The students might know the date of the ACT several months in advance, which they take for free since the state pays the examination fees for everyone, at least for this administration, they have no idea where they stand. Not even the morning announcement, two weeks after Valentine's Day, and three weeks before the all-important test, seem to help them in any way whatsoever:
"Good morning, today, we bear good and bad news about our team as it relates to our performance on the AIME" the principal announces over PA.
Geneviève very rapidly became the new darling of the campus after the qualification of the school's team to the grand final of the Square Root of the Answer. However, she trembles because she knows, deep inside herself, that, if she does not take part in USAMO, for which the AIME serves as a qualifying step, all the extracurricular hopes for the rest of the year will be pinned on the SRA. If, by miracle, she was to participate in the USAMO, she knows that there will only be one more qualifier, or at most two, in all of Louisiana and that's in the best-case scenario, but she also knows that all competitors in this USAMO are very high-level students.
Nevertheless, the AMC12 is not lost; qualification for the USAMO depends on an index made of the score on the AMC12 plus 10 times the score on the AIME. Having scored a 117 on the AMC12, using historical trends as a basis, it would take her an 11, or even a 12, out of 15 to qualify. If she does not obtain that index, her only hope resides maybe in a secret clause of affirmative action.
"The good news is the school's record on the AIME was broken this year; the best two scores in school history on this competition were obtained by our two participants who both scored a ten. The bad news is they are both eliminated and thus cannot write the USAMO" the principal continues.
I might not have any regret about the AIME, these past few weeks, in multi-variable calculus, we covered multivariate optimization, with and without constraints, multi-variable Taylor series, the Lagrange residue and the Jacobian, which allows to make a change in variables in a multiple integral, she thinks while the implications of her defeat on the AIME become much clearer in her mind, just before the AP Chemistry teacher presents the ACT as a standardized test.
The AP Chemistry instructor, however, starts talking about the ACT even though three of the five segments do not cover material directly used in the course.
"For those among you that are juniors, I must talk to you about something very important: the ACT. For those that are seniors, however, you may use this time to do your assigned problem sets. I am not worried about you about the material. The mathematics portion, even though I do not teach math, should, in principle, be very easy if we take pre-calculus concurrently, and, for some among you, calculus AB or BC. As for the science section, yes, it makes usage of aptitudes learned in science courses, but not necessarily specific material. It's more about data analysis. Useless to say, and it pains me to admit it, but it's practically a test of pure speed more so than a test of knowledge. Regardless of which section we're talking about. Nevertheless, here's a diagnostic test for the science section. What will really matter is to understand properly the types of questions, there are three types. Tables and graphs, experiments, and passages about opposing viewpoints. There are forty questions total in thirty-five minutes, and don't hesitate to skip a question if you feel it's too long: better a question left blank than to spend five minutes on a question and lose points by lack of time. And one last thing: a good score on the ACT can make or break your college admissions process" the AP Chemistry teacher lectures them.
In the first half of the year, the students in advanced placement courses seemed not to talk about the ACT much, or about college admissions in class. I believe there were two or three that alluded to Tulane, but most of them didn't appear very stressed : they were happy to even being able to attend LSU... she thinks while she realizes that she spent two and a half years in this place without having more than a vague idea of what that represents except maybe having good grades in advanced placement courses. At this rate, Marcia and I should not need to worry about grades, extracurricular activities, however, represent another bag of beans...
Nevertheless, some of the questions bore far too big of a resemblance to statistics questions in pre-calculus, or in multiple-choice questions in the chemistry course. A lot of students were proven to be unable to finish all questions before the end of the allotted time.
Once the 35 minutes allotted to this diagnostic test are up, they spend the rest of the period to review materials such as titration curves, such as we are using known quantities of a strong base with a known concentration while we have an unknown concentration of an acid and a pH-meter. But also chemical kinetics, and the infamous equilibrium constants... the teacher distributes the answer key and they must grade their own diagnostic tests themselves. From now on she knows what to focus on to prepare for this test. Test that will determine where she can attend and also how much she can get in scholarships.
"That was an exceptional year for the mathletics team, who here would not want a happy end to this season?" a student asks her when passing by.
"Everyone wants a happy ending here!" she then exclaims.
