With the beginning of a new school year comes the excitement of new professors, new friends and new courses. But according to new data, only 25 percent of 2010 high school graduates nationally who took the ACT exam are actually ready for entry-level courses, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
Students are required to take standardized exams to get into college, but these exams may not be the best indicator of academic readiness. Nebraska fares well nationally on the test, but some University of Nebraska-Lincoln students expressed doubts that they are prepared for college just because they did well on the exam.
"Incoming freshmen, despite their prior experiences in preparing for college entrance exams, typically have a hard time transitioning to college academics," said Jack Vespa, an English professor at UNL.
Vespa teaches 100-level courses and said he found first-year students exhibit varying degrees of readiness for the rigors of his class. Some students have trouble with aptitude, discipline and time management.
Vespa tries to prepare students by sending a letter or e-mail during the first few days of each semester. In the letter, he asks students to seek help from their network of friends and even the counseling center.
"I think the key to adjusting to the rigors of college is adaptability," he said.
According to Vespa, student behavior like skipping class, sleeping through an early class, failing to submit assignments and earning poor grades on assignments are all signs that an individual may not be prepared for college courses.
Many Nebraska students take the test, including a large portion of UNL applicants.
On average, Nebraska students do well on the ACT, scoring a full point above the national average on the ACT test. According to 2010 data from the ACT.org website, the state's average score was 22.1, while the national average was 21. The highest possible score is 36.
The ACT is the most popular college entrance exam taken in the Midwest. In 2010, more than 16,000 Nebraska students took the test, including 73 percent of Nebraska high school graduates.
Students in Lincoln Public Schools scored a point lower on average than in years past according to the Nebraska Department of Education. However, they still scored 2.2 points higher, a 23.2, than the national average.
As a district, LPS students scored higher in each of the subject areas than the state and national averages. Omaha schools, however, are a little less than two points below the state average with a composite score of 19.4.
ACT has set benchmark scores that indicate college readiness. For a 50 percent chance of passing an 100-level English class like Vespa's with a B and a 75 percent chance of passing with a C, students need to score 18. For college algebra, that score is 22. For the social sciences, that score is a 21, and for biology, that score is a 24.
As for Nebraska students' college readiness, the ACT divides students into three categories: students who have completed core coursework, students who have not completed core coursework and students whose core coursework information was missing. Core coursework is defined as four years of English, and three years of math, social studies and natural science.
Almost 80 percent of Nebraska students who took the ACT in 2010 had fulfilled the core requirements. Of those 12,900 students, 81 percent reached the readiness benchmark for collegiate English, 56 percent reached the readiness for math, and 65 percent reached the readiness for reading. Only 40 percent reached the readiness for science.
The role exams like the ACT play in preparing high school students for college is debatable.
Although it has been used as a benchmark for students who intend to enroll in college, many wonder if the test alone is a suitable indicator of a student's ability to succeed in college.
Producers of the ACT test say it is high school curriculums that prepare students for college, not solely the test.
Alan Cerveny, dean of admissions, said a high ACT score isn't the only requirement to be accepted at UNL. UNL places more emphasis on completion of its high school curriculum requirements than on the test.
According to UNL Admissions, student performance requirements for acceptance at UNL are in the upper 50 percent of their high school class or an ACT composite score of 20 or higher or an SAT total score of 950 or higher.
The College of Architecture and the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts require an ACT score of at least 22, and the College of Engineering requires a score of 24 or higher.
Although the ACT dictates a lot of a student's future when it comes to receiving academic scholarships and being accepted to the college of their choice, some students don't think the test is the only sign of whether a student will sink or swim in college.
Southwest High School graduate Lauren Geisert took the ACT last year. Geisert, a freshman biological sciences major, said she doesn't necessarily believe the ACT is a good indicator of how a student will do in college. She thinks it all has to do with how hard a student is willing to work.
"I'm a strong believer that a person doesn't have to be the smartest one in the classroom, but can have an incredible work ethic and earn a better grade than 75 percent of the kids in the class," Geisert said. "Since leaving high school, I now realize that most college classes consist of exams, exams and more exams. The same hard work concept is still relevant but is applied in a different way."
Geisert also said she doesn't think preparing for the ACT is equivalent to preparing for exams in college.
"Although there are correlations between the ACT and college testing, I would say they're not incredibly comparable," Geisert said. "There are other factors to think about in a student's first year of college, like going to class, going out on weekends, etc."
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