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Comment by kebsup | Hacker News Reader

I've taken ACT as an exchange student when I was in the US. I didn't need it, but everyone in my grade was doing it and it was for free, so why not.

Sometimes people say, that for ACTs, one needs a specific knowledge of how to take the test, which does not teach you anything, but I did not get the feeling.

All of the questions seemed quite reasonable, no tricks and not even a need for smart ideas (unlike let's say math Olympiad). Basically know the basic math rules, and you'll be fine.

The knowledge I've gained at a Czech Gymnasium with more traditional methods (i.e. no multiple choice) translated very well into getting a good score.

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> Basically know the basic math rules

I was raised in the Southeast, USA. That's a big ask of us and our education system.

In my state, we have a few state administered tests that are taking throughout one's primary schooling years. Student take these exams at periodic intervals. For example, there is one for reading comprehension and assessment taken, iirc, at grade 3, 6, and 9 or something like that.

Well, 60% of students in my state right now who took the 3rd grade reading comprehension assessment have failed to demonstrate the ability to read at a 3rd grade level.

I have a hard time accepting these test [ACT/SAT] as some kind of arbiter or one's future when the education system is failing many students long before he or she ever gets to take the SAT/ACT.

I feel this way about most of the standardized tests. I took the LSAT on a whim which no prep and scored 95th percentile. The whole thing was completely reasonable and mostly tested basic logical reasoning and vocabulary/reading comprehension. At the time, there was a short essay component which was entirely about the ability to express whatever thoughts you were supposed to express clearly.

The thing about these tests is that they are all perfectly reasonable. The main reason people have a test with them is they also tend to identify people who _probably_ should not be in college at all and that is not a message anyone wants to accept needs to be sent.

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