"For a happy ending to this season, it will take a good performance on the SRA" Randy comments.
"For the SRA I had to study things such as the Jacobian, the Lagrange residue and multiplier, but I still have some way to go to ensure that I am properly prepared. However, as much as I would like to use this season as leverage for college, the ACT could prove my Achilles' heel without knowing it! Or should I say the English and reading sections" Gen tells them.
"Are you telling me that you never took a diagnostic test on this exam?" a bewildered Dylan asks.
"Only partially. I am not at all worried about the mathematics section..."
During the subsequent period, the English teacher devotes the entirety of the course to a diagnostic test on these two language parts. He briefly explained the contents of these two sections. One has the first section, which covers grammar, syntax and punctuation, as well as organization, word or sentence choice and finally, style. 75 questions in 45 minutes. While the second part is more about reading. 45 questions in 35 minutes, therefore the same pace as the science section.
At the end of the day, Cory comes to see Marcia, confused about the interpretation of the results of the various parts of her diagnostic test, taken with different teachers according to the section.
"Now, Marcia, I need your help. I obtained about seventy percent on the English part, eighty percent on the reading part, sixty-five percent each on math and science... what score does this correspond?"
"Twenty-seven on the reading portion, twenty-three in English, twenty-four on math and twenty-five in sciences" Marcia then answers him.
Good for a 25, very average, but the moral of the story is that one should not assume that one can obtain a score by multiplying the percentage by thirty-six. It is clear as day that we're far away from Marcia! Dylan seems to appreciate me because I am seemingly straight to the point when giving homework answers; while very useful on the ACT, maybe that would have hurt him without me realizing it, at least in the immediate, Marcia thinks, while she goes to meet with the orientation counselor, with her own diagnostic result in hand, and by making the hypothesis that she will be able, in three weeks, the same score as on her diagnostic tests. Geneviève, however, does not see the college counselor but Trent during his office hours...
"I am a little confused; until recently I simply kept to studying and doing a handful of extracurricular activities. Now that the ACT is fast approaching, the entire process starts becoming much more real and, as much as I would love to believe that our victory on the SRA might give me a fighting chance, my only other anchor point is my grades"
"There's absolutely no doubt in my eyes, Gen, you will be able to go to college if you desire. What's confusing you?" Trent asks her.
"I had a vague idea that the college experience will depend on the people with whom we'll live it, but no more than that. I don't have any idea of what kind of institution could fit me. Suppose that, in three weeks, I can actually score a thirty-four like these diagnostic tests make me promise" Gen answers her coach.
"The University of Chicago. You always appeared to be a very solid girl intellectually to me, since you started out here, the ease with which you make connections with the material is simply beyond my other students, even on past teams. That said, whenever you talk about the University of Chicago, or, I don't know, Duke, or Yale, or other institutions of this caliber, it may be good to dream about these, but you know there will be thousands of students like you that will dream about these as well. There are maybe four or five in your class for whom it's realistic, you included... you must not put all your eggs in one basket. You shouldn't have a list that's too top-heavy either" Trent warns her.
"That does not help me. I ignore what makes the University of Chicago a good college for me, or even what other colleges I could attend and that I could like if we suppose that Chicago actually was a good choice for me"
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
We're far, very far from a Stuyvesant, Boston Latin or even these magnet schools of Bâton-Rouge ou New Orleans. I must refrain from counting the eggs before they hatch. We will have this discussion again a month from now. Until then I must refrain from talking openly about the University of Chicago, she thinks, while she has a meeting with Cory, Marcia and Randy; it's not a meeting relative to pre-calculus this time around.
"I wonder what Marcia could bring you that I could not... you asked me to come see Marcia because you believe she has something that could interest me?" Gen asks Cory.
"From what I know about Marcia vs you, she seemed to be more of the kind to have tips more adapted to the ACT than you; she seeks less to understand the reason of a given answer than you do. I am with her in English..." Cory answers her.
"I believe it will not hurt me; for something that important I will not pass that up! And that's supposing that she really has something to say about it that our teachers didn't and that's specific to this test, other than the target speed..."
Speaking of target speed, one talks about 36 seconds per question in the English section, 52 seconds per question in science and in reading, and 60 seconds in mathematics.
