High school is all fun and games until it is time to start preparing for college. Ascension prepares us well for the academics we need to get ready for college. The ACT, however, is a totally different ball game. The ACT stands for the American College Testing program and was created as an alternative to the SAT. The ACT is designed to measure high school students’ readiness for college.

For those students that do not do very well on the ACT, it could be a barrier into getting into the school they want. From my experience and from talking to others, the ACT seems to measure test taking skills rather than what a student has learned in high school. The ACT is a four hour timed test that not only test what you know but also your patience. Sitting in a cold room with a bunch of strangers on a Saturday morning is not my idea of weekend fun.

People pay hundreds of dollars for ACT tutors. It is common for students scores to drop after getting a tutor because they are trying to put in everything they learned. Instead of saving for the college they want to go to, a lot of money goes to this one test that determines the course of their future.