The ACT (American College Testing) is a required standardized test that all Juniors have to take. The score ranges from 1 to 36. There are four different sections: English, Math, Reading, and Science.
The ACT is taken each year at school at the start of Spring. It’s a major cause of stress for Juniors who are already in their hardest year of high school. They have AP courses, extracurriculars, jobs, and the SAT.
Judy Lundberg is the testing coordinator at Green Level for all testing that is mandated by Wake County. Lundberg creates the testing plan for the ACT specifically.
Lundberg said, “I am the one who creates the test plan. I find the staff to support the test plan, assign all the kids to the test plan, make sure accommodations for students are requested and assigned to a specific room. Then I prepare all the test materials for everyone.
Lundberg has a lot on her plate year round with each test. From the PACT, Work keys, ACT, AP exams, and the PSAT. Due to this, she must start planning each test very early.
“I probably started requesting accommodations before the holidays in December. Then I have to attend training for the county and through ACT. Probably like two weeks ahead, we do a test training to the staff who are going to support it. I’ve probably been working on the test plan since January,” Lundberg said.
There is also the piece of getting all the materials and everything prepared right before the test itself.
Lundberg said, “Getting you guys your booklets and instructions to create your account. Materials arrive, I would say, a week and a half ahead of the test. So, once I get them, it’s a scramble to get you guys set up for your materials and sort them by homerooms. We have to get your access codes because your access codes are another piece.”
The ACT went pretty smoothly with only a few minor hiccups. The media center finished testing an hour before the main gym and also before the aux gym. 95% of the Juniors tested. Only 13 out of 595 Juniors have to go to the retest next week.
Lundberg said, “The internet was the hard part. I think that was probably our biggest hiccup yesterday.”
Using the large rooms is necessary to ensure that everyone gets tested but with everyone being in one place, the internet can get rough. This is the same problem that occurs during AP exams. They may start staggering the start times for exams so this becomes less of an issue.
Students can help make sure that testing goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible.
“Next year’s Junior class when we meet in the Junior class meeting before the ACT test, it’s really about following the directions and the instructions,” Lundberg said, “We had students who didn’t listen to the test proctor and went into ACT gateway instead of Test Nav. That was a huge hiccup. They tried to log into the test using their account they created instead of listening to us saying you have a testing code. They weren’t listening to the instructions. Those were the two things that threw kids off yesterday.”
In conclusion Lundberg needs, “the Juniors to listen. We need Juniors to come to school.”
Junior Brynn Crawford was in the main gym and had to stay there until 1:00 PM.
Crawford said, “People weren’t listening and were just walking out. If they just sat in their seats and waited, we could have been out there an hour before.”
Junior Allison Peterson had a similar experience in the Aux gym, “One person wasn’t signed into the test and started 30 minutes after, if they could have listened the first time we wouldn’t have had to wait for them.”
People must come on the day that the test is, you can’t just skip. Make everyone’s lives easier and be respectful and good listeners during the test. The ACT went well but it could have gone even better if everyone showed up and stayed focused.
