My Boarding School Blog

American College Testing, most commonly known as ACT is a test designed to measure your capability to take on higher learning. It is characterized as aptitude tests used for screening purposes by most colleges and universities in the United States. The ACT gauges your knowledge and understanding in four areas namely English, Math, Reading and Science. Most colleges will require a good ACT score for admission to their institution.

The goal of taking an ACT exam is to assess a student’s readiness for college. Although ACT scores are sometimes used by the state to measure a school’s performance making it compulsory to all graduating students including those who does not plan on pursuing a college education. The student is tested on four subjects and there is an optional test which focuses on writing.

Scores will range from 1 being the lowest and 36 the highest in every subject. The English exam totals to 75 questions and students are given 45 minutes to complete the section. Questions are divided into two categories, 40 questions pertaining to usage and grammar of the English language while the remaining 35 questions are geared towards the rhetorical skills of the students. Mathematics comprises of 60 questions and given a total of 60 minutes to finish the section. The mathematics section is divided among Elementary Algebra (24 questions), Intermediate Algebra (18 questions) and combination of Trigonometry and Geometry (18 questions). Reading is allotted 35 minutes for 40 questions. Sciences and Social Studies cover 20 questions, and the remaining 20 evolves around Arts and Literature. Science covers 40 questions with only 35 minutes to answer.

What scores does a student need in order to gain admission to a prestigious college or university may depend on the standards of a particular educational institution. The highest score for ACT is 36 which can be very hard to achieve. Most universities consider an ACT score of 27 as satisfactory but other factors come into play such as:

• The national rank of other students who took the test showing where a student ranks among other test takers. An ACT score of 27 will not be sufficient enough if there are many of students who got the same average out of the whole population who took the exam.
• Scores on individual subjects are also evaluated to determine a student’s areas of improvement and which subjects they are more likely to excel in.
• High school records and school extracurricular activities.

ACT scores can also help in qualification for a scholarship grant that can be hard to achieve especially if there are many qualified applicants. ACT score is not the only ticket you’ll need to get into a good college you will still have to work on everything else to be rightfully given the chance to pursue higher education in a prestigious and renowned college or university.

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Cate School, established in 1910 by Curtis Wolsey Cate, is a four-year, coeducational, college-preparatory boarding school in Carpinteria, California, United States.

In addition to an academic curriculum that features a combined thirty-eight Advanced Placement (AP) offerings and honors courses, all students participate in an extracurricular program that includes athletics, drama, music, dance, community service, and an extensive outdoor program. The class size averages between ten and twelve students.

The student body of 265 students (83 percent are boarders) comes from twenty-three states and thirteen countries and is both academically talented and diverse.

Some Quick Facts:

Cate’s student body is recognized as much for its talent—academic, artistic, and athletic—as it is for its warmth and vitality.

Admission

> Inquiries received yearly for admission: 2,000
> Interviews conducted yearly for admission: 450
> Applications submitted yearly for admission: 450
> New students enrolled yearly: 75-80
> General median SSAT total percentile of new students: 80th

Student Body

> Total students: 265 (220 boarders / 45 day)
> Boarding students from outside California: 43%
> Boarding students from abroad: 19%
> Students of color: 41%
> Students who receive need-based financial aid: Almost 30%
> Financial aid allocated for 2006/2007: $2,000,000
> Foreign Nations represented in student body (by home address): England, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Macau, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand
> States represented in student body (by home address): AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, ID, IL, LA, MA, MD, MT, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, UT, VA, WA

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