 5 points is tough, since 3 years of school everyday only bumped it up 4 points for me.
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