Taking the ACT... at 42 years of age.

[tzikeh]

In order to move on to the next round of interviews for a tutor/teaching job, I have to TAKE THE ACT.

#1 -- I took the SAT, not the ACT, and they are not the same.
#2 -- I took the SAT TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO.

... I am going to have to learn trig all over again.

What is my life.

Comments

[silveraspen]

... can you not get an exception to use the SAT scores? Is there a translation?

Also, wtf. Good luck, either way!

[tzikeh]

No, there really isn't a translation as such, and all of the potential tutor/teachers have to take the exam--and all of them are college grads at least, so it's not like they haven't taken it before.

Just what I wanted -- back to high-school math classes!

[silveraspen]

Yikes. Um, have fun with that? Hopefully it will all come back quickly! How long do you have to prepare?

[giglet]

Trig is beautiful, and I hope that you won't find revisiting it too painful. Here, have a video:
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/basic-trigonometry?topic=new-and-noteworthy

[tzikeh]

Oh, yes, believe me, I'm already at Khan. I find some of the videos poorly taught, and there are some errors that should be corrected, but mostly it's immensely helpful :D

[ratcreature]

At least relearning things is easier than the first time around. Good luck!

[dorinda]

Sons of bitches, Bumpuses. *hug* They do say learning things keeps your neurons and their connections alive, so you are going to have a TOTALLY BUFF BRAIN.

For what it's worth, when I was prepping for the GRE standardized dealio, I was very well-served by the Princeton Review prep book for that particular test. It didn't just explain what the test was going to look like and give sample tests and whatnot (which was comforting and handy)--it also had some helpful inside dope. Like, in the Analytical Reasoning section (at least at that time) the testmakers include more sections than can be solved in the time allotted. This was to see how you performed under pressure. The book gave some tips about dealing with that--solving the most questions in the least time, picking things to skip, etc.

Granted, I can't speak specifically to their book on the ACT, so, you know. Cube of salt. But just in case it might help!

[tzikeh]

Yah, I did well on the GRE; certainly better on the math portion than I thought I would! The problems with the ACT are that it's not the same math as SAT/GRE math--I'm good at geometry and algebra I, but trig and algebra II not so much. Plus there is a big ol' freakin' science section. Do you know how much high-school science I remember? None. None high-school science.

[dorinda]

In high school science we dissected some things...hey, maybe you'll come in to the ACT and they'll hand you a fetal pig and say "HAVE AT IT."

You can still totally kick that test's hinder! Especially if lots of the questions are structured like the one you linked to. Seems to me that question is primarily a form of reading comprehension and critical thinking, rather than testing pre-existing scientific knowledge. The only answer that required me to personally remember something sciency was #5 (the question text didn't provide me with the knowledge of which gases make up the water vapor molecule, I had to know that myself).

In short: shine up your brain with turtle wax and go get 'em!

[tzikeh]

Well, that first page of science was more word-problemy - here's a sample of answers to later questions:

A. Hg2+, Cd2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Ni2+
B. Cd2+, Cu2+, Co2+, Hg2+, Ni2+
C. Ni2+, Hg2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Cd2+
D. Ni2+, Co2+, Cu2+, Cd2+, Hg2+

Time to go back to chemistry and shit like that. Oy.

At least Khan Academy gives me ALL the math, so I can brush up on that easily. :)

[dorinda]

Even that one, though! It actually has its own answer in the text of the question (no, for reals)... It's asking you to list the ions' speed of slinking up the paper from fastest to slowest in that particular experiment, according to the data in table 1. And in setting up the experiment, the question says, "Some ions move faster, and therefore farther than others,..."

So from the distance-traveled data in table 1, I listed the ions from highest distance to lowest (since the question says farther = faster) and I was right.

All I'm saying is, don't let, you know, SCIENCY SCIENCE TEST FOR SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE! make you psych yourself out. You can laser in on what they're actually asking, and sometimes it'll basically be, "Can you parse a complex/intimidating set of explanations/instructions and zero in on the one thing we're really looking for," which of course you tooootally can. Even before you brush up on your ions.

[sethrak]

Eeep. I took both back in the day, as I was unsure which colleges I wished to apply to, and some took one but not the other. I'd hate to be going through that again.

Good luck!

[d_generate_girl]

Seconding the Princeton Review recommendation. They were a godsend for my GRE's, I'd never have remembered a thing if it weren't for their prep book.

[d_generate_girl]

Ohgod, I am profoundly sorry to hear that. Good luck with the prep.

[thaccian]

It is not like you are in anyway science ignorant though. I'm confident you'll do perfectly fine on that section.

[thaccian]

Arg, I am however typing challenged. . .that should, of course, have read "any way". Thank gosh my current possibly, maybe, waiting to hear from, potential employer is not on the lurk here. . .since that is for an editorial position :-)

[waldo]

I took the ACT for my college acceptance and I never took Trig. And I did... more than 'fine'.

But to be fair, that was so long ago it was before they redid the scoring system.

[klia]

Icon says it all. /o\

Heck, at least you were able to learn trig back in H.S. I never, ever understood it; it just slid right off my brain like an egg off Teflon.

[xenacryst]

Again? Jeez. Well, at least it sounds like they like you so far. And feel free to chat me up if you want to bounce math around...

[phoenix64]

As someone who's considering becoming a 42 year-old college freshman I sympathize.