"Even though all the conventional tricks of multiple-choice tests still apply here, such as the elimination process, paying attention to some details of a question such as never and always, underlining key words, there is a basic rule I believe it's good to violate, especially in reading and in science: trying to answer the question without taking into account the answer choices. Better start reading the question and the choices to then read the passage because it will allow you to better ascertain what's being asked, but only if you're unable to make an attempt at an answer beforehand. Common errors in such questions include choices that are too extreme, characteristics of A while they belong to B, or a contradictory detail..." Marcia then lectures the group about test-taking.
"I would love to believe for reading and science, it's better to read the question and the choices before the passage, but what to do if we're unable to make even one elimination round..." Cory is wondering.
"I recommend setting aside about five minutes to review the questions initially left blank, start guessing on questions for which at least one choice has been eliminated and, should an answer feel correct, take it. In the ultimate case, where no elimination can help you, and no answer seems more correct than another, systematically take the same letter" Marcia advises them.
"Speaking of reading section... do you have supplemental tips?" Randy asks, a little annoyed by that section.
"There are four kinds of passages, and these passages tend to have a dominant type of questions. If the introduction to a passage alludes to humanities, questions relative to tone will dominate, for natural sciences, details will dominate, for social sciences, viewpoint questions will dominate, and finally thematics will be dominant with literature questions. I have a set of questions for you: do you feel like you are taking too long to make your reading? Do you make approach mistakes or it's a vocabulary problem?" Marcia asks Randy.
"Marcia, sometimes I wonder if we are not better off understanding the mistakes on past practice tests on top of all that... doing practice tests is fine and dandy, but the practice tests have their limits on their own!" Geneviève then points out, ulcerated by the lack of attention to this detail that appears very Important to her.
"If we realize that we are struggling on a particular type of questions, then we can target that kind of questions more. As much as re-doing certain questions without a time limit is a good thing, often people will know pretty quickly if they are in position to understand, without using the answer key, why that answer is incorrect or not" Marcia retorts to Gen.
I know that it must exist, people that possess intellectual depth, but who struggle on a pure speed test such as the ACT; Shane, however, is the reverse of this. Even Marcia appeared to have more depth to me, and yet she described herself as straight to the point among her peers, Geneviève thinks before the elephant in the room surfaces. Nevertheless, these diagnostic tests have been taken under the conditions of the real test.
"One last thing: how much did you score on these diagnostic tests? I scored a thirty-five on the last one" Marcia then asks them.
"Thirty-four!" Gen exclaims.
"Twenty-five" Cory answers.
"Twenty-three" Randy answers last.
"At the risk of saying something incredibly stupid, but should we win the SRA, the University of Chicago would be, as of today, my first choice" Gen announces them.
"Gen, do you have the slightest idea of what would that represent? No one here has expressed any desire to attend this place. No graduate from our school has ever been there; why, suddenly, you talk about the University of Chicago out of nowhere? Not that I question whether it's realistic for you or not, you never talked about that with me!" Marcia questions Gen's statement.
"If that's realistic for me, it's also realistic for you, Marcia. The question is: what are your first choices as of today?" Gen asks her friend.
"I am torn between UPenn and Columbia. From what I vaguely heard about, people here seemed to prefer Tulane, Rice, Emory, Vanderbilt or Duke" Marcia answers the college question.
"LSU for me" Cory and Randy respond.
"Randy, do you say that while taking football into account or not?" Marcia asks Randy.
- No. The coach told us that it would be highly unlikely that there would be even one player that receives an offer to play in college, the cornerback answers them.
Yes, it is true that college coaches will tend to favor good teams for scouting, especially in Division 1. But does Randy's only hope to play in college reside in the hope that some Division 2 institution gets a recruit that is subsequently declared academically ineligible or that ultimately proved himself to be a marginal player and that he plays there as a walk-on? It's a fate that definitely happened to star players on bad high school teams.
What do I have that Marcia doesn't have and that could change the game outside of mathletic competitions? Same thing in the opposite direction; from what Trent makes me believe, each institution has its own personality. If I listened to him, it's as if the University of Chicago gave a lot of importance to intellectual depth and that Tulane or Duke exhibited more tolerance for superficiality... she thinks, while she seems to have taken her time to make an important remark on one aspect of question reading technique.
