ACT Test Prep: Didn't get the ACT score you wanted? What might have gone wrong and what you can do to prepare for the next one
Sometimes standardized exams don’t go the way we hope. Sometimes a lower score is simply related to lack or preparation or need for increased preparation in certain areas. Other times, the results may be somewhat out of your hands. In order to reach your ACT score goal next time, you have to first figure out what went wrong on your last ACT test.
Standardized exams are just naturally high-stress exams. This makes sense because these test scores, like ACT scores for example, can have a lot of importance riding on them.
Colleges and universities use ACT scores to compare prospective students throughout the world. If your ACT scores don’t measure up to other applicants, the likelihood of your being accepted to a given school goes down.
Of course, ACT scores are NOT the only factor that colleges and universities look at when going through the admissions process. There are many important aspects that make up a college application. Some other pieces include your cumulative GPA throughout all of high school, the types of classes you’ve taken, letters of recommendation from teachers and mentors, and your college application essays and personal statements. All of these pieces, in addition to your ACT or SAT scores, will be taken into account when admissions teams consider who will make the cut for their incoming freshman class.
A wonderful thing about the ACT and the SAT is that there is no rule that says students can only take these tests once. Students are allowed to try and try again when it comes to these tests. This allows for learning from mistakes, better preparation, and progress with test scores.
Students are encouraged to determine what their ACT goal score is prior to doing any real ACT test prep. There are a couple of factors to consider when identifying an ACT goal score:
the average ACT score range of students at the colleges and universities that you plan to apply to, and
how the rest of your college application will hold up (a.k.a. does the rest of your application look impressive? If so, you might be able to get away with a lower ACT score.)
Once you’ve identified what your goal ACT score is, come up with an ACT test prep plan based on your goal score. Real ACT test prep takes time and effort, so make sure to put in the necessary amount of practice to reach your goal score.
There are a lot of factors that could keep you from reaching your goal ACT score — but don’t worry: you can take the test more than once, remember? That’s why it’s important to plan ahead and take the ACT early, so that you make sure you have plenty of time to reach your goal before it comes time to submit your college apps.
Sometimes things go wrong that we can learn from and prevent from happening again in the future. Other times, the circumstances can be out of our hands. Here, we’re taking a look at some circumstances our students have run into that have kept them from reaching their goal ACT scores and how these issues may be avoided for future tests.
What might have gone wrong to keep you from reaching your ACT score?
Check out some issues that we sometimes see with some of our students
and some potential ways to avoid these problems in the future…
Lack of preparation
This is by far the most common cause of a missed ACT score goal. All students are different, so the amount of preparation you need depends on your ability to understand and retain information, as well as the total progress you’re trying to make — a.k.a. how many points increase you are trying to see from your last ACT test.
While many high schoolers can get away with not studying for regular school exams or cramming last minute, the ACT is a completely different type of monster. The ACT has been around for a long time, and they know how to craft an exam that isn’t easy to accidentally do well on. There really aren’t ACT cheats and loopholes, no matter what you’ve been told.
Real progress on the ACT takes a lot of effort and a significant time commitment. There is no such thing as “cramming” for the ACT. We recommend that students spend somewhere between 4-8 weeks practicing and studying for the ACT leading up to test day.
The Key Takeaway: plan to spend a significant amount of time preparing for your ACT test and put in the right amount of effort needed to reach your goal.
Nerves
We’ve already touched on the fact that the ACT is a pretty high-stress exam. The idea is stressful — your ACT test score could play a significant role in your college acceptance goal. The environment is stressful — you’re packed into a room with lots of other students, many of whom you probably do not know, and you’re all hyper-focused, testing away. Being nervous is totally normal. That being said, some students are naturally more anxious test-takers than others. For those students, the ACT can be incredibly nerve-racking, which can make it extra difficult to focus and do your best on the actual test itself.
The good news is that, while nerves may not be able to eliminated completely, they can be lessened. The ACT has recently done research into what affects test anxiety, and their findings make quite a bit of sense. Their data shows that the more time students spend preparing for the ACT, the less anxious they will be on test day. Why does this make sense? Because the more familiar students become with the ACT during practice — the overall format, the time constraints, the types of questions asked, and so on — the more confident they will be about knowing what to expect on test day. There will be absolutely no surprises for the students that are appropriately prepared — the ACT stories and studies and topics change, but the bigger picture of the test has not changed in a very long time.
Another way to lessen nerves is to think ahead. Gather all of the stuff you’ll need to bring on test day a few days in advance. You’ll need to make sure you have your ACT registration ticket, a photo ID, a calculator with new batteries, a watch (if you prefer), pencils, and a snack for break time. Knowing this in advance, get all of these pieces organized early so that you don’t have to think about these logistics on test day morning.
The Key Takeaway: to calm nerves, spend more time preparing leading up to test day and gather all your testing materials a few days in advance to avoid a last-minute scramble.
Fatigue
This one makes some pretty common sense. If you aren’t well-rested when you walk into the test center, you likely won’t perform to your full potential. Oftentimes, solving this problem is as easy as getting a good night’s sleep the night before the ACT. However, some students are exhausted from several days of lost sleep. In this case, one 8-hour night might not cut it. Students should try to get enough sleep the whole week leading up to the ACT.
