<p>i want to go to school and be in the dental hygiene, but my grades are not the greatest.
what do i need to work on?</p>
<p>A dental hygenist can get an associate’s degree from a technical school or a bachelor’s degree from a four year university. Your D may need to pursue the technical education if she can handle the course work required with her background. </p>
<p>Remember that many students need to be below the average ACT score- many of them choose “easier to get into” colleges with lower score averages and are below the radar of typical CC posters. Many also decide not to attend a 4 year college once they combine their gpa and test score data. </p>
<p>OP- it is too late for you to redo your child’s education. Somewhere along the way she probably needed testing and intervention for a subtle learning disability. Unfortunately your private school failed you and your D in giving an optimal education- you don’t always get what you pay for. See how the college remedial classes go- they may be able to get her where she should have been at the end of HS. If so, she can proceed with her plans. If she has trouble see if her college can find out the reason and advise her accordingly.</p>
<p>SummerOO my hygenist was high C/low B student in high school and went on to excel in a vocational program at a nearby CC. It is perhaps the most sensible path to that particular career. She began as a Dental Assistant but did such a wonderful job the dentist she worked paid for her to get her hygenist certification. </p>
<p>BTW, I think the OP hit the bricks months ago and isn’t likely to return to this thread.</p>
<p>I read this thread several days ago and I have thought about it ever since. First it seems so hard to imagine that your daughter would be so far behind and you wouldn’t know it. The other side of that was touched on by other posters who seemed to indicate that maybe this is just one bad test score. It would be so sad for one bad test to be the basis of your assesment of your daughter’s ability or her own assessement of her ability. So while this score may indicate a lack of aptitude or a need for remedial courses, I will share my story with you.</p>
<p>I have always been a very slow reader. Perhaps dyslexic but when I was in school I wasn’t aware of that term. I knew I was slow and developed a strategy to take reading comprehension tests. I learned to skim rather than read and became proficient enough at this that I was able to skip 8th grade (at the time this was common in NYC partially based on reading comprehension test scores). When in college I applied to an allied heath program that required a test that I don’t believe is used anymore. I had a 3.7 college GPA and so I thought it was time that I took the reading comprehension test the old fashioned way, by really reading. I scored in the 2 percentile. That is 98% of the takers scored higher than I did. I had the good sense not to turn in this result, I retested using my old strategy and scored in the 80th percentile. I went to school in my chosen field, obtained a license without any problem (this test was multiple choice) and have been working in this field for more years than I would like to admit.</p>
<p>Perhaps your daughter needs to be assessed for a learning disability, perhaps she needs remedial classes, and as you say she may not have the aptitude to become a dental hygienist, but then again she might. I would wonder if her apparent lack of enthusiasm is lack of confidence. One test score should not determine her future. If she has a learning disablility then those issues need to be addressed and she can still work to be successful. From your post it sounds like she is motivated since you said, " I need to have a realistic assessment of her potential so she doesn’t spend many years pursuing something she is not capable of attaining." Without motivation this wouldn’t be an issue. Pehaps she is trying to help herself the best way she knows how by taking a light load of remedial courses. </p>
<p>Of course I don’t know the whole story. I just know that my score could have led to the conclusion that I didn’t have the capability and I know my life would have been so much worse if it had.</p>
<p>It looks to me like you answered your own question. You do need a realistic assessment of her potential. I don’t think you will find that here nor will you find it with the results of one ACT (and several failed permit tests). I encourage you to go out a seek the information you are looking for. This may be by monitoring her success with the remedial courses or it might be with formal testing.
