The ACT is taken by millions of students each year. They study, they take the test, they get their results...but what really happens? After years of experiencing the ACT firsthand, Method Test Prep's Vice President, Evan Wessler, shares his reflections of the experience and discusses the speed and strategy necessary for excelling on the ACT.
Our latest blog series takes you from behind the starting line to across the finish. Enjoy!
In the real world, we tend to make important decisions deliberately. Especially when we're doing things that may be considered "academic" -- like figuring out the amortization on a mortgage or reading through the terms of an automobile lease agreement -- we are encouraged to do so with careful thought, and for good reason.
Do we want to agree to terms we haven't fully processed? Should we make financial decisions based on first time-time, blitz-like math calculations? Certainly not. Yet there is one roughly four-hour period in many high school students' lives that demand the sort of rapid-fire, no-second-thoughts action that, by and large, is discouraged in life after school.
I remember the last time I sat to take the ACT, it was at Bay Shore High school, located in Long Island, NY. I had taken the test before: once as a senior in high school, and twice more in my present position as Vice President of Education at Method Test Prep. Moreover, I have had extensive experience with the test, and the feedback I get from students, I would (and do) go so far as to call myself an ACT expert. Still, every time I take the exam, I am struck by how fast-paced and unforgiving a gantlet the ACT truly is. This Saturday's experience was no different...
