Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Homeschooling the Teen Years - Taking the Next-Gen Accuplacer Reading and Writing Tests

D (age 16) finally got around to taking the reading and writing portions of the Accuplacer (college entrance exam) test, yesterday.

As you may or may not remember, he took the math section at the end of January, and had planned to wait about a week and then take the reading and writing sections.  Winter hit with a vengeance right after that though, and we didn't want to have to add the worry of whether we could make it to our testing appointment to the stress of the test. So, we waited until our roads had completely thawed out to schedule the final sections.

But really, there is no stress to this particular test - or at least there shouldn't be.  The Accuplacer is a placement exam, the reading and writing sections are designed to indicate if a student is reading, and prepared to write at a college level.  If they are not ready, you don't want them in college classes - they will fail.  If they are ready, it will show on the test (barring any type of serious disability that makes testing itself difficult, and then allowances should be made through your local testing center).

The Next-Generation version of the Accuplacer doesn't even include an essay section (the old Accuplacer required an essay).

That means that basically it's just a multiple choice, reading comprehension and basic grammar (read this section and correct the errors) type of test.  And from our experience, it seems that the equivalent of an 8th grade education is what is currently passing for "college ready" in our country.  So, really don't stress.

Not to mention, that on the off chance that a student crashes and burns on their test day, this is one of those tests that can be taken as many times as you like (for a small fee of around $10/section), and only the most recent score counts.

The College Board site (where you sign up for the SAT's) and the Mometrix test prep site have plenty of additional information about the how, when, where and why's of the test.  They even offer study guides - though if you take my advice you'll skip that in favor of an honest assessment of where your student stands.

It's great to be a homeschooler.

1 comment:

Ticia said...

Though if it's a practice version it can be helpful for a child who stresses about tests, like one of mine.