Checking ACT topics

>checking ACT topics
>Math section goes up to Algebra II
Wow holy fuck two whole algebras?! Why do people stress about the ACT/SAT this is fucking kiddie stuff. What did you guys feel when/if you took it?
I'm not a burger so I'm legit curious about this.

Math was a joke (I had a 35 when I took it in 2010). They can't require more than algebra 2 because that is the highest required math in most high schools. It would be unfair to have anything more than that.

The primary issue is timing. As an average highschool student its hard to finish all the questions with the allotted time. In reality most questions aren't too difficult, time constraints just make it easy to make mistakes. Also most people don't take it many times so they never get used to the tight timing. Once you get timing down your score will generally improve by a very significant amount.

Its Alegebra 2 because thats the highest required math in most highschools although most go up to Calculus.

For reference I got 32 composite on my first try and 34 composite on later attempts. I didn't try to get beyond a 34 because after a 34 the ACT scores suffer severely from diminishing returns. A 35 is worth it for the absolute best (Harvard/Yale/Princeton/Stanford) but the difference between a 36 and a 35 is almost meaningless, and due to elite college's holistic (read: we want to be able to admit whoever we want (Legacy and minorities) for any reason and have it justified) admissions you are far better off doing other things such as community service to help you get into elite colleges than striving for a 36 over a 35.

The whole thing is easy. I got a 35 on my first try.

I'm also black; people on Veeky Forums seem to believe that this is a necessary clarification to make.

Yeah I'm not sure either, I got a 35 on the math (33 composite) without studying and I'm a retard

I didn't get into a university and go to CC, most of my friends were stressed about it though and ended up with ~ a 28 lmao

>goes up to algebra 2
Did the act get rid of trig? I could have sworn it had trig when I took it.

I'm pretty sure trig is on it

Kek, i'm glad i'm going to take CC desu, don't have to deal with this shit since the CC placement test goes up to pre-calc and not Algebra II for some reason.
>inb4 brainlet
>I'm also black
Not /pol/ but you should keep the race thing away, it's no different from the "btw imma gurl".

>learning algebra without trig
retardedpepe.png

burger here, i finished university about six months ago but i think you'll find my experience entertaining. starting with high school:
>take geometry freshman year
>take algebra II sophomore year (and forget EVERYTHING over the summer)
>take ap stats junior year
>get one of three 4s in my class on the ap stats test, knew everything except for the free response question that was worth the most
>take ap calc ab senior year; ap calc bc was not offered at my school, and the pass rate was pretty low for the ap ab test
>take SAT twice, 1820 and 1940
>"okay maybe ACT will be better"
>35 in science, 28 in math; 32 average
>take SAT math II subject test, score 540/800
>"okay i'm angry now, i'm literally best at math in the school"
>study a bit, get 30 then 32 in ACT math
>study for a month for SAT math II subject test after school, high 700s on practice exams
>score 720 on next attempt
>get 4 on ap calc ab test
>get into berkeley, UCSD, irvine and UCLA; stanford said no though
>get to college, find that everyone i talked to got 800s on subject test, >2100 SAT scores, high ACT scores, 5s on all AP tests
>"wtf i hate myself now"
>work ass off and take honors math courses and get obliterated by chinese freshmen who get perfect scores on everything
>able to sit in on grad math courses
>get math degree and accepted for hire with dream job as a mathematician
it's been a ride fellas, but even us burgers can make it

>i'm literally best at math in the school"
Did you go to one of those schools for the mentally challenged?

no, it was a school in a low income area
students were a little more interested in being parts of gangs and what not, only a small percentage of students cared about school or thought about anything beyond community college
i think very highly of my teachers from that time, i think they did the best they could with what they had

You got into berkeley like that what the fuck

Fucking grades were so goddamn important regret fucking around in HS

Same with ECs I guess, only acting wasn't good enough

>top 30 colleges
>not getting perfect scores and still getting a job

Well I'm triggered

>take algebra II sophomore year (and forget EVERYTHING over the summer)
>forget EVERYTHING over the summer
>EVERYTHING
You serious? What the fuck is there to forget?

