USA TODAY International Edition
PREPPED TO BE PERFECT
Test-taking industry booms as students and parents work – and pay – to get an edge
CINCINNATI – Last week, Walnut Hills High School announced that 17 of its students scored a perfect 36 on the ACT college admissions test.
Things got a little crazy after that. Jimmy Fallon joked about the Cincinnati school on the “Tonight Show.” Social media blew up with congratulations and conspiracy theories. And test experts buzzed about what it all meant.
Was it really that unusual? Yes. But maybe not as unusual as everyone first thought.
Turns out, the number of perfect ACT scores nationwide has more than doubled since 2015 and is six times higher today than it was eight years ago.
In 2010, 1 of every 2,600 students nailed a perfect score. In 2018, it was 1 of every 500.
“There used to be a literal handful of students with a perfect score,” said Bob Schaeffer, public education director for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing. “Now there are thousands.”
The average test scores haven’t changed much. Those have hovered around 21 for at least the past five years. The scores at the top, however, have changed dramatically, widening the gap between the privileged and the rest. At Walnut Hills, an elite, public college-preparatory school, nine students posted
perfect scores in 2018, and seven more have done it so far this year.
“Walnut prepared me very well,” said Ray Conroy, one of the seniors who scored a 36. “It’s kind of encouraged to get good at test taking.”
If the test is essentially the same, why are so many more students acing it?
The most likely answer is a booming test-preparation industry built on the hopes and fears of students and parents who are willing to work – and pay – to get an edge. They see the investment of a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars in a test prep program as worthwhile if it helps land their child at an Ivy League school or secures a big financial aid package.
“The stakes are absolutely real,” said Mark Treas, CEO and founder of TorchPrep in Newport, Kentucky, which charges $1,700 for its comprehensive, private test-prep package. That package includes, among other things, 16 hours of tutoring, a two-hour strategy session and TorchPrep’s “Code Crackers” to help navigate the test.
Cream of the crop
If any school is primed for overthe-top academic success, it’s Walnut Hills. Students must pass an entrance exam to get into the school, so it’s the cream of the Cincinnati Public Schools’ academic crop.
Since 2008, Walnut students have earned a total of 32 perfect scores, which means half of those have come in the past 18 months. At Mason High School, just north of Cincinnati, 16 members of the class of 2019 earned a 36 on the ACT; another 44 missed it by a point.
Perfect scores are skyrocketing all over the country. In Kentucky, the number of perfect scores is nine times higher than it was in 2010. In California, it’s 11 times higher.
Treas said top students at highachieving schools are driving up the number of top scores because they are more focused on the test and more dedicated to preparing for it. That could mean taking multiple practice tests, special classes at school dedicated to the ACT or even taking the test itself, which costs at least $50.50 per sitting, multiple times.
Schools are on board with more aggressive preparation, Treas said, because they increasingly are measured by student performance on standardized tests. And parents are all-in because they see the financial benefits a higher score can bring. Those factors came together in the past decade to create a test preparation industry that did about $25 billion of business in 2016, according to the Journal, a magazine for school administrators.
“You’re seeing a market shift going on,” Treas said. “People weren’t doing this 10 years ago.”
Think like a card counter
A Google search for some variation of “ACT” and “test prep” is a testament to that market shift: “10 must-know tips for the ACT,” “Expert ACT test prep help,” “ACT 36 in just 7 steps.”
Test prep for the SAT, the other big college admissions test, also is booming. And top scores on that test appear to be rising too, although a major change in the SAT three years ago makes measuring those numbers more difficult.
In 2017, 5% of students who took the SAT scored between 1400 and the maximum score of 1600. In 2018, 7% of students hit that mark.
Treas, whose company focuses on the ACT, said he takes a practical approach to the tests. A former blackjack player and card counter, he said his goal is to give students better odds of scoring well by teaching them to practice and to understand the test’s structure.
A card counter has a system to beat the house. A test taker needs a system to beat the test.
“Generally, gamblers sit down at a table and hope to win,” Treas said. “You need to think of it more like a card counter than a gambler.”
Schaeffer, whose organization wants to reduce the emphasis on standardized tests, said a significant majority of colleges still admit more than half the students who apply. Yet the testing boom convinces many they must excel on the tests to go to college and be successful.
“Kids get the message that they’re falling behind,” Schaeffer said. “More importantly, their parents, who have the checkbooks, get the message.”
Not every parent can spring for prep classes, which can cost several hundred dollars, let alone for private tutoring, which can run thousands. But the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal this year revealed how far some wealthy parents would go to get their kids into elite schools, in some cases hiring others to take their children’s tests. Some parents even bribed university officials.
Research on test prep still is in its infancy, but studies suggest the kind of practice and repetition students get from test preparation are among the best ways to improve scores. Confidence also is a factor: If students feel prepared, they tend to do better.
They call me ‘Mr. 36’
Conroy, the 18-year-old senior at Walnut, jokes about it, but he wonders if such fierce academic competition is healthy. He got a 34 the first time he took the ACT, and he felt pretty good about it. Then one of his friends got a 34, too.
“I pretty much, out of competitive spirit, wanted to get a 36,” he said.
His friends call him “Mr. Perfect Score” and “Mr. 36” now, which Conroy thinks is funny. But at the same time, he questions whether some are putting too much stock in a test score.
“People think it defines your value as a person,” he said.
But Conroy, who is planning to study mechanical engineering at Ohio State University, said he doesn’t think a standardized test is the best measure of anyone, or even of anyone’s academic ability. “Whether or not you get a perfect score – it’s chance,” he said. “You just happen to know all the topics they test that day.”
Gabrielle Chiong, a 16-year-old junior at Walnut, took the ACT three times. She got a 33 her freshman year, a 35 her sophomore year and then a 36 this year. Fewer than 1% of test takers get a 35 or 36, but still, Chiong said she felt pressure for her third test. “I had a 35, so if I do worse, it would be embarrassing,” she said, calling it a “do-or-die, lastditch-test kind of thing.”
Students can feel such intense pressure, said Tracey Carson, spokeswoman for Mason City Schools. “We’re obviously very proud, and it’s a huge accomplishment,” Carson said, but Mason schools are consciously trying to remind students they do not have to be perfect.
“The students themselves are begging us to have these conversations,” she said. “Students describe an atmosphere of intense, sometimes very difficult pressure.”
For this valedictorian, regrets
In 2016, Mason High School valedictorian Alvin Zhang stood in front of his graduating class and admitted he had regrets. Sure, there were a lot of great times during high school, said Zhang, who earned a 35 on the ACT and is now studying applied mathematics at Northwestern University. But if he had it to do again, he would do it differently.
“I definitely wouldn’t have wanted to become valedictorian,” Zhang said in his commencement speech. “Unless you are truly passionate (about) what you study, I don’t think overworking yourself for better grades is worth it.”
Carson remembers Zhang’s speech. It broke her heart and got her thinking: “How do we take our foot off the gas a little bit?” Of course, she said, teachers and principals want students to do their best, but they also want to make sure students know, perfect ACT score or not, “You are good enough.”