High School: Guidance Office Information

Ways To Prepare For The ACT

by Jane Butts

February 29, 2008

In April, all juniors will be required to take the Prairie State Achievement Exam, a two-day test. Day one consists of a full length ACT, which is a college entrance exam. One component of the college admission process is the student's ACT score. The best preparation for the ACT is the type of courses a student takes throughout high school. Those taking a solid schedule of college preparatory classes consistently score higher than those who do not. There is no substitute for a rigorous schedule throughout high school but there are ways for students to help review and prepare themselves for testing.

In the weeks leading up to the April 23-24 test days, during Advisory period juniors will have many opportunities to review subject content areas and to learn test-taking strategies. It is important that students do their best on these tutorials, not only because it reflects upon how well the school is meeting certain standards, but also because it serves as a college admission test for the student. All juniors have a username and password and can log on to learningexpressadvantage.com from any computer to review on their own. If a student wishes to pursue them, there are several other ways that they can help prepare themselves outside of school hours. A good place to start is on the ACT website. Test tips, test descriptions and sample test questions can be found at http://www.actstudent.org/testprep/index.html. Along with this information you will have the opportunity to purchase The Real ACT Prep Guide, the official prep book from the makers of the test at a cost of $25. Also on the website you can purchase the ACT Online Prep for $19.95. These guides are only as affective as the student makes them. With work and self-discipline one can benefit from these resources.

In addition, there are some ACT review classes available in this area. Heartland Community College offers several different evening classes. These can be found at

https://communityedregistration.heartland.edu/CommEdWebReg/classes.jsp?term=0166&group=Community%20Education%20Program&subject=COLLPRE P

An independent test review company will also be teaching courses throughout the area. The website for finding more information is http://www.bettertestscores.net.

Dates on which students can take an additional ACT are listed below. Cost for these is $30.00 for the basic test and $44.50 if the student chooses to take the optional writing test. There is no charge for the April 23 date at the high school.