I wish you the best.</p>
<p>Absolutely nothing wrong with going to a community college for 2 years. She may need this to get ready for a more challenging school, particularly if you feel her high school education was lacking. </p>
<p>And my sister (who is extremely smart) didn’t get her drivers license until she was in her early 20’s, she just wasn’t ready for it yet. One of my nephews got very low ACT scores, no doubt due to low preparation—and he is brilliant. Some people just don’t test well or aren’t motivated to study for it. Don’t give up on her, praise what she does right. It just may take a little longer to get her going in the right direction!</p>
<p>BingMo,</p>
<p>I don’t know whether this is encouraging news or even more deflating, but your D’s ACT score is actually pretty close to the average for ACT-takers in Florida. The national average (mean) composite ACT score in 2009 was 21.1, and it’s held pretty steady around that level for a number of years. Among the 62% of Florida HS seniors who took the ACT, however, the average composite score in 2009 was 19.5, or 1.6 points below the national average. And the Florida median was even lower: according to ACT, Inc. your D’s 18 composite would place her at the 47th percentile among Florida ACT-takers. (A 19 would be at the 53rd percentile, so we can say the Florida median is about 18.5). These are relatively weak scores by national standards. I’ve heard for years that the schools in Florida are not very good. This seems like confirmation. Blame your D’s private school if you like, but I’m not sure the public school would have done better.</p>
<p>It’s not clear from your original post whether your D took the ACT more than once. Many students improve their scores upon appropriate prep and retaking. This may be especially true with the ACT, which according to all reports places a premium on speed. It could be your D just didn’t finish all the sections and lost a lot of points that way. (Also note that the ACT doesn’t deduct for wrong answers; a blank counts the same as a wrong answer, so if your D doesn’t have time to complete, say, the Math section, she’s better off going down and filling in bubbles at random rather than leaving them blank, as at least a few of these will likely count as correct answers).</p>
<p>Or it could be that your D is just not a good standardized test-taker. I wouldn’t assume she’s headed for academic failure in college. Many colleges say HS grades are a better indicator of college success than standardized tests. Give her a chance to prove herself.</p>
<p>In any event, her ACT scores don’t seem that far off her goals. Miami-Dade College, a community college in Miami, offers an Associate of Science program in dental hygiene. As I read the College’s admissions criteria, admission should be automatic with minimum ACT scores of 18 Reading, 17 English, and 19 Math. Your D’s Reading score is already there; her English and Math scores need to go up 1 and 3 points respectively. That seems doable with appropriate study. Admission to Miami-Dade does not guarantee admission to the dental hygiene program which is competitive, but as I read their admissions criteria, it looks like admission to that program isn’t based on ACT scores or even on college grades, but on the number of “successfully completed” (grade = C or better) courses from an approved list of general education courses. If your D keeps focused and completes a large number of those courses, she might gain entry. It will require a lot of work, but it doesn’t sound impossible.</p>
<p>The most difficult part of this journey will be acceptance to an RDH program. It is very, very competitive - not because the work is hard once you get in (like nursing, it’s not, for someone who really wants to do it), but because the number of places is limited. Since salaries are relatively high, there are many applicants for even a single place.</p>
<p>This is key…my DH is a DDS…Dental Hygienists make excellent money and are on par with RN’s as far as benefits and salary. It is VERY difficult to get accepted to hygiene school though as the schools can be very selective due to limited spaces. Your daughter will need to be very strong in the sciences and will also need to make straight A’s in college to even be considered for hygiene school. Dental Hygiene should not be looked at as a “lower alternative” such as a trade school would be looked at. This is a very difficult area to break into…Good Luck!</p>
<p>An ACT is a fantastic indicator of… how well she tested that day. No more.
Was it her best effort? Was she feeling her best physically? Did she have any idea what to expect in advance? All those and more are factors that can affect her test that day. It isn’t any absolute indication of her intelligence or a career choice based on one test.
If you are convinced student is trying her best, then I’d consider testing for physical problems, such as vision impairment, Ld’s. If that passes, I’d consider pro psychological testing. This girl is old enough to become a woman, and barely reading, no drivers license, and other factors hint she isn’t emotionally yet ready to become a self supporting adult- if of course she passes the previous testing. She is adult by the calendar, it is time she was adult in real world.</p>