PE required every year here in PA private school. They can get out of it if they’re in a sport that term; the PE class becomes a free period.
Are any of your high schools offering a free ACT administered at school? We got an email from our high school saying that the ACT would be administered for free to all juniors on Feb. 27. The first email said it was the ACT Aspire, but then a “Correction” email came out saying that it was NOT the ACT Aspire but rather a regular ACT “that can be used for college admissions purposes.” D19 has audio accommodations from the College Board but I had never bothered to apply for accommodations for the ACT, thinking we would just stick to the SAT. But this announcement prompted me to request audio accommodations for her from the ACT and I’m happy to say they were granted promptly.
We haven’t gotten the notice of it yet, but the school district here uses the ACT to fulfill the state’s requirement that a nationally-normed exam be taken by all students before they graduate, so I’m expecting an email with the date it’ll be administered soon.
At our high school, this (free ACT) is something new that’s never been done before. And I’m unclear on whether it’s being done district-wide or just at our high school. A couple of years ago the district started offering a free PSAT to all sophomores. I think the SAT is more popular here than the ACT, so maybe this is a way for the ACT to increase its market share.
That’s great that the ACT people were able to accommodate you so quickly, @Corinthian. I suspect that is not always the case.
Our schools don’t do a free ACT or free SAT. It seems like a very nice convenience when it’s optional. (I imagine that the mandatory tests can be annoying for kids who chose to do their testing earlier in the year and already received scores they’re happy with).
@eh1234 I agree that it would be annoying to spend a school day testing if you’d already taken the test and were happy with the score. Although at our high school I think that only kids in the top 10% or so have already taken an ACT by this point.
With the SAT, audio accommodations came with automatic double time because the audio pertains to everything (instructions, etc) and there is no way to speed it up like you can with audio books. The ACT audio accommodations actually come with triple time! When she took the SAT it was spread over two days: Sat/Sun. I assume the ACT will take at least 2 and maybe 3 days, which means she will miss lots of class (during her extended time beyond what the rest of the test takers have) and will have to do make up work. I’m not complaining. I just hope this is worth it for her.
Illinois students are required to take the SAT at at free sitting in March. The state will not graduate kids without that test since they use it for data. Don’t get me started. We cannot use S19’s Aug score to fulfill this graduation requirement. Parents hate this especially if a student is applying to colleges that require all test scores. We don’t have schools like that on his list but it’s still a pain to take it again. He’s trying to look at it as a chance to raise his 740 EW score a bit but I honestly don’t think he’s going to restudy. And, again, just like our PSAT, it will be given in the field house with all 750 kids and no way to drink or eat or take a bathroom break unless you are one of the first kids in line at the bathroom in time. Ugh.
Do your kids that take these school sponsored ACT/SAT tests get to take them on special day, such as during a school day instead of the weekend? It’s such a pain for us to find free weekends to take the tests as son19 usually has sport commitments. Fo example the last SAT test he finished and then had to hustle over to a track meet for the rest of the day. So it was a grueling day, wake up, take a stressful test, munch down some food and then try to go compete. Tiring! It would be nice to take it on a Friday instead of sitting in class all day.
Our school does not offer any free sat/act tests. No free PSAT either, and I’m not sure they even a require a PSAT, I think not. They are pretty much quiet on the whole testing subject and expect parents to just figure it out on their own. So some of the parents with limited knowledge don’t realize that their kid can take both tests,and take them multiple times. I don’t know why they don’t do a better job of explaining this stuff to parents right up front. You can find out by asking questions or by talking with other parents, but it should be more transparent.
@RightCoaster School sponsored SAT is during a school day. That’s also why all of the kids are stuck in the field house because school is in session for the other kids. If a junior is out that day for any reason, they have two make up dates that are also during school so those kids would miss their classes that day. I’ve considered keeping S19 home of the field house day and just having him take it as a make up since that test will be given in a small classroom. He’s against that idea since he does not want to miss a full day of class. We haven’t made a decision what to do yet.
Our school gives a free SAT on a school day. I ma not sure where the kids take it as the rest of the kids have a normal day. I’m also not sure if it is mandatory if you have already taken it. D will be annoyed if it is because she has taken one of each and did much better on the ACT so we thought we were done with the SAT. Last year it was given March 1st, of course I don’t know when it is this year because the website hasn’t been updated forever!
