ANDOVER CENTRAL

Like it or not, college entrance exams play a very important part in the whole college entrance experience. There are two college entrance exams - the SAT and the ACT. Deciding which one to take is something that should be researched and discussed with your counselor.

Much is made of prep courses. The best preparation for entrance exams is having a good solid foundation in school and working your hardest in class. Aside from that, the best thing a student can do to help him or herself is not to go into a test cold. Understand what it looks like, know what the time allowed feels like and feel as comfortable as possible. With that in mind, students should take a few practice tests under conditions that are as similar to the test as possible. Each test is given Saturday mornings at 8AM - so get up one Saturday and take a full (almost 4 hour) practice test. See what it is like, how tired you get, and how hard it is to concentrate. It is strongly recommended students buy an ACT or SAT practice book from a bookstore that has a few, full practice tests in them.

The school does help students do prep work for these tests. Math and English teachers include prep work in their everyday lessons. We also offer prep sessions each semester for students to prepare for the ACT. Students at ACHS take practice tests which will give the students a good prediction of what they would score on the actual ACT or SAT. The PSAT test not only serves as a practice test, but is also used as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. We believe this program of giving students exposure to these tests at various levels has helped our students achieve well.

We recommend students taking the ACT their junior year (typically by the December test date). Sophomores are welcome to take the ACT but we encourage them to wait until the second semester of their sophomore year. This allows them to gain more knowledge from their classes.