You might remember me writing about my son taking the SAT a few weeks ago. On Saturday, he took the ACT which is another college prep test. I can report that while I did camp out in my car again for 4 hours (with laptop, hotspot, ipad, & iphone), I didn’t resort to peeking in the windows to check on him. Baby steps people, baby steps! He did a great job getting through the 4 hour test. He was a little fried after sitting for that long and he was very hungry. We met up with Dad and sis for lunch and then all went to see Kung Fu 2 at the movie theater. I’d like to tell you how the movie was, but I slept through about 90% of it. LOL! My hubby said “that was an expensive nap for you” and I replied that it was worth every penny! The parts of the movie I did see were cute and everyone else seemed to enjoy it.
While my son was taking the ACT, I couldn’t help but think of when I took it at his same age. My circumstances were completely different of course, and it was interesting to do a mental comparison. I don’t remember a lot about taking the test. I drove myself to the testing location. I can actually remember what I was wearing (a faded guess denim mini-skirt and my favorite zip neck white sweatshirt), so I guess that shows you what was important to me at the time. I know I thought that the test was a huge inconvenience and a big interruption into what I would have rather been doing. I didn’t feel very stressed out about it, I’m not even sure I took it that seriously. I had a good friend who was a straight-A student who was planning on going to a big school back east. She was quite taken aback by my casual attitude about the whole thing. I figured I would do fine and get into college without any trouble. I wasn’t planning on anything in the Ivy League range anyway. That is how it turned out. I got a decent score (although I can’t remember it now and I don’t know if I even have record of it). I got accepted without any trouble to Utah State University and later ended up graduating from the University of Utah. My attitude toward grades and scores drastically changed once I hit college. After a mediocre first semester (grade-wise), I got very good grades from that point on. I took my college classes very seriously and worked hard. Looking back, I’m a little amazed at my own attitude at the age of 17.
Of course being a 17 year old clothing-obsessed girl in 1986 is vastly different than being a 17 year old guy with high functioning autism in today’s world. There really isn’t anything to compare, except for the fact that we were both 17 when we took the ACT. I am going to look through my old files and see if I can find my score. I would bet good money that my son’s score will be higher than mine, and I think nothing would make me happier. After all, I’ve been his homeschool learning coach for the past 5 years and his life learning coach since he arrived in this world. However, his success is his own. He is very smart and always tries his best. I’m so proud of him and I’m happy that he has moved through the milestones of taking standardized college prep exams. Big stuff!
Did you take the SAT or ACT as a teenager? Or do you live in a place with different requirements? Did you go to college? Did you want to go to college? What were your attitudes about school and grades when you were a teenager?
All great things to document on a Memory Monday!
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