@homerdog. your son is fine with his score already right? if so, maybe just take it, see how he does. If he stinks it up then cancel the score, I think you can do that with SAT right? If he gets a good score, it’s a bonus!
Our free ACT is on Feb. 27, which is a Tuesday. I’m not sure where they’re going to do it. But since D19 is taking it with accommodations, she’ll probably take it in the office conference room with any other kids getting accommodations. She will probably be taking a different version of the test, since she has to take an audio version.
I encouraged my kid to take his tests early (one of each) because: (1) he wasn’t going to prep anyway; and (2) his mom hoped having scores would help focus the college search (HA! Nope.) He might take another SAT if offered for free during school, but since there isn’t one, he’s done testing.
@homerdog That field house situation is so grim. It sounds like they are just too lazy to figure out an alternative.
@RightCoaster Yes. He felt one and done. 740EW/800 Math. We can’t cancel any upcoming score, but we won’t have to send it if we don’t want to. I’ve already been round and round about this with the head of the guidance office. He’s not the only kid in this situation. The kids who are really upset are the ACT kids who are done testing. They do not want to spend a day taking an SAT.
S19 is just seeing it as a chance to increase EW like you said. He’s been doing well on practice AP Lang tests and he thinks the SAT reading is very similar. All of his schools superscore so he can send both scores if EW goes up. He just doesn’t want to do much worse on the math, though, if he sends both scores somewhere. We know schools say they only look at the highest score of each section but he’s still concerned about sending a second test where his math is much far off of the 800. The chance of getting zero wrong on a second math test is pretty slim especially since he was super ready for the Aug test and hasn’t re-looked at any SAT stuff since then.
Why can’t you cancel the score? It’s his score, and it has nothing to do with the high school. I think you get a test # and you have a certain number of days to cancel. The school wouldn’t even need to know. I don’t think they could legally keep you. from canceling.
I wouldn’t even worry about it. Even if stinks on the test he just doesn’t send that score in. There are only a handful of schools that require “all tests” be submitted. I’d have him stop studying and move on to other things, he’s got a great score.
@RightCoaster He won’t study. Totally agree. Can’t cancel score because the state grabs the scores off of college board website at the end of senior year. And the school has to put the score on his transcript in order for the state to let him graduate. This was a huge sticking point for parents as the score used to go on the transcripts at the end of junior year so schools would see them even if the kids didn’t send official report from college board. That was changed last year since a bunch of parents went to Springfield and lobbied for it to change.
My kids’ school does free PSATs which are administered during the school day in 10th grade and again in the fall of junior year. We are on our own for the SATs.
Using S19’s fall PSAT as a baseline (increased over 100 points from 10th grade), we both feel that it would be best for him to finish this year of math and take the SAT in the beginning of June. His verbal is decent. The math could stand to come up just a bit. Hoping that will happen.
The school is switching math sequencing beginning this year because of kids like my S not learning a majority of math stuff covered in the SAT until the end of junior year. My S19 and other juniors in the regular college prep math track are currently taking Alg II with freshmen.
I’ll definitely need some support as we await the June SAT scores. And I will fully support those waiting on the earlier scores. 
@InfiniteWaves Yeah. Kids really need all of algebra 2/trig to do well on the SAT math. At our school, most kids take Geometry freshman year and Alg 2/trig sophomore year. A handful aren’t ready for that and start with Algebra I freshman year and don’t get to Alg 2/trig until junior year. And maybe 20% of kids take Alg 2/trig freshman year, Pre Calc soph year, and AB or BC Calc junior year.
^^ That process seems absurd. Maybe I like our “keep you clueless” process better, lol.
@RightCoaster Illinois is way into tracking how kids are doing. There’s always been mandatory standardized tests, but the state signed a contract with College Board two years ago and now use their tests for that data. We used to use something called at ISAT. The schools see this as a bonus because kids get to take PSAT 8/9, PSAT, and SAT for free and the school and the state get to see if kids are improving. Parents are mostly ok with that until it comes to the SAT being official on the CB site and having the score show up on transcripts.