By Brianne Strobel, Editor
All juniors will be taking the ACT on April 25. The Krier surveyed 72 Kaneland students in classes mostly taken by juniors to find out how they feel about the upcoming ACT and what they are doing in the months leading up to the test.
“I’m not [studying], I’m too lazy. I’m going to study stuff later,” junior Ryan Straughn said.
“I have not prepared for the ACT yet. It feels like it’s too far away still to study for it. How do you study for the ACT?,” junior Jenice Heyob said.
Lamica said that in order to be prepared for the ACT, students should take the most demanding classes that they can handle, and not only take the classes, but do well in the classes. Juniors should also do everything that was suggested to them in their individual conferences.
“How a student does on the ACT determines how many doors are open to them after high school,” counselor Anna Lamica said.
In order to do the best they can when the ACT comes, juniors who didn’t make benchmarks on the PLAN test their sophomore year will be required to get help during STEP.
“I think it’s dumb. [Students] can take care of their own education if they care,” Straughn said.
Fifty- two percent of students were either for STEP or didn’t have an opinion.
Of the 48 percent of students who said they were against extra STEP help, 68.6 percent reported that the reason they are is because the extra help won’t work, 11.4 percent said that this would be too much work and the remaining 20 percent said that meeting the benchmarks doesn’t matter.
“I don’t like it. I think if you want to get a good score, you should take it into your own hands. If [students] don’t want to do well on their test, they won’t take initiative anyway,” junior Keri Groen said.
Heyob said that it’s unfair that ACT practices are being done during STEP, when not every junior attends STEP because of classes like early bird PE.
There are many ACT prep courses at Kaneland and other locations for students looking to improve scores.
“I’m taking a class at Learning Ascent once a week for ten weeks. We do a lot of bookwork and practice tests. My class is really small, so you get to know the people pretty well,” Groen said.
According to The College Board, only 25 percent of students who took the ACT met their college readiness benchmarks.
The national average for the 2011 tests was 21.1, which is .1 more points than the previous year. Getting a perfect score is very rare.
Although these figures may sound low, Illinois is one of few states that requires all high school students to take the ACT, compared to most states, where it’s optional. In those states, students who might not have done as well might not have even taken the test in the first place, so their scores don’t figure into the statistics, making it hard to compare Illinois with other states.
There are booklets on how to prepare for the ACT in Student Services that are free to all students.
“36 or bust,” Straughn said. “[The ACT] helps you get into good schools; I want to go somewhere with my life.”