"Sometimes we can run into trouble if we read the answer choices before the passage, even though sometimes, a clue can be found in the grammar or the syntax of the answers, especially in the English portion of the test. But on a test such as the ACT better skim through a reading than to make an attentive reading" Gen remarks.
"On that point, Gen, I would say three minutes per passage, even two if possible, and five minutes to answer the questions. In five minutes, we will do another timed reading test" Marcia continues.
The University of Chicago? I barely had the opportunity to befriend Gen that she already gives me a reason not to get too attached to her! From what I've seen of my senior colleagues, college admissions will put people's friendships to the test. I would simply love to enjoy our friendship. or maybe even romance, for as long as it lasts! Cory thinks, while suspecting that he doesn't stand a chance to attend it for undergrad. I didn't have the best Valentine's Day in the world with her, except that it's better than nothing.
The practice test number two begins, with the timer being programmed beforehand, and everyone makes time budgets in their minds to make sure to have enough time to answer everything, ready to put into practice what both girls had to teach them for the ACT test-taking technique. The two boys, however, see clear and substantial improvement regarding time; they all manage to answer every question, while they were unable to do so on the diagnostic tests administered in class. Hence these clear improvements by leaps and bounds; Cory and Randy have realized that they left way too many questions blank in all of their diagnostic tests taken in class, especially towards the end of the test.
"Before we finish the reading portion, please grade the practice test, and make sure that you compare your raw score against this scoring grid; we shall see to what extent these tips that were taught to you today have helped you. I know it's a bad test..." Marcia instructs the others.
Already that Cory went from a 27 to a 31, while Randy went from a 24 to a 29 (in reading in both cases). What a difference a couple lessons in test-taking technique can make in a student!
"Gen, since you led the mathletics team to victory this year, do you have some tips for the mathematics test?" Cory asks.
"This might seem counter-intuitive, but if we can solve backwards, sometimes it can get simpler, especially when the answer choices are integer numbers. That said, the mathematical meat will go at most to the second algebra course and geometry, and a maximum of ten percent of the test will be about pre-calculus, or trigonometry. No exponentials or logarithms, no conical sections except if we make them as a backdoor geometric or algebraic application, and it's especially for us, Marcia and I, no derivatives or integrals, much less multivariate ones!"
"Let's talk about multi-variable calculus. The extra credit of calculus BC contains notions such as the flux-divergence theorem, Stokes' theorem, and one might be wondering who will actually attempt to obtain extra credit... Who, other than I and the people on the team, understand anything to it? And the pace is far too rapid for a normal student, but you are all but normal when it comes to mathematics!" Marcia follows up on the multivariable calculus bit.
"Let us return to our business. Sometimes the formulation of the question itself can contain traps, then one needs to ascertain the mathematics of the question. And, of course triangles are very important, as well as how to go from a fraction to a number, and the same in reverse" Gen adds to this content.
Oh my God... regardless of the sacrifices made, no matter where I would end up attending, the ACT is a major component to get to where I want. This test is a distraction on my road to the final of the Square Root of the Answer! She starts thinking, while this infamous SRA hangs over her head and she still wonders why Trent saw in her a target applicant for the University of Chicago... Even though there must be a way to get a happy undergraduate experience without attending a place like this, I'd be better off setting the ACT aside for now, make a little review in the days before the test. I wonder why... it seems like the ACT forces me to add considerations that stress me out more than anything else... I just need to have some self-confidence. But I wonder what will, a month from now, my application list look like. Currently, this 34 is just a hypothetical performance; if, in three weeks, I scored this for real, then it might be worth wondering why Chicago over another institution. Nevertheless, I am forced to admit that Marcia is much better prepared than I am.
"Finally, even though our teachers gloss over the writing portion, to have the best chance to score a twelve, and, it must be said, does not count towards the composite score, it will take at least part of the second page, three properly supported arguments, and that these arguments are connected. We have forty minutes, and little time to take a position, and, of course, paying attention to the language, such as punctuation, grammar and syntax" Marcia ends this session.