>forgot its the weekend I'm taking SAT, drive over to testing location and barely make it in time
>hungover, take SAT, perfect reading, 760 math, old test so writing didn't even matter
>get accepted into a bunch of universities
>still fuck up life
Tests dont matter user

>people on Veeky Forums seem to believe that this is a necessary clarification to make.

>I got a 35 on the ACT on my first try
>wow that's a pretty good score. Are you black?

>people on Veeky Forums seem to believe that this is a necessary clarification to make.
??? Who? /pol/?

>>work ass off and take honors math courses and get obliterated by chinese freshmen who get perfect scores on everything

I went to a UC. Chinese kids cheat their dicks off.

I smoked weed and slept through classes all through high school and got a 35 no prep, brainlets get jelly reeee

We had calculus I in high school.
t. european

i had the same teacher for stats that i had for algebra 2; i remember i asked her what the quadratic formula was in stats and her jaw dropped. apparently she had made a big deal about teaching the class a jingle to remember it

i'm sorry to hear that friend, i hope you figure things out

i wish i could be inclined to believe that, but some of them just had prior knowledge and a work ethic that i just couldn't compete with. our finals for the honors classes were on par with qualifying exams, so i don't know how they could cheat through that.
there's that, and they would also work together a lot. being the white guy who couldn't speak chinese, i could only study with the korean guy but he was sort of in the same boat as me so we couldn't help each other much.

We had Calc III in (public) high school.
t. American

>first score was a 25 because I'm awful with time constraints
>studied and raised my score to a 32

The test is simple as shit, but the time constraints are what get people. I knew everything on the test, but I had to study the nuances and how to increase my speed. I wouldn't say the test measures intellect, though; its more of a "can you focus under pressure" test.

>; i remember i asked her what the quadratic formula was in stats and her jaw dropped
Well as long as you understand the processes and shit after going through the course. Memorizing the quadratic formula isn't very important if you understand how to complete the square

I took both the new SAT and the ACT w/o any prep and on under 3.5 hrs sleep for both.
SAT: 1600 and 24/24 essay
ACT: 35 composite (math and sci both 36s)

They make these tests too easy. While the SAT is a little harder to hack with rigorous, targeted prep, any person with decent intelligence can get near a perfect score just from intense studying. For the ACT especially, because the questions are so easy, it's more just an issue of reading/working fast. I think people just get stressed either because they are just bad test takers (euphemism for stupid), don't want to put in the for test prep when they need it, or because the whole thing about performance on one test/day gives them anxiety.

Perfect scores definitely help to make applications stand out, but there are so few spots open at those kinds of institutions for simply great test takers with all the spots for URM, first gen, athletes, etc.

We have Calc II at best for the average student and DEs for those who are a year ahead of others in their class. You're not a special snowflake.
t. American

ITT: underage b&

If you didn't graduate college at least a decade ago then you need to fuck off.

Solving the math problems is just half the battle. You also need to race against the time limit. And the more you continue, the more difficult the problems become.

if you're not retarded then you should get a perfect grade in math

But all of the problems are easy (even the "difficult" ones) and can be done in 3/4 of the time offered tops.

>Algebra II

Rings and modules?

The fact that you have to announce that you're black anywhere on Veeky Forums proves /pol/ is a shitty containment board. There's a lot of Pajeet hate on /g/ and Veeky Forums which gets me down (People here bunch Mayasians in with Pajeets anyways)

I got a 28 when I took it in high school.

Pulled a 35 three years before I finished high school.

I'm a blue guy, by the way.

Do you go to an ivy??

Gonna have to call BS on this story.

Sadly enough I spent my last two years of high school doing Calc/Pre Calc so my algebra skills weren't as optimal as they could have been, so I didn't do as well on the ACT because of it

I slept through freshman and sophomore year of math so while upper level math concepts haven't been difficult to get the algebra kept coming back to bite my ass

???

AP Calculus BC, which every American high school has, is equivalent to Calc II. Most people at my school took it at 16 or 17.

Lmao you really thought Calc I in high school is something unheard of in America?

wew, that's a first, though i haven't shared it much before. why don't you believe my story, user?

I got a 1380 on the SAT and I just showed up. Didn't study a single minute and I had a 1.2 GPA.

I have no idea why people stress over this shit it should be a free 1400+ or whatever the scale is these days for at least 50% of the student body.

If I took it now I'd get a 1600 for sure.