Well I just took my ACT today, I was feeling confident on everything- except for every subject area, I kept running out of time. I was shocked because I didn’t think I was taking any longer than it was needed for the problems asked. Needless to say- I felt pretty crappy about my performance and got upset that any college admissions could actually consider something so useless as an indicator for college success, as if the ACT/SAT measured the most important traits in a student. I’ll go on record as saying, that ACT/SAT only measures a very certain and specific type of intelligence which is a fraction of a percent of the broad range of valuable personalities and intelligences that students may bring to the college frontier. Anyways- I digress because I am not here (not today anyways) to change the system but to beat it and I was just so surprised at my poor performance on the ACT. I came here partially to vent, an partially to get real advice on how to improve myself in this area. I have the SAT coming up in about 3 weeks, so today was a very sobering reality check.
Yup. Sounds like a “rant” rather than a “ran” out of time.
it sounds like you might be solving questions at a slow pace (perhaps b/c you want to really make sure they’re correct). sometimes you just need to trust yourself on some questions and just move on to the next quickly. you’ve really got no time to waste on the ACT (as you may have noticed). stay focused. don’t even give yourself the time to think “UGGHH I’M RUNNING OUT OF TIME”
good luck!
Just because you think you didn’t do well on it doesn’t make it useless. That’s just silly. “Well, College Confidential user matros91 doesn’t like the ACT…guess we’ll never use it again!”
ACT is all about speed and accuracy. You may do better on SAT which is less time intensive. ACT is not for perfectionists. If you have the study time under your belt, and are more of a methodical worker, you may be ready for SAT.
It is, as you say, just one measure of intelligence. Actually, I don’t think it measures intelligence. It measures how much you have learned and can show in a short period under pressure. A classic test…However, the colleges do want to see how you perform on these tests. It helps them judge otherwise “objective” measures like GPA that vary greatly from HS to HS. The tests are the same for all.
PS: you don’t really know how you did. Maybe your score will be a pleasant surprise!
There is no such thing as a test that measures every human quality. I am not sure that such a test could or should be developed. That in no ways means the SAT, ACT or any other of thousands of tests lack value in prediction of whatever they are designed to measure. Fortunately, the admissions committees do consider all the other variables that you mentioned. The ACT/SAT does measure the speed and accuracy (proficiency) of responding to questions over high school content. Questions vary from very easy to really hard with most broadly in the middle.
Overall, the SAT/ACT have value in the mix of factors used to admit students to college but do not, never ever define someone as a human being or compare him/her to others in all time and space. The worst outcome would be earning a score lower than you expected and maybe not being admitted to your first pick school. Disappointing, of course. But ruin your life? NO WAY.
One thing you might consider…Review the questions and if you know the answer mark it, check it, move on and never look back. If the question is very difficult and you are not drawn to any particular option, skip it and move on. You may or may not get back to it. After you read the question, tell yourself the answer and find it.
Take the question at face value and answer it right away if you know the answer or mark within test rules to indicate which ones to return to right away. Otherwise move on. Chewy your pencil and worrying about every possible parameter eats time and scores.
I have had students who demonstrated very good academic skills in the classroom, but did poorly on standardized tests. There was nothing wrong with the tests. Instead, the students were looking for the trick (not magic, but some tiny little bit of information that would change the answer) in the question and made items far too difficult and costly in time for themselves. While there will be a seemingly reasonable response or two for test questions, gotcha is not a good means of measuring much of anything on the SAT/ACT.
You will get a score. You may have done just fine or need a higher score. Taking the test a second time after thought and study is a better solution to your frustration with the test than ranting (except for a day or two).
Also, I’m pretty sure you don’t have to answer every question to get a great score. I just looked at my daughter’s – she didn’t answer all of the reading questions but got a perfect reading subscore. There’s a curve. 