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Anyone take the ACT?

  • Thread starter Clint
  • Start date
  • #21
The ACT is the standard test of the South & Midwest. The only reason I also took the SAT was that Georgia Tech didn't accept the SAT. That should have been the first clue that Atlanta only pretends to be southern. I don't think the ACT is easier and my percentile scores were about the same. The ACT did seem to have more variety and, if the SAT seemed more intimidating, maybe it was because I drove ~100 miles to take it and there were only a handful of us in the room, so each of us felt like the proctor was staring at us the whole time.
 
  • #22
Well I took it today. I didn't have enough time on the reading and science sections so I just filled in random answers. I panicked a little and probably wasted a little time and didn't pace myself. I did better than I expected in math, I think. English was good, too. We'll see what I get later I guess. I'm going to go ahead and sign up to take it again. I don't need to study anything, I just need to work on making myself faster.

So..... yeah. I don't think I did well because I didn't have enough time and guessed at like..20 total questions on Reading and Science. I can mix and match my scored from two tests on the ACT like I can with the SAT, right?
 
  • #23
Well done. Glad you feel good about it. Next time will be better. How long do you have to wait? Four to six weeks? Or was it computer based and you get them sooner?

xvart.
 
  • #24
Four to six sounds about right. Seven tops.

I don't really feel good about it as a whole because I didn't have enough time, but I feel good about math and English. The essay seemed pointless since it doesn't affect my score. I'm sure I got at least the "average" score but I was hoping for a high 20 composite.
 
  • #25
That's what I meant: you felt good about the sections you completed. Next time will be better.

xvart.
 
  • #26
I got a 26! I'm happy with that! I took the SAT yesterday and am signed up for another ACT test and another SAT test. I bet I'll get like a 29 or 30 on the next ACT test since I didn't get any sleep and panicked on the first one.

I had more than enough time to do everything on the SAT, fortunately. I hope I do OK with that.
 
  • #27
and am signed up for another ACT test and another SAT test
Yuck...why? If you're happy with the results, "one and done". I'm happy with my MCAT score, especially since everyone I know bombed it this year, but there's no way in hell I'd take that test again. If the score is good enough to get you into somewhere that 1) isn't a community college, and 2) doesn't start with "Universidad", why put yourself through the extra stress?
 
  • #28
1) because second scores are almost always better, and better scorers can get into more discriminating colleges easier if they wish to transfer later

2) better scores means higher scholarship money in many colleges, even community.

My second ACT score has saved me $2,000 a year, as opposed to if i had kept my first one.
Why would you not want to improve your chances of free money and success?
 
  • #29
I've got Texas Tomorrow Fund, so my entire college education has cost about 2k, and was paid for in 1987. Also, about 73% of scholarships when I came out of highschool were based on minority status, and seeing as I'm completely whitebread, I'm automatically excluded from over half of the available scholarships. Almost all of the rest were based on need, and since I'm not poor, I couldn't get those either. That left me about two scholarships, and seeing as I'm not gay or hardcore religious, there really wasn't anything that I wasn't immediately excluded from.

Basing success on which college you go to is pretty stupid. Some of the most successful people to ever live never even graduated college (Bill Gates, Rockefeller, etc). Where you go to college doesn't matter as much as you think (unless its community college). How you do is whats important. On the other side of the spectrum of where you go to college, you could graduate from Harvard, start a career on Wall Street, then crash months later due to a raging coke habit....we all know that's happened to more than a couple people :D
 
  • #30
No one ever said more discriminating colleges were better or made you more successful. I don’t know anything about JLAP’s options, but he does. If getting a higher score might help him now or down the road, then of course he should take it. Since these tests are an important part for some college’s decisions for acceptance and scholarship money, I don’t think he should limit any options. It might open ones he never even had considered before.

In one month, you won’t care about a past test’s stress on you. You will only remember the results, ultimately. If it has no payoff, then fine, but a second test does have a low cost/ high benefit thing for many of us and I wanted to make that clear.
 
  • #31
I'm not going through extra stress since I already have a score I'm happy with but if I get a few extra points it's worth taking it again. Right now i'm in the top 14% according to my score, and if i can say "I'm in the top 10%" that's more impressive on an application. What's Universidad?

I don't have any scholarships, my parents are paying for my college, and I'm not going to go to a community college (no offense to anyone that does.) I actually looked into gay scholarships, but I don't do anything active in the GLBT community so I didn't qualify. I'm a lazy homo I guess lmao. My parents are trying to convince me to go to a 2 year college before I transfer to a 4 year college so it'll "ease" me into college life (I guess they think I'm sheltered?) so I dunno about that.... I want to go to Berry, UGA, or GA. Tech. (not a technical school like I thought lmao) so... i dunno. Confusing time in my life. I don't even know if I want to be a Dr. or not anymore since my math skills suck. Maybe being a therapist will be lucrative, or maybe my science skills will make up for it.

I want to pull out my hair lmao. Real life must be hard :( Maybe I am sheltered? Ahhh!
 
  • #32
Universidad is the Spanish word for university. Its a medical school joke since all the people that can't cut it in ANY school in the US end up going to Universidad del Caribe, or Unviersidad de Guadilajara, etc.

My math skills suck...A LOT...but thankfully I made it through Calculus 1 somehow, and I found some med schools that don't require anything more than that. Med school is far away for you though so don't base anything on what the requirements are now. I did that when I was a sophomore and a year and a half later they changed all the requirements and no one notified me :(
 
  • #33
I'm sure I can pass calc, but I don't think I'll ever be good at it. Your words are reassuring and in about 5 years expect a PM from me asking for some schools that don't require too much math!
 
  • #34
Only people who can't get into a 4-year school or who need to save the money should start at a community college. Entering a 4-year school a year or two after everyone else can mean being on the outside looking in, since lots of people established their close friendships the first months of their freshman year. It's no big deal if you're outgoing, but it can be tough for the more introverted.

As for GA Tech, I still wonder now and then whether going there was the biggest mistake of my life. The location offers easy access to lots of things that can appeal to an 18-year old, which explains why I was so close to flunking out when I left there before finishing 2 years. I just wasn't ready for the responsibility of being college and being in such a competitive environment made it much worse. But you're right about it being more than a technical school. I applied there planning to become a nuclear engineer driving submarines in the navy and left there with huge interests in geology and anthropology. The first from a class I took and the second from books I read and people I met away from school. That's all you can ask from a college - to show you what's out there in the world, whether it's from inside or outside of class.
 
  • #35
If I knew then what I know now....

There are LOTS of things I wish I had studied and maybe gone into for a career. But...too late now. By the time you've lived a bunch of life and found out what your real passions are, its too late to do it.

I had absolutely NO guidance in high or college as far as career. In high school it was "Here the books on various colleges." And that was IT. In college, it was being released into a Ballroom (yep, real ballroom) to run around and get whatever classes met your liberal arts requirements. It was a nightmare. No guidance whatsoever.

Shoot...I wouldn't even mind being a hot walker at a race track. :)
 
  • #36
Never say never. Yes, if you want to be a ballerina or an astronaut, time has passed you by. But what is it that you want to do that you can't start now? I began working on a new degree this year at 46 with the intentiontion of starting a new career in the next ten years. Don't say you can't, PAK, unless you absolutely, positively can't.
 
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