As a full-time, professional tutor, I periodically take the exams that I teach. I do this for a variety of reasons. For one, I am always on the hunt for a perfect score and I have not yet achieved that on the ACT. It’s also nice for me to be able to see some recent questions so that I can stay fresh on exactly what is most current with the tests (although I also get to see most of the questions when I go over the released tests with my students). But perhaps most importantly it is really useful for me to put myself in the situation of my students periodically so that I remember exactly what the experience feels like – doing so helps me provide really good advice about the test day experience, managing stress, dealing with the time constraints of the test, etc.

So my most recent test taking experience was the June ACT and I thought I would post some observations, both about the test itself and my experience taking it (for those of you who don’t know, yes adults are allowed to take the SAT and ACT!!!)…

First of all, I have taken the SAT and ACT 5 times as an adult now and I have yet to have a student say a word to me during the experience. This time there was a girl who was really close to talking to me. During one of the brakes she kept looking at me and at one point it seemed that she was on the verge of saying something to me, but then she chickened out! Oh well.

Overall it is a pretty bizarre experience being the only adult taking the test but I have sort of gotten used to it. But I always forget how stressful the experience is, even for me, a person who really has nothing riding on the results of the test (except personal pride). And since the ACT is so much tighter on time, there is really not even a moment to pause and think except during the break and even that goes by quickly (I wolfed down a granola bar and apple and then went to the bathroom and only barely had time to do that).

In terms of the ACT itself, I cannot yet discuss individual questions but there are some high level observations that I can make….

First of all, there were some strange and very difficult questions scattered into some of the sections. The Math section had what seemed to me to be the hardest Math question that I have ever seen on the SAT or ACT. In fact, it would almost be too hard for the GMAT or GRE (I even tried a modified version of the question with one of my star GMAT students and he was pretty stumped). I honestly don’t know what the ACT writers were thinking including a question like that. I might have misinterpreted it but I am pretty sure that I did not. This is one reason that I prefer the SAT to the ACT – ignoring the egregious error in timing that just occurred on the June SAT, the SAT is just a better made test with questions that seem to be more properly vetted, etc. Every once in a while I see an ACT question that just seems to fundamentally flawed – this almost never happens on the SAT. Anyway this particular Math question was just off the charts and honestly almost derailed my whole Math section (I had to skip the question and come back to it at the end, but this caused me to rush and I barely finished on time).

There were also a couple of strange questions on the English section that made that section pretty difficult and that also derailed my timing efforts on the section. Again I finished, but just barely.

Another surprise was that the Science section had 6 instead of 7 passages. Apparently this is a switch that was made on the February test and appears to be a trend that will continue, but I was unaware of it so that was an additional surprise. In the end this is a good change since it makes time management on the Science section a little more reasonable, but knowing about it in advance would definitely have allowed me to be better prepared about how much time I would spend on each passage (essentially now 6 minutes per passage instead of 5 minutes per passage).

All-in-all I thought the test was pretty hard. The Reading section was probably the exception to this, but because of the somewhat questionable and very difficult questions on the English and Math sections, the test definitely felt like it was on the slightly more difficult side. Scores will begin to be released on Tuesday the 23rd, so I will just have to wait until then to know how it all turned out!

Proper time management is a key skill on the SAT and ACT alike. Both tests actively assess a person’s ability to properly manage his or her time since these skills are indeed important in college and in life more generally. There are many time management techniques that I could discuss, but for this post I just want to hone in on one specifically because it is one that I find myself repeating to almost every person I tutor: survey each section before you start so that you have an overview of what you are getting yourself into.

This is probably most important on the Math sections and here is why: One of the Math sections will contain Grid-Ins and you need to know when you are on that section since the questions will not go exactly in order of difficulty. Many people do worse on the Grid-In section and most people tend to attribute that to the fact that there are no answer choices on those questions – that is certainly a factor. But another factor is that people tend to run out of time on the Grid-Ins because they don’t realize that the multiple choice questions leading up to the Grid-Ins are difficult and they consequently waste time on those questions. This is entirely preventable!

First of all, you need to know that you are on the Grid-In section. This should be easy enough because that section is the only one that has 18 questions, which is information that is given at the top of the first page of the section. But most people forget to look at that, which is why I just recommend that on EVERY section (not just the Math ones) you scan ahead and just get an overview of what is on that section). Once you know you are on the Grid-In section you need to remember that questions 6, 7, and 8 will tend to be more difficult questions. The first Grid-Ins (9, 10, 11) will be comparatively very easy. But what happens for most people is that they don’t realize that they are on the Grid-In section and they therefore don’t understand why they are struggling with questions 7 or 8. Had they known, they should have considered skipping those questions temporarily to get to the much easier questions that immediately follow.

This idea of previewing the section is important on the CR sections as well. First of all, knowing that you have a passage ahead that is difficult for you (say, if you struggle with the Fiction passages or the Science ones) will allow you to adjust your time management strategy to deal with that fact. Secondly, some sections are easier to finish on time and others more difficult. When you have 2 short passages and then 1 long passage that is usually a lot easier than having 2 short passages and then 2 medium to long passages since in the latter case you have a whole extra passage to read. So just knowing how many passages are ahead allows you to pace yourself accordingly.

Therefore, it is good to get in the habit of previewing each section before you start answering any questions. Doing so will allow you to anticipate what is ahead and plan your time management strategies accordingly.

I will be giving a presentation in a couple of weeks about the new SAT and the difficult decision that current 10th graders need to make about whether to start early and study for the current version of the test or wait until the rollout of the new SAT in March of 2016.

The information is below:

SAT Presentation
The SAT is changing and the timing of the change presents current 10th graders with a choice: they either need to start their SAT prep early (ideally this summer) and take the current version of the test or wait until the new version of the test debuts in March of next year. But students who wait too long to start thinking about these things will either begin too late to take the current version of the SAT or will begin in time to take the current version of the test once but then not have time to retake it and will then face the undesirable consequence of having to study for a completely different format of the test.

The talk is aimed at current 10th graders and their parents but there will be useful information for 9th and 11th graders and their parents as well.  My presentation will discuss these issues and will specifically cover the following:

• The Timeline of the SAT Rollout and Planning the Right Study Schedule
• Differences Between the Current SAT and the New SAT
• The SAT vs. the ACT: How to Choose Which Test
• Choosing the Right Test Prep Option
• Advice on Self-Study Options (Including the Best Books & Online Resources Available)

When: Wednesday April 29th at 730pm
Where: The Reconstructionist Synagogue of the North Shore (1001 Plandome Road in Plandome)
How Much: Free!!!