It's my last year of highschool. Any advice?

Answered

Do all the ACT Preps on Prep Scholar for the score (https://blog.prepscholar.com/complete-official-act-practice-tests-free-links)... Worked for me, I averaged like 30-31 on these tests and got a 31 taking the nationwide junior exam with the nicer curve.

As a former Massachussets student, I will tell you the SAT gives you more time per question in some sections, so if you are struggling to finish that might be a better alternative since practically every college takes both. Also no pesky science section to worry about, haha!

Honestly, your year is test optional and I know people who didn't do well on standardized tests and got into good schools by not submitting... I think it absolutely gives you at least a minuscule advantage to have a good score, but you don't need it if you don't have it.

EC-wise, I exploded in my final 15 months after doing not much... Really easy stuff to do is start a club or honors society if you are close with a teacher running a similar club, they usually will say yes to start (you get leadership they look for in ECs). Also, go for honors and awards... Sign up for random math leagues or journalism competitions like I did: you lose some, but you get some recognition for your effort. Remember the CommonApp/Coaltion looks for 5 spots for awards you got to fill... Lastly, just stay true to who you are; do stuff you're interested in! There is so much you can do if you just ask people: email a local college professor about a research project, email your principal to get onto your school's COVID-19 policy review team, email your old school teachers to start a tutoring service, email random students in France to work on journalism projects (these things all actually kinda worked for me and other people I know { granted there are some failures not listed, but they are worth trying})...

Overall, colleges what you care about and how much effort you put in those things... They like creativity, go-getting, leadership/org skills, and someone who makes a difference... Those things shine on a resume, when your extra nights working on a slides presentation gets 50 elementary school kids to your tutoring Zoom since its that good!

Best of luck, and please enjoy your summer too and don't stress out too much! I find overlapping your college resume building and stuff you love is the only way to get through a tough time like these years! You got this!

I got a 36 on both of those sections and I’ll give some advice on each of these that has helped me and other people I know.

Math: People who struggle with math usually do so because of the time constraints. The best way to combat this is to do practice sections with more time than usual and slowly get down to the normal limit. Also keep in mind that the questions get harder toward the end. So try to avoid rushing and missing an easier question just so you can attempt a question you have a higher chance of missing. All questions are weighted the same.

Science: The technique that I see touted the most for science is annotating. This is to say you make small notes of what the question is looking for so that you can quickly identify what you’re looking for on the chart. For example if a question is asking you to identify the river with the greatest ph in a specific year. You would write down next to the question : river , >, ph, (year). This helps clarify the question and makes the answer easy to identify.

Hope this helps!