PSAE & ACT for Juniors
by Haley Thomas
March 20, 2008
On Wednesday, April 23, and Thursday, April 24, all juniors across the state of Illinois will take the Prairie State Achievement Examination (PSAE). On the first day of testing students will take an official ACT exam. The second day of testing is a combination of the ACT Work Keys tests and an Illinois State Board of Education assessment. As a result of the two days of testing, each student will receive four PSAE scores, one for each of the subjects tested on the PSAE: reading, writing, mathematics and science. One of the benefits of taking this assessment is that students are able to send their ACT results directly to any college or university they may be interested in attending.
Students may earn a Prairie State Achievement Award for each of the tested subjects in recognition of an excellent performance. As a school, we have added incentives for our students to put forth their best effort. The most notable incentive is for students to become exempt from their English, math and or science semester exams next December. If a student earns an "exceeds" or "meets" designation in one of the particular subject areas, they may choose not to take their semester final exam. The other incentive will be allowing the students to leave after the completion of the exam each day. We anticipate finishing at approximately 1:00 on Wednesday and around 12:30 on Thursday. We will serve pizza on Thursday to celebrate the end of the exam. Students are dismissed from school once they have finished eating.
The testing sessions will be held in the auxiliary gym here at the high school. The first day of testing will take 4-hours while the second will take only 2 ½ hours. Students who are absent on the testing dates will make-up exams on May 7 and 8.
On Friday, March 20, all juniors listened to a power-point
presentation regarding the test and its magnitude. Our students
should have a solid understanding of each day of testing as well as
the importance of putting forth their best effort.
We expect our students to do well on the exam. Because this is a
very extensive and crucial exam for both our students and our
school, it is going to be extremely essential for our students to
be well rested and prepared. Each student has received practice
test materials to help them prepare for the exam. Other helpful
resources can be found on our web site by going to "Guidance"
on the left hand side of the page.
