Sign Me Up? Maybe...

Each calendar year, there are seven national offerings of the ACT. In addition, individual states and school districts may provide offerings.  For example, in the state and district in which I live, the school system offers the test in October for all their high school students that choose to take it.  In March or April, our state gives the test to all 11th graders.  Both of these tests are given during the school day.  So, for an 11th grader in my state and district, there are 9 opportunities to test per year.  

Just because the test is offered though, should a student take it every time? My answer to that question is “it depends!”

If you do an internet search, you will find that many sites say you can only take the ACT 12 times.  I have not found that stated in recent ACT documentation, but 12 times is quite a bit.  With some good prep time, most students can usually reach their “realistic” goal after taking the test 3-4 times.  So, let’s talk about the things that can feed into promoting the best performance in those 3-4 test runs.

Since it does cost to take the ACT, I recommend students think over a few things before picking a test date and registering for the test. Thinking mainly about the math section of the ACT, here are some things for a student to consider:

1. What are your plans post-high school?

2. What grade-level are you?

3. What math class are you in now and what math classes have you already taken?

4. Have you taken the test before and what was that performance?

5. How much prep time will you have leading up to the exam?

6. What are your plans the week of and the night before the test?

We talk more details of each one of these in other blog posts (see the links above). But for now, it’s a great idea to see what the dates are for the test and start looking at everyone’s calendar.

Each year, I put together a bookmark with the upcoming school year’s test dates and a night before the test checklist.  You can get a FREE copy of these bookmarks here.