Why the ACT is a waste of energy

Junior year, the time to stress about senior year, college plans, and standardized tests. I, like many other students, have been constantly told to take the SAT and/or ACT. It’s been ingrained in our heads from a young age that these tests are super important. So, of course all students feel pressured to take said tests. 

Back in the summer, I started to feel stressed about the SAT and ACT because I saw my friends taking SAT classes to prepare while I was sitting there clueless, having no idea what I was supposed to do. Eventually, I ended up finding a tutoring program which offered SAT and ACT classes and I decided to take the latter.

I spent months taking these online classes — which was honestly kind of mind numbing — then after all that, I had to sign up for my test. Again, not really knowing what to do, I signed up a week before the deadline which led me to initially sign up for a test site in Reno. A month later, my site ended up getting changed mere days before my test — thankfully we hadn’t left for Reno yet because the new test site was in Turlock. 

The test itself was fine, about what you can expect from a 215 question test. I just had some issues with the whole process. For example, taking the classes was exhausting and stressed me out and the process of signing up and having my test site changed just added to that stress. Also, it upsets me to think about the fact that there is so much pressure for us to do well on these tests, but then we have to use our own free time and energy to prepare for them. I also learned later on that the tests are mostly just used for placement in college classes – just another reason why I didn’t need to waste my energy.

In the end the experience was not the most enjoyable for me, it was draining and overall just frustrating. It took so much energy out of me and ultimately, while it was a valuable experience I can’t say it was worth all the energy I put into it.