MY STORY
COLLEGE APPLICATIONS ARE DUE SOON ...
Even if your child's grades are fine, there is the omnipresent ACT hanging out there. Has your child gotten the score they want? Are they holding off sending college applications until they do? Are they even going to retake the test?
And if they are going to retake the test, how are they feeling? Confident? Nervous? Has studying for the test helped? Most students do study - a lot - and most take the test more than once. And how are the results? The August 19th, 2009 KC Star lead headline told us:
"DESPITE BIG PUSH, ACT SCORES REMAIN FLAT"
How can this be, particularly when the company writing the test provides the principal study materials on how to pass the test?
I want to tell you an unlikely story - about me. The fact scores were flat despite a big push didn't make sense to me. So I looked at the official ACT Study Guide to see how I would do. Despite having written numerous booklets on math, science, poetry, astronomy, philosophy, economics, etc., I found myself struggling with the test, particularly with Science and Reading. Even with English, though the questions were easy, I found it hard to focus. That left math. I could do fine here, but my composite score was only about ... drumroll ... 24! This really bothered me. I've never thought the ACT was a test about intelligence, but this was not only frustrating, but embarrassing as well!
So I developed simple thinking processes and strategies to help me organize the material ... to help me focus. And I found myself easily scoring between 30 - 33 on these practice exams. And I thought, "If I started with a modest score, and with simple thinking processes could not only improve dramatically, but with a method, why not work with kids in the same boat as me?"
I did. They would leave my program ready. Practicing the official exams. Applying the processes. Mentally tough.
And ... They didn't improve much. This was very frustrating to me, but I did not know what was going on. We were using the official guide. They were ready. But it wasn't translating into performance.
To find out what was really going on, I decided to take the exam myself! Yes - me - sitting in the front row with a group of high school students!
And how did I do? 27. I was shocked. But I realized something as well. The actual test differed, to me, greatly from the study tests.
I vowed to rethink everything. And to take the test again.
And I did. Composite score: 30. Reading: 33. English: 31. Math: 30. Science: 25. And this composite score is even more promising, to me, because going in, I still hadn't found a way, in science, to bring together all of the data, tables, narrative, graphs, etc., in a short period of time. Now I have.
Is your child going to retake the exam, studying the same old way, hoping for different results? Let's change that. Let's have them go in with a specific set of instructions on how precisely to go about reading a passage, solving a math problem, checking grammar, or analyzing a scientific experiment.
THE PROGRAM: WHO IS IT FOR?
But this is not for everybody - at least not now. I'm looking for a certain type of student to work with. I'm looking for students who ...
1. want to go to college. This test really has to matter to you;
2. have taken the test already, and scored, at most, a 22;
3. want to get this issue settled at the beginning of the year, before sending out college applications.
Michael Round
Center for autoSOCRATIC EXCELLENCE
(913) 515-3911