Gallery • 4 Photos

By Aidee Barron- Mendez

Going over the practice test, ACT prep teacher Jeff Wieland explains which answers are correct and why.

For the first time ever, the school is offering ACT prep sessions throughout February to help juniors prepare for their ACT Tuesday, March 1. The sessions are held in the commons during seminar, with each individual session focusing on a different section of the ACT. 

This is the first year that this opportunity has been given to juniors at Mill Valley. Math teacher Jessica DeWild, who hosted the math session, explained how the sessions were implemented this year.

“It was [principal] Dr. [Gail] Holder’s idea. She knows that we have the ACT prep class here at school and we try to do a good job to prepare students to take the ACT if you take it as an elective,” DeWild said. “She wanted to give that opportunity to students that either weren’t able to get into that elective or didn’t have time or room in their schedules.” 

The first session took place Tuesday, Feb. 8 and focused on the math section. Junior Lauryn Daly attended this session and described what resources were provided to help students work through the section.

“They gave us a packet with tips for the ACT along with a two-page packet of practice problems from the ACT,” Daly said. “Having the formulas and the practice problems helped me prepare.”

The sessions were created to help all juniors, whether they have taken the ACT previously or not, earn a satisfactory score. DeWild further explained the purpose of the sessions. 

“The main thing is to give test tips and strategies and to give a brief exposure of what the test questions will look like for students that haven’t taken the test before,” DeWild said. “For my session, we did an overview of how to take a math test, some strategies to make your score better and then we did a few practice problems.”

As a student who has never taken the ACT before, Daly expressed how the session provided information on what the test will be like.

“I think they gave a lot of good tips and explained the tests so that people could understand 

what is expected of them during the test,” Daly said. “They showed how to work through the test and examples of problems so that students can get a feel for what the real test is like.”

DeWild hopes that the sessions provide the basics for students to do well on the exam and achieve the overall goal of improving test scores.

“The goal is to try to get as many students as possible to have some exposure so we can try to get all the students to reach their potential on the test,” DeWild said. “[As well as] to try to get kids more scholarships and get into their desired college.”

Here are the dates for the remaining sessions and which sections of the ACT will be covered on each corresponding date: 

Thursday, Feb. 10 ~ Science

Friday, Feb. 11 ~ English

Tuesday, Feb. 22 ~ English

Wednesday, Feb. 23 ~ Science

Thursday, Feb. 24 ~ Reading

Friday, Feb. 25 ~ Math

Tuesday, March 1 ~ ACT test day