ACT Test - How and When to Approach the ACT For the Best Possible Score

Start Early and Work Smart!

When to Start Thinking About the ACT Although the ACT is a test for high school juniors, wise students begin to prepare for it in their sophomore year. Currently ten different states administer a test called the PLAN test to sophomores. This is a type of 'mini-ACT' and gives students a report on how well they can expect to do the following year when they take the ACT. It accounts for the fact that there are some subject areas where sophomores are still not proficient, but should be by the time they take the ACT in their junior year. However, the PLAN test is not your only option for an early indicator on how well you can expect to do on the ACT.


Taking Your First ACT Test
If your school does not offer this test, you can still obtain an official ACT practice test from your guidance counselor or download one from the ACT website free of charge. Taking the time on afternoon to take the test, with someone watching the clock, is a wise idea.


All practice tests are not equal, however. Ensure that you have either an official ACT practice test, or one that breaks the Math and English scores down into subscores. This is not the norm with practice tests you buy in ACT study guides at a bookstore, though some do have the subscore breakdown.


Understanding Your ACT Score Report
Whether you get an official score report from an actual ACT test or just score a practice test yourself, analyzing the results will provide you with some very valuable information. You will see in which areas you are strong and in which areas you need to focus some studying. "Just study everything" is a very ineffective plan, and your score report / score results will prevent you from wasting valuable study time in areas that did not negatively affect your score.


Time is on Your Side as a Sophomore!
By beginning in your sophomore year, you can accomplish a lot of preparation with just 5 minutes each day. Subscribe to an ACT mailing list, like the one at http://collegeexamtutor.com/ in order to get weekly or daily practice questions. By breaking it down into bite sized chunks, you can be very prepared and confident when test day comes around.


Now that you know what to do, go to http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/ to get free weekly tips and practice questions for the ACT!

College Tuition - How to Save 40% at a Big University

All college graduates have three things in common. They have a degree, are looking for a job and have just spent a LOT of money on their education, even if they had scholarships or financial aid. For the overwhelming majority of them, it means that they need to get a job to start paying off student loans. But there is a way to enter the work world without as much financial pressure: like 40% less debt because you spent 40% less paying for college.

A Degree From Absolutely Any University at 40% Discount

Think about a big name school, such as Northwestern University or the University of Michigan, which charge around $40,000 per year in tuition. There are two ways to get the same degree; one costs $160,000 for four years and the other will cost you about $90,000. Both options have you walking across the same platform in the same cap and gown with the same leather bound folder with your degree. The difference is $70,000 in savings!

The way to achieve this is by completing all of the general education requirements during the first two years at a local community college and then transferring to the big name university for your junior and senior years. Your degree will be from the big name university, but you will have saved about 40% in tuition.

But Is the Education Quality the Same?
Absolutely. Unless you are majoring in a technical field, such as engineering, most all degree programs have the same basic general education requirements: English, Math, Social Sciences, etc. At the big schools, these freshman level courses are generally taught by teaching assistants and/or have a lecture class format. A lecture class format means that 200 to 300 students sit in a lecture hall and listen to a professor 2 days a week and then, if it is a science class, for instance, they break up into smaller groups for a "lab" that is supervised by a teaching assistant. Teaching assistants may be upperclassmen or graduate students. The fact is that the general education classes are all pretty much the same, regardless of the school. Introduction to Psychology is Introduction to Psychology whether you are at Yale or the Community College of DuPage.

Don't Make a Big Mistake....
It is not always as easy as just taking a freshman English class at a community college and automatically getting granted transfer credit from the big name university. The courses have to be the same. What generally happens is that the school you wish to transfer to will examine your transcripts and look up the course descriptions for the classes you took. Only if the course descriptions match the required courses at their school will they consider that you fulfilled the requirement. An English Composition class is NOT the same as an English Literature class.

For this reason, it is absolutely imperative that you get the actual course descriptions of all the required general education classes from the school you wish to attend and compare them with the course descriptions at the community college. A phone call to an admissions counselor is also a good idea!

One Last Thing

Finally, make sure that you investigate the school's admission requirements for transfer students. You will need to keep a very high GPA to transfer into the more prestigious universities, and their admissions guidelines may also be such that involvement in extra-curricular activities will be required. Investigate what is required and then make a plan to fulfill those requirements. By "beginning with the end in mind" you can fulfill the general education requirements at about a tenth the cost of the university that you will graduate from.

But choosing the school and paying for it are only half the battle. Doing well in the critical first semester is key to ensuring a successful college career. At http://www.CollegeExamTutor.com/7-Keys.htm you will find a great resource to ensure that you hit the ground running at college. It's a one hour DVD course called "7 Keys to College Success" complete with a study guide and checklists to help students arrive on campus Day One prepared to succeed!

Nine Tips to Succeed in College

Learn these 9 things and you won't be caught off guard your freshman year!

