It’s American college testing season at high schools all over the country. Though it is a challenging test, people find ways to get through it. There are ACT prep classes and different ways to study. Students vary in the ways they prepare.

Not many people know what the exam is and refer to senior counselor Whitney Mikkelsen for information.

“The ACT is a timed standardized test that is broken up into four sections. English, math, reading, and science. The test is often one of the qualifiers that kids need in order to get into certain colleges or to qualify for certain scholarships,” said Mikkelsen.

There are many things that people find hard about ACT prep, senior Michaela Duran feels the thoroughness of every aspect of the exam tends to be tedious.

“The hard part about taking the ACT is remembering all of the equations, rules, and strategies that we were taught early in high school. So, I think relearning the basics would be very helpful as well as taking practice tests to give you an idea of what type of questions will be on the actual test,” said Duran.

The prep classes cover the four main subjects of high school but highlight the English and math portion of the test.

“Mrs. Roberts and I both plan to focus on the skills that are hit on the most in the English and math portions because those are the two areas that are more easily prepped for. We are doing a full practice test on the Saturday right before the test. The students will score themselves and then we will look at the types of questions they got wrong, and the following week, we plan to work through those types of questions and help kids understand why they got those questions wrong,” said Mikkelsen.

With the ACT there is stress, along with every other test. Some students are more stressed than others.

“The most stressful thing about the ACT for me is deciding how to pace myself. There is not much time to look over the questions, so you have to answer them to the best ability and move on. This causes a lot of issues when you reach a question you are unsure about, especially when you only receive enough time to spend about a minute on each question,” said Duran.

The ACT can be for everyone but there are recommended grade levels for the test.

“I would recommend it to juniors and seniors, and really if you are planning on taking the ACT that follows each prep class,” said Mikkelsen.

All in all, the ACT is a stressful test, but students and teachers always find a way to get through it one way or another.