This year for the first time, students will be able to exempt exams based on their pre-ACT and ACT scores. To prepare for the big test, the pre-ACT is taken by students during their freshman and sophomore years. Juniors take the ACT.
“All students will be able to earn exemptions in 9th, 10th, and 11th grade. Since seniors do not have a standardized test (the crux of this pilot) to use, they will not,” principal Steve Lodes said. “This year’s seniors got caught in the implementation and will never have had a chance to earn an exemption. Apologies to the Class of 2025.”
Students are tested on four categories during the ACT, including math, reading, science, and English. Teachers start to do ACT prep during freshman year in hopes of students getting their highest score possible.
“The math department has various activities planned both in each course and FLEX to help prepare students to show their best abilities,” math teacher Kate Hulett said. “Juniors have multiple FLEX offerings to choose that allow them to do ACT prep in the weeks before ACT and other core area classes will do activities to remind students of test taking skills to prepare.”
All 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students that earn “meeting” or “advanced” in the content areas of Math, English, and Science will have the option to be exempted from the exam (if exemptible) at the end of second semester.
“I’m glad the school decided to have exam exemptions. I think a lot of other schools also have exemptions, so I’m glad we do too,” sophomore Julie Lehman said.
Lodes hopes that this will improve their scores, which will benefit students in many ways.
“Students do better and have greater opportunities in applications and scholarships. The school benefits from facilitating greater student success and better results on our DPI School Report Card,” Lodes said.
If a student was advanced last the prior year on the PreACT, they must remain advanced in a content area to receive the exemption. Up to two exams can be exempt in total. Some classes will not offer an exam exemption because the exam is a part of their curriculum.
“I’m definitely going to try harder on the Pre-ACT to get an exemption. I hated exams last semester,” freshman Clara Svoboda said.
Many students hope to do very well on the ACT.
“I really hope I get a good score on the ACT. I don’t want to re-take it,” junior Lydia Anderson said.