1) Expect to be homesick. No matter how much you hated living with your family with all the rules and siblings bothering you, it is normal to miss home and feel lonely. You are in totally different surroundings, with different people and a lot of stress. Don't beat yourself up when homesickness hits; rather expect it and give yourself permission to feel sad and lonely, knowing it will pass.

2) Expect to be overwhelmed. It's okay to feel freaked out. Everything is new and you will feel like you are overloaded with new things. Again, don't worry about it: expect it and it won't take you off guard and knock you off your feet.

3) Remember that it's a totally different game with different rules. It will take a while to learn the ropes, and that's okay.

4) Get plugged in socially. Join a club and watch the bulletin boards for "freshman mixers" or other events that will introduce you to a lot of other people.

5) Find a mentor. If you are living in a dorm, there will be an upperclassman who is an RA (Resident Assistant) whose job it is to give out information and be a contact person for you. Don't be shy about going to the RA with questions, and see if you can find another upperclassman that you can go to with the millions of questions you are going to have.

6) Attend the orientations for freshmen. Yes, they are boring, but they have a lot of important information. You will have enough questions and concerns even if you do attend, so don't blow this off!

7) Plan on everything taking more time than you think it will. If you could crank out a 3 page paper in 3 hours in high school, expect it to take 4 or 5 hours now. Everything is different, and as the saying goes, 'the thing about ignorance is that you don't know what it is that you don't know."

8) Make a friend or acquaintance in every class. If you miss a class or think of a question afterwards, it is important to have someone in the class who you can ask to share notes with.

9) Ask "dumb" questions. Every freshman is intimidated, and many will be glad that you asked the question so that they didn't have to!

Going off to college can be frightening, as there is a huge adjustment to be made. For a great way to prepare academically as well as socially, visit http://www.CollegeExamTutor.com/7-Keys.htm and find out how to get some peace of mind during that difficult and critical first semester.

ACT Test Timing - Finishing in Time, Answering Every Question

Anyone who is at all familiar with the ACT knows how difficult it can be to finish all the questions before the clock runs out. "Time Management" is one of the most discussed aspects of the ACT, but "hurry up and don't waste time" is really insufficient advice. It's not enough to realize that with 60 questions in 60 minutes for the Math test, for instance, that you should spend no more than one minute per question. What students need is a really detailed, practical way of improving their time management skills.


Step 1: Master the Times / Sections
First and foremost, it's important to know the 4 parts of the ACT, number of questions and minutes AND sections, inside out. Students should be able to rattle off by memory that the English test comes first, followed by Math, a short break, and then Reading and Science are last. Parents can help by asking "how many questions are on the Reading test?" (40) and "how many passages does the Reading test have (4).


Step 2: Know Your Times


The English test has 75 questions and is 45 minutes long. While there aren't really 'sections' as such, the two areas tested (the types of questions) are rhetoric and grammar & punctuation. The Math test has 60 questions, is 60 minutes long and has Algebra, Coordinate Geometry and Plane Geometry, and Trigonometry. The Reading test gives you only 35 minutes to read four passages and answer 10 questions on each. The Science test also lasts 35 minutes and has 40 questions, divided among 7 different sections.


Step 3: Know Your Minutes and Benchmarks


Students need to know ahead of time when they will need to be checking the clock for benchmark times to see if they are behind. For instance, about halfway through the time allotted for the English test (22 minutes), you should be at question 38 to ensure that you are on time. You should complete 15 questions every 15 minutes for the Math test, and complete one Reading test passage every 8 minutes. Finally, for the Science test, you should be done with about 20 questions after 17 minutes.


Step 4: Practice the Calculations


It is surprising to see that many students are not proficient at the math skills necessary to manage the clock, so be prepared to practice this critical technique. For instance, if the clock says it is 8:14 and you are starting the English test, what time will you be halfway through? The answer, 8:36, should be written down on the test booklet before going to the first question so you can look at it and the clock periodically. Be able to instantly calculate the benchmark times from any starting time.


Finally, take practice tests to ensure that you are becoming proficient at completing all the questions in the allotted time. Learn how to just guess on questions that you aren't sure on, or that will take too much time to figure out. By watching the clock, comparing the time to your benchmark times, and having the discipline to move on from questions that could get you bogged down, you will master the Time Management aspect of the ACT and get your best score.


Visit http://www.collegeexamtutor.com/ for more information about the ACT and how to prepare, as well as the "7 Keys to College Success" course on making a successful transition to college.

Test Anxiety - Overcoming the 3 Causes for Doing Poorly on Tests

Countless students are frustrated by the fact that they do great on all their assignments and then when it comes to their tests, they blow it. They are frustrated, discouraged and beat themselves instead of understanding that this is a common phenomenon that CAN be overcome.

The first thing is to have a thorough understanding of the three major causes of Test Anxiety. Next, it is necessary to have a strategy for addressing the specific cause / causes that are holding you back.

