State of Illinois ACT Test Date Fast Approaching

March 12, 2012 - PRLog -- “Some teachers do some preparation,” insists Phoebe Callus, a junior at Lake Park High School.  “Most of them don't do anything except mention it to get us to buckle down in our other studies.  I'm totally unprepared for taking the test, though.  Totally.”

Phoebe's story is true for so many of Illinois' juniors, who in less than one month's time are slated to begin a statewide ACT test.  The test is of prime importance in getting into midwestern schools, where the bulk of high school students are planning to go, and while a bad score is recoverable, it's not something that the students are looking forward to.  

“The fact that students are being forced to take the ACT is a good thing,” says Kumar Prajit, a high school teacher.  “It's not such a good thing if schools don't take the time to prepare them.  It reflects badly on the student, and on the school itself when that happens.”

Prajit teaches a free after school program once per week at Washington High School in downtown Chicago, where students come for an hour and get to learn strategies and do a little practice testing.  It's similar to a club, in which participation is free, but instead of planning fun outings, these students are often scribbling away furiously at the practice materials that are given to them.  

“Knowing the strategies is so important,” Prajit says.  “Often, the ACT test has multiple right answer choices to any given question, particularly in the English section, but if you don't know, for instance, that shortest is considered to be the best, then how do you know which correct answer is the most correct?”  

Students fall into traps like these all the time, and it is often the difference between getting a twenty-five and getting a thirty.  “There's not a lot of gap between those scores academically, in terms of the students,” Prajit says, “but it is usually just a question of which student knows how the ACT test planners think.”  

Like in all things, doing well on the ACT does require some practice, but for many, this is their one and only test that they'll take.  

For most schools around the state of Illinois, April 14th is the official testing date for the ACT test, with the Prairie State Achievement Exams following the day after.  While the PSAE's are required, they are not considered to be particularly important to the student in terms of academic ability.

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