And yet, even if you want to get enough sleep so that you’re ready to test to your best, sometimes things get in the way. For many schools, the September ACT falls the morning after their homecoming football game each year. Homecoming is a huge tradition that can be a lot of fun for high schoolers. So many students are faced with the decision: skip homecoming festivities to get more sleep for the ACT, or go home and go to bed. We definitely understand the importance of students being members of their high school community and events, and we highly encourage this! This goes back to the importance of planning ahead and starting early — hopefully the September ACT test that falls the day after homecoming isn’t your last chance to hit your goal score, which is a 5-point jump from your last test score…
The Key Takeaway: Plan ahead, and try to get enough sleep during the week leading up to test day.
Illness
This one really is out of your control. If you fall ill leading up to the ACT, it’s going to be an extra struggle to sit through the test. All you can really do is wash your hands, make sure to drink enough water, get enough sleep, and cross your fingers that none of the kids you’re constantly around at school pass around nasty germs.
Otherwise, the best thing you can do in regards to the ACT is plan ahead. This is just one of many reasons to start thinking about the ACT early. Imagine it’s December of your senior year and this is your very last chance to hit your goal score before your college apps are due, and all of a sudden you have a nasty head cold. What do you do? It’s definitely a less dramatic situation if it’s September of your junior year and you have a full year to make up for one lost ACT test attempt. Think ahead and start test prep early.
The Key Takeaway: You can’t always avoiding getting sick, so make sure to plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to take the test again later just in case.
Environmental Factors
We’ve heard some crazy stories about testing centers. From the test center that had no air conditioning for a humid July test, to the several testing classrooms we’ve heard didn’t have clocks (pretty sure this is against the rules…), sometimes things happen that are out of your control. Testing in a 100 degree classroom that lacks windows would be a heck of a lot harder than testing in a center that’s at a comfortable temperature. Similarly, students expect to be able to use a clock in the classroom of the testing center. Without a clock, the only indicator that students have to use to pace themselves is the administrator’s announcement when 5 minutes remain in each section. This is less than ideal. One potentially way to avoid this issue would be to bring a watch to the center on test day, even if it’s just as a backup in case the classroom, for some reason, is lacking a clock. Otherwise, this is another reason that planning ahead is so important. You don’t always know what you’re walking into on test day.
The Key Takeaway: There could be some factors that are out of your control. This is another reason it’s important to plan ahead and give yourself plenty of time to take the test again later if need be.
Lack of Motivation
Sometimes students want to increase their ACT scores, but, at the same time, they don’t really want to put in the effort to make that happen. Other times, parents are very motivated to help their student increase their ACT scores, but the student doesn’t care as much as the parents. Both of these can be tough problems to solve.
A key reason that parents can be motivated to help their student achieve a higher ACT score could be related to merit-based scholarship qualifications. Some schools offer scholarships based on a threshold of ACT score and GPA. That means, maybe a student can save an extra $1,000 per year if they just raise their ACT composite score by 2 points. Parents find that very incentivizing — but students don’t always get motivated by that.
We encourage parents to have conversations with their students about the importance of their ACT scores if motivation turns out to be a problem. We always try to educate our students on the affects that a strong ACT score can have, and we always try to help students find and understand how their test scores may alter the amount of financial aid and merit-based scholarships they receive, but we’ve found that this is an important conversation to be had at home.
The Key Takeaway: Parents should talk to their students and understand their level of motivation (or lack thereof) leading up to ACT test day.
Studying the Wrong Materials
There are a lot of ACT test prep books and courses out there. While many are quality materials that can help you with your ACT prep, take precautions when deciding which materials to use. Beware of products that may be too far removed from the actual ACT to provide practice questions that closely reflect the content you’ll be examined on during the ACT.
A really great ACT test prep resource is the test prep book that the ACT puts out every year. This is a perfect resource because it’s actually written and created by the actual makers of the ACT exam. That means it will include all areas that you should spend time studying and working on leading up to test day. While other companies are familiar with what the ACT test students on and what the questions look like, their practice questions can’t possibly reflect the actual ACT exam as accurately as the practice questions the ACT writes themselves.
The Key Takeaway: Use real ACT materials during your ACT test prep whenever possible, as these will most closely reflect what you can expect to see on test day.
Using Strategies That Work Well for Others (but that might not actually work well for you)
Most of us know somebody who has said that the foolproof strategy for the ACT reading section is to not even read the stories. While this may work for some students, this does NOT work well for most students. Don’t believe the tips and tricks that get spread around about the ACT — every student is SUPER different, and what works well for your best friend probably is not going to work as well for you. The best plan is to study and practice the content that shows up on the ACT, time yourself to see if you’re able to work within the time constraints, and then identify ACT testing strategies that will work well with your strengths, weaknesses, and your testing pace.
So, what can you do to prevent running into similar issues in the future?
Some of the answers are easy: spend more time preparing for the ACT, make sure to get enough sleep. Other factors can be out of your control, so it becomes important to plan ahead and make sure you’re not cutting it down to the wire with your ACT timeline and your college application deadlines. Remember that, so long as you have time to try again, no ACT score is very detrimental. If you only take away one thing from this blog, make it be this: plan ahead and start prepping for the ACT early — end of sophomore year or start of junior year.
Good luck, and happy prepping!
INTERESTED IN TUTORING?
Working one-on-one with a test prep & college counseling expert can help you maximize your score on test day and get accepted to your dream school. Whatever your college prep goals, our team can help!
I want to sign up! - Set up online lessons using the link to our scheduling system.
I want more information! - Fill out the information in the link, and someone will reach out soon.