Taft’s first practice ACT took place on Dec. 17, 2024, with the participation of junior students. The purpose of this assessment was to show the students how the real ACT would be. After taking the practice exam, students would be able to know the structure, content, and style of the ACT.
The ACT is a standardized test, like the SAT, that measures college readiness by assessing students’ skills in multiple subject areas. But the difference in test structures is that the SAT has math and reading and writing, while ACT has math, English, reading, science, and an optional writing section.
According to Coordinator and Assistant Principal Theone Haralampopoulos, the best challenge of the transition was, “Adapting to a new platform and the online testing system.” She later said, “The staff was already very comfortable with using the ACT, so there was a little bit of a learning curve the day of, from transition into this new platform.”
Haralampopoulos said it was fortunate that the staff managed to quickly adapt to this new system. She also said that the logistics, organization, and preparation for the practice ACT were the same as the SAT.
Haralampopoulos said the number of test-takers was around 86 percent of the junior class. “That’s very close to what the kids took last year for the PSAT, so it was around the same amount,” said Haralampopoulos.
She added, “Overall, from what I’ve heard so far, the student feedback on the Pre-ACT was positive.” Haralampopoulos later said, “With many students, they were actually very happy that they were able to familiarize themselves with this new testing format.”
According to Haralampopoulos, the students said that the hardest section of Pre-ACT was the science reasoning portion, English being the easiest portion.
For resources, Haralampopoulos said that they are looking into it to help students prepare for the ACT in coming years. She said that after-school programs and clubs among other things are going to be prepared and posted on the Taft website.
“We also have our student bulletin that students should look at with updates on there and you’ll see that there are resources on there that are tailored to ACT prep, practice tests, study guides, instructional videos,” Haralampopoulos later mentioned. “Overall right now, students do have access to the ACT-Now website and on that website, they have a number of practice tests that students can actually start looking at now.”
Haralampopoulos’ advice for students who are planning to take the ACT is having flexibility and being adaptable. “There are always gonna be challenges and the processes are always gonna take a little bit of time but have an open mind and keep looking at the bulletin and the Taft website and we will be refining our approach as we move throughout the years.”
Taft junior Violeta Boiarnytsia, who has taken Pre-ACT, said, “I used to practice with the exercises for the test, I also reviewed some math and English grammar material before the actual assessment.”
In regards to challenges in preparation for the test, Boiarnytsia said, “The hardest part of my preparation was finding time to study.” In regards to the test itself, she said, “The hardest part of the test was finishing the math section on time.” Boiarnytsia also said, “The easiest of the sections was the English and Grammar part.”
Boiarnytsia later said about her experience during testing, “I spent a few hours there. It wasn’t a lot but it gave me an idea of what to expect of the ACT in spring.” “This test has shown what I need to work on for the ACT.”
Boiarnytsia later said, “I was able to understand what the ACT was and now I can prepare for it more efficiently in order to get a perfect score.”
When asked about takeaways she said, “The biggest takeaway for ACT that I can say is time management is very important, you need to pay attention to the time, work on the tasks fast, and stay focused and accurate.”
Boiarnytsia said her feedback to the Taft administration is, “I believe that the school could offer more practice tests and workshops to help us get ready, especially for the real ACT that is taken in spring.”
Taft has shown progress in preparing to ACT for future test taking, and it will be a testament in how the school will continue academically in the future.
