Forty-nine percent of high school students say that they feel “a great deal of stress” on a daily basis. High school students worry about the ACT a lot because of how important it is. Starting in ninth grade, teachers will talk about the ACT but never go in depth. ACT curriculum should be taught more in classrooms since students rely on it for their future. Also, it should not cost so much money to prepare.

Students take a test called the ACT which stands for American College Testing, it is a standardized test used for college admission. Tutoring and prep classes for the ACT are extremely expensive and some students can not afford it, which can cause more stress for those students.

“Once you get into 11th grade, there’s a very sharp focus on the ACT that takes the kids throughout the entire year focusing on a goal of getting a real strong score on it,” AVID teacher Brandon Maxwell said.

AVID is an elective that is a college prep class. It is the only class at Stillwater that really focuses on the ACT. They only do a strong focus on the ACT during 11th grade, but 9th and 10th grade, but it is only doing practiced timed writing, and deconstructing writing prompts. 

“People want to do well on it [the ACT} so they whatever it takes to do that,” junior Sophia Weiss added.

There are multiple ways that people can prepare for the ACT, such as getting a tutor, taking a prep class, doing an online course, taking practice tests, etc. These ways to prepare for the test can be very expensive and is why schools should teach the ACT curriculum so kids can be prepared. Act tutors can cost anywhere from thirty to fifty dollars per hour. If you chose to get a higher quality tutor their prices can range anywhere from eighty to two-hundred dollars per hour. That is why schools should teach the curriculum in class because some people can not afford that. 

“It is just a snapshot, you know, one day in time portrayal of how you’re doing,” counselor Becky Hopper said.

Most colleges really look at students ACT score and use that to decide whether or not they will accept students into their school. Sixty percent of colleges say that test scores are of “considerable importance” as a factor in applying for college. One reason why kids stress so hard when preparing for the ACT is because it basically decides their future.

High schools should focus more in-depth as to what the ACT since it is such a big factor when applying to schools. They should teach it more in our everyday curriculum so students know what they are going into when taking the ACT.

If schools taught the ACT curriculum in class, students would not be as stressed when taking the test and would get better scores on the test, which would have the applying process for colleges easier and less stressful.