by Travis Haese | Staff Writer
The ACT is an essential alternative to the tradition SAT for a number of seniors nearing graduation. However, some of these individuals don’t know where to sign up for the exam. Counselors urge such students to take action immediately.
“Students can either sign up with a paper application or sign up online,” head counselor Patricia Snider said. “We would rather you sign up online by going to the webpage which is www.actstudent.org.”
Registration is not a difficult process. Students can even pick what school to take the test at and where to send their scores.
“On the website, just fill in your information, the date you want to take it, choose the school you want to take it at, and just show up at 7:30am on the test date,” Snider said. “When you go in to take the test you will be asked what college you will want your scores to be sent to.”
There are multiple test dates for the ACT. Each test date will have a registration deadline and a late fee that lasts fourteen days after the registration deadline.
“You have to sign up by the deadline, but the deadlines differ for each test day,” Snider said. “All the information you need is in the senior newsletter, and it has a calender of all the test dates.”
Taking the ACT is a critical aspect of college application. Both it and the SAT gage a student’s level of preparation for college by assessing how well material was learned in high school.
“This provides an indication to schools, how a student will perform in college,” English teacher Daniel Farias said. “Different colleges and universities place different emphasis on tests.”
If a student takes the SAT and ACT, he or she may want to assess which test their college of choice prefers.
“Some look at ACT scores more closely, and some look at SAT scores more closely,” Farias said. “This is just to have a more well-rounded profile, so that whatever colleges and universities a student applies to, he or she will have all the information there so the colleges can make a judgement as to what type of student you are and how prepared you are for college.”
