Parents should be used to their kids’ grumbling and muttering at this time of year. It’s back to school for most of the Virgin Islands’ children and youth – some are excited, others are indifferent, but most wonder why summer seems to always end too soon.
There are 34 public schools and programs, about 1500 teachers and approximately 16,500 students in the Virgin Islands.
With a new school year comes another batch of college-bound seniors who have taken a hack at the SATs and ACTs, America’s standardized tests that hold influence on the college admissions process. Mixed results can be taken from how last school year’s graduating class fared against the national test score averages.
According to testing date release by the College Board, the class of 2007 fared slightly better than the previous year’s class in critical reading scores but didn’t fare as well during the math and writing section. VI students showed the greatest decrease in its writing scores, having averaged 426 this year as compared to 434 in 2006.
I have had my share of standardized test taking and I was relieved when it was all over. I wasn’t too fond of the pressure-filled time limit and the large amount of sections that I had to complete in a matter of four hours. The best advice I could give to any student looking to take the SAT or ACT in the near future is to sleep well the night before, have a filling but healthy breakfast, and get ready for a very…very long morning.