By: Elijah Boudreaux
Tips and Tricks for the ACT
For many of the high school students on campus, one of the most stressful times of the year can be when you are preparing for the ACT. The ACT is a national standardized test, which all Holy Cross students will eventually take in high school. Luckily, Holy Cross has some of the best faculty when it comes to testing preparation.
This week, I had the privilege to talk to the Chair of the English Department, and someone with 20 years of experience coaching for the ACT, Mrs. Anne Chabreck. In her word, “The difference from a moderate score and a great score is practice.” Mrs. Chabreck believes that anything in school and life is solved through practice. Away from school, Mrs. Chabreck is a professional flutist, who has played for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, along with professional Broadway shows. She says just as she and other musicians practice their instruments to get better and improve; the ACT must be practiced for a score to get better and improve.
In her own experience, each student needs to prepare for the test by that focusing on their own strengths and weaknesses. I asked Mrs. Chabreck, on how she helps students whose biggest struggle is time on the test because there is only a limited amount of time for a student to answer each section on the test. “It is about strategy, each student should have his/her own method, especially when it comes to time in the reading section.” She says that in the past some methods that have worked for students, in the reading section, has been to read the questions first and find the answers in the passage, another way is to skim the reading passages and look, and the questions then go back and find the details that the test wants in your answer.
From my own experience taking the test, I can say always bring multiple pencils with you on test day. Some test proctors might supply extra pencils, but don’t always count on that. Always bring a graphing calculator to the test and always make sure it is fully charged and you have spare batteries in case the calculator is low on battery. One of my worst experiences was the first time I took the ACT when I was beginning the math section, and the low battery alert on my calculator appeared.
Finally, especially for first-time test takers, never underestimate the test, one of the biggest mistakes that a student can make is not properly planning out your time for each section of the test. This Saturday, October 27, students from around the United States will take the ACT, including some students from Holy Cross. In Mrs. Chabreck words, “Eat breakfast and sleep well the night before the test, Good Luck!”