Latest:

News 

All in This Together: Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors Take ACT

admin

 

All freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will take the ACT during school on April 19. The seniors will be celebrating at their Senior Picnic while the rest of the student body will be bubbling in scantrons like the one pictured above.
All freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will take the ACT during school on April 19. The seniors will be celebrating at their Senior Picnic while the rest of the student body will be bubbling in scantrons like the one pictured above.

There are milestones in high school all students know are coming. Whether they prepare for those milestones or not, has been their choice for many years. One of these milestones for juniors is having to take the ACT. This year, Parkway North is preparing the future juniors (freshmen and sophomores this year) to take the ACT by requiring them to take some version of the ACT at the same time as the current juniors on April 19.

At 7:15 a.m., the juniors will report to the gym, the freshmen will go to English and social studies classrooms, and sophomores will go to science and math classrooms to take the exam. The seniors will be Creve Coeur Park enjoying their senior picnic. After the test is taken, all students will go to lunch and then be dismissed from school at 12:55 p.m. since it is an early release day.

Being prepared two years prior to the ACT is a great opportunity, but some peers in the class of 2017 argue that the younger students shouldn’t be able to be given this chance because every class before wasn’t given this practice.

“It’s unfair because we didn’t get that opportunity,” said junior Katie Wisniewski.

ACT prep courses have been offered at North for everyone, but it has always been on the student to sign up. Perhaps the school realised students need more of a push or proactive measure to get their studies going.

As freshmen, the  ACT seems far away. Just a year ago, they were taking the map test and preparing for high school. However, freshmen year is not too early to start preparing.

“They haven’t learned about [subjects on the ACT]. They don’t have to worry about college [yet],” said junior Christina Atienza.

Freshmen could possibly stress out at the lack of knowledge on the ACT taking it so soon, but by putting them in this position, they will know what they really need to focus on and what classes they will need a little more help in.

“Our hope is that is helps the freshmen and sophomores understand the structure of [the] ACT and set up goals,” said principal Jenny Marquart.

Some juniors walk into the ACT blind about what to do, how it’s set up, and what the questions are like because they didn’t prepare themselves. Now that students are being forced to have early contact with the test, the hope is this confusion won’t happen.

“Exposure helps; it’s about training for underclassmen,” said career and transition counselor Christy Wills.

Although the upperclassmen may be envying the lowerclassmen for their new opportunity, they should realize that the school is only trying to improve the scores for classes to come. Change is inevitable and sometimes people have to go through milestones on their own, and sometimes, they get help from others. With April 19 approaching fast, study, get rest, eat wel, and take the opportunity given seriously.