Since we've already been down this road with Cheyenne, we decided this time around we'd give the ACT test an entirely different approach. When Chey took the test, she prepared for months by studying prep books and taking practice tests online. She finally got a score of 26-but she got that only after epic study sessions and then taking the test TWICE.
Mitchell, on the other hand, isn't really keen on epic study sessions. He'll focus on something then abandon the pursuit altogether in favor of building some strange monstrosity out of thrown out computer parts. So we decided that the best approach for Mitchell's ACT test taking journey would be a "Scared Strait" approach. Like those camps for wayward youth where they take them off to prison for a day and seize them with fear and trepidation-all in the name of setting them strait.
We decided to underplay the whole test taking adventure which was about to loom in his future. Since the test can be taken several times, we planned to send the poor boy in cold turkey and let him have a go...unstudied. We figured this would shock him into the reality that he'd better hunker down and get to some serious studying before he took another crack at it. And, after getting the results, he'd know exactly where his problem areas were. We knew this sort of surprise attack, taking a test so brutal, it would motivate him to spend the approaching winter months hunkered down studying like a madman.
Chey was in our our little scheme. She called him up one day and casually suggested he take the test and then helped sign him up for an upcoming test in a distant town. She/we didn't really fill him in on much else except the time and date and the casual comment that it would be a good idea to bring a #2 pencil with him on the day.
The next morning we gave the poor kid a pat on the back and wished him luck. And without much ado we sent him, like some sort of lab rat, into our crazy experiment.
Late in the afternoon, when Mitchell arrived back home from the test, his first comment was, "No one told me that was gonna be a four hour test!"
"Oh really? That long?" we replied trying to appear innocent and unknowing. [Perhaps we underplayed it a little too much.]
Then Mitchell adds, "It would have been nice to know how long that test was gonna take so that I would have known to bring more pencils with me." Apparently we'd been so casual about the test that he assumed the test would be about 30-40 minutes long. He said things got a little tense when he realized his single pencil may not last the duration of the "endless test".
For a small moment, we started rethinking our approach. Perhaps we'd really scared to poor kid so bad he'd be struck with a serious case of nerves for his second time around and we'd botched the whole thing. We tried to reassure ourselves that the plan was working. We were determined to help him take the test seriously the next time around and what better way then to help him know exactly what he needed to study.
Two weeks later his results arrived in the mail. We had mentally prepared our little "It's-gonna-take-a-lot-of-effort-and-study-if-you-want-to-get-a-good-score-the-next-time-around" speeches and had them ready to go when he opened the envelope.
When he opened his test results our knowing smirks turned to awe. The kid outsmarted all of us by scoring a 27. This put him in the 89th percentile.
So much for Operation: Scared Strait. Looks like we've been outsmarted by a teenage boy. That probably puts us in the 15th percentile. There's no #2 pencil that can fix that.
Wow! What a little genius! Only in high school and programming the navigator! Oh, and his test scores were pretty great too.
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