Activity 31
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Overview
Self-Advocacy
Assistive Technology
Planning for College
Applying to College
Introduction
Getting Started
Activity 26
Activity 27
Activity 28-29
Activity 30
Activity 31
Activity 32
Activity 33
Activity 34-35
Summary
Disability Services
Adult Services
Taking the SAT, ACT or Placement Tests
What Students Do
Following a meeting with a counselor, research on the Internet, application for accommodations and test preparation, students take the required entrance and placement tests. Once test results have been received, students revise and refine their college application plan as necessary. This activity is started during winter of the junior year and continues until the tests have been taken and a decision not to retake has been made.Planning
In planning to support students preparing to take the SAT or ACT:
- Note test dates on your planning calendar.
- Refresh your memory on how to obtain practice tests and the procedure to apply for accommodations. You will find similarities to the information you collected earlier for the preliminary tests (PSAT and PLAN) in Activity 30. The counseling and career center offices will have up-to-date testing information.
- Remember that practice tests predict how students will score on an entrance test. Hopefully your students' preparation efforts will have been focused on deficit areas identified in the preliminary tests.
- Look carefully at entrance requirements to learn what different colleges expect.
- Once students receive scores, they need to discuss the results with the school guidance counselor.
Use individual college Web sites to become familiar with how test results relate to college admission. Many communities offer pre-college test preparation classes. Your counseling office may have information on local classes.
Introducing the Activity
Students who have taken one or both preliminary pre-college tests will have an idea what the actual SAT or ACT will be like. You can help them grasp the importance of the test - and therefore the need to prepare - by explaining how and how colleges use the information in the admission process.
- Go over the components of the activity and explain that they will be doing the various components over time.
- Getting an early start allows for sufficient time to prepare and develop skill with accommodations.
- Explain that they will be working with both the counseling office and you.
- Finally, explain that their planning will be an important tool to keep them on-track.