ACT Day - What Happened?
After I signed up to take the PreACT, nothing was said about it for about two weeks. Eventually, all students and parents received an email detailing how the testing day would go. The email started off with saying that testers could go home after the test was finished as long as they had a way to leave. I was excited at first, because I thought I got to go home while everybody else stayed at school. As I continued reading, I saw that those not taking the test did not have to come to school at all. At that moment the hype died, and I simply starting dreaded the day that I had to take a four hour test. To make matters worse, the time between the email and the tests I worried t I would be forced to stay, even though I was ahead in all my classes.
Few people complained about not having school (if any), but few people understood why school was cancelled, and even fewer parents. It is important that everybody understands what the ACT and PreACT are so they know what happened that day, but also if they should study for/take the test soon. Also, although not necessarily important, students should understand how the test was held and why this caused school to be closed for the day. The ACT is a test colleges look at to determine who to accept, and who to decline when looking at student applications. The PreACT, however, is a pretest that is used to prepare for the test, without colleges penalizing you for any areas you perform poorly on. The test was taken in a variety of rooms, and was supervised by multiple teachers in each. This is the reason school was cancelled, the teachers and classrooms both were unavailable.
Halfway through the test, we got an 11 minute break. Everybody taking the PreACT got a paper with a list of previous classes and what grades you got in them. In one corner of the paper was a “class rank.” This number represents how many students are in the Sophomore class, and what position you are in (like a race!). Most of the testers were frantically trying to find out who had the #1 class rank, but nobody claimed the title. Peter Stedman was #2, and Rachel Guilliams was #3.
Although the ACT and PreACT tests helped those who took them, imagine the feeling one would get knowing they had to do something they were dreading while others got to relax and do nothing. Imagine the disappointment somebody would feel as they realized they were stuck getting up early to take a four hour test and making their minds hurt, while other people got to sleep in and do whatever they wanted. Imagine going back to school the next day and seeing people that had the day off, while you were forced to come in.
