ACT Registration

ACT registration finally opened today at 8:00 a.m. PT. It was supposed to open last Monday but the site crashed an hour into its initial opening. Therefore, we had to wait an added week to figure out when we could take the ACT. I will detail my experience below:

I woke up at 7:55 a.m. and rolled over to get my laptop where I opened my browser and signed in to act.org. It gave me a timer of how long I had until registration opened, so I waited the extra four minutes. It then said I was in "the queue" of people waiting and so I then had to wait another 27 minutes to get onto the site. The reason why they did this is so that they didn't have too many people on the site at once (to prevent further crashing). Once I got on the site, I attempted to find a testing center near me. I wanted to take the ACT with essay, as even though most colleges don't look at the essay, in the small chance I apply to a college who does, I wanted to be prepared. Unfortunately, I could not find any dates until December for anything in my area. I even searched places within a 90 mile radius from where I live, but could not find anything. Every test center simply said: no seats available. Whether this is due to others having taken the seats or to coronavirus having shut down the centers, I do not know.

So, to test out other options, I tried to see if things were different for the ACT without an essay. Thankfully, I was able to secure a spot in a nearby town's testing center in October. Even though it was without the essay and not in the right month (I preferred September due to have time to get early decision applications together), I was very happy I got a spot at all. I have heard through that grapevine that many of my peers were unable to get a spot until December, if at all. My friend was unable to submit her order even after she had settled for the date in December. This is very frustrating as UC schools that many of us are applying to have an early application period and applications are due before December (November 30th). As I am now reading the hundreds of angry comments on ACT's Instagram, I am realizing that for many schools, early decision applications are due in October, and therefore only the September dates would have come in time for the application. In addition, all of these students began to register at the same time (8 a.m. PT) but yet were still put in queues for sometimes upwards of an hour and then were told that no September dates were available.

The ACT had previously stated that they would email all high school seniors in the coming week who were unable to test over the summer due to the virus an email that would detail our options as well as "an accelerated fall registration experience". I still have received no such email, and they announced that all emails would be sent before the registration opened. My friend got the email at 4:52 this morning.

I feel as if ACT should have given seniors early access to registration this morning instead of posting on Instagram a photo with the caption "Juniors, be a buddy to your fellow seniors in need of scores for deadlines." They should not just expect the juniors to be respectful, but instead provide some kind of system so that seniors get priority. It's like when the supermarkets opened an hour earlier so that higher risk people could shop more safely.

Because of COVID-19, this big scramble for test spots has suddenly appeared. I know that the College Board and ACT are doing their best, but we students need them to adapt their policies and tests to this situation.

ACT, be a buddy to your senior customers in need of scores for deadlines.

#teen #news #blog #act #covid19 #coronavirus #registration