Psychological

Although this is the cause that most commonly gets the blame, it is NOT the greatest villain. Most students feel shame about poor test performance because they think it means that they are weak psychologically, choking when the pressure is on. But when you read on, you will discover two more powerful causes that may be in play.

If it does turn out that the Psychological factor is your biggest problem, then the best way to address it is with practice tests and visualization. By vividly imagining yourself doing great, whizzing through the test on test day, while you are completing a practice test, you can retrain your brain to be calm and confident instead of anxious. Having a number of successful practice tests is a very powerful way to curb test anxiety on test day.

Physiological

This is an extremely powerful cause of poor test performance and most commonly overlooked. When a person is under stress, they begin to breathe less. Shallow breathing deprives the brain of oxygen and seriously hurts your ability to perform. (In extreme cases, this causes a person to faint.)

A great example of this is in studies that the Air Force did during World War II to determine the performance of pilots in high altitude environments. They found that very simple tasks, like dealing a deck of cards, became increasingly difficult as they got less oxygen. This happens by flying to higher altitudes, or it happens with shallow breathing brought on by anxiety. You actually cause yourself to be less sharp and resourceful by being nervous. Thus, the psychological cause can trigger a physiological problem!

The great news is that you can beat this with a technique the Army calls "combat breathing." Take 8 deep breaths, inhaling for three seconds through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. Count to 3 while inhaling, hold it for 1 second, and count to 3 while exhaling. It will take you only 56 seconds to do this and you will oxygenate your blood to ensure that you are at full intellectual functioning! Do this before a test and even during a test and you will see a huge difference in your performance.

Improper Study Methods

The third cause for poor test performance is the inability to recall what you studied because you didn't study using the correct method. Everyone learns and retains information differently. Some are visual learners who need to see things to remember them, others are auditory learners who do better hearing information, and still others are kinesthetic learners, who need to 'feel' and experience the subject matter.

By taking a Learning Styles Assessment, you can begin to understand how important it is to your test performance that you study in a way that is compatible with the way your are wired intellectually. A digital voice recorder is a great tool for auditory learners, and talking and joking in study groups really accelerates the learning and retention of kinesthetic learners.

The best way to internalize these practical strategies for improving test performance is with further practice. For a four hour online course, go right now to http://www.CollegeExamTutor.com/ and sign up for the ACT preparation course, whether you are taking the ACT or not. This course begins with a Learning Styles Assessment and focuses on test taking strategies and eliminating test anxiety, which will be a great help to any student.

ACT - How To Get Your Best Score

Begin With the End in Mind

The best way to approach the ACT is like an efficiency expert or a troubleshooter. Before you do anything, take a practice test to see where you are. Only then should you start studying in earnest, so you know exactly where to focus your efforts.

Far too often, students approach the ACT without a good strategy that will give them the maximum results with the minimum effort. It's kind of like throwing a whole bowl of spaghetti against the wall to see what will stick! A smiliar approach is also advocated by many Test Prep companies, who can justify charging $600 to $1500 because their curriculum is so long and involved. This is great for them, but not so great for the student.

By taking a practice test first, a student will be able to get an idea of a realistic expectation for a score that they can achieve, while also narrowing down which areas they need to work on. Before you can set a target, you need to know how far away that target is.

Caution: All Practice Tests Are Not The Same!

Bookstores are chock-full of ACT study books that have several free practice tests included. They are everywhere - and can be found online without even paying for a book. However, they are not all the same. While any practice test can give you a general idea of how well you will score, only those tests with a breakdown of the scores into subscores will give you what you need to zero in on the areas where you need to study.

Like the official ACT Score Report sent out after you take the ACT, the most helpful practice tests will have the Math and English portions broken down into subscores. (The Reading is also broken down into subscores, but that is not nearly as helpful). These subscores will enable you to save the time, effort and frustration that are wasted when you just try to "study everything." Just as a mechanic would never try to fix a car without proper diagnostic tools, a serious student will not want to invest time studying until getting a detailed diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses.

The College Exam Tutor ACT Prep course teaches the detailed strategy for diagnosing an ACT score in order to get the maximum results in the minimum time. For more information, visit www.CollegeExamTutor.com and learn more about the 4 hour course that helps you work smart and not just hard!

College Success in the First Semester

Why do so many college freshmen get low grades their first semester? Many parents think that it just all the "freedom" with nobody around to supervise them, but there is something else far more important.

No matter how well a student did in high school, college is a totally different experience, with totally different expectations. Unless a student learns the specific skills ahead of time, the first semester will be their frustrating learning curve experience. That CAN be avoided.

Preparation for on-campus success should begin a few weeks before the student arrives in the Fall. It should include preparations for the social as well as academic aspects of college. There are quite a few specific things that students can do that don't require much time in order to arrive on campus the first day well on their way to being plugged in socially and poised academically to a successful first semester.

For more information, visit http://www.CollegeExamTutor.com/7-Keys.htm