On Tuesday March 1st and Wednesday the 2nd, Arrowhead’s juniors took the the ACT and WorkKeys

This ACT test was a luxury to many juniors, as it was  completely free of charge. The usual exam costs $75.

This free examination of the ACT is now required in schools systems, starting with the previous 2014-2015 school year. The ACT is a popular midwestern college admissions test, as opposed to the SAT, and measures what you learned in high school to determine your academic readiness for college.

A frequently asked question students have about the ACT is, how do they prepare for it? Many students have confessed to buying expensive ACT prep books — only to have them sit on a shelf. Other students admit to walking into the ACT on exam day ready to wing the exam completely.

Gianna Natalizio, currently an Arrowhead senior, said that when she took Arrowhead’s ACT that, “I wish I had done better, so I wouldn’t have had to take it again and could have saved a couple bucks.”

The best preparation for the ACT, according to the official website itself, is taking a solid high school program—courses in English, mathematics, science, and social studies—and taking your schoolwork seriously. It’s also true that your attitudes, emotions, and physical state may influence your performance.

This testament holds true for Arrowhead graduate Taylor Radtke who says, “The first time I took the ACT was Arrowhead’s and I got a 24. But I thought I would try again and just see if I could do any better…The exam was supposed to be at Lake Country Lutheran at eight o’clock on a Saturday, so I asked my dad to wake me up for it. But he completely forgot and I woke up ten minutes before I was supposed to be there. I got there just in time, but I was so stressed out that I actually did worse.”

Because of the juniors exams Tuesday and Wednesday, Arrowhead cancelled all North Campus classes and dedicated the entire campus to ACT testing. Meanwhile at South Campus, all freshmen and sophomores went about their regular school day schedules. Sophomores or freshmen with any North campuses were instructed to stay at South.

As for seniors, they got two days off free to do what they pleased. Although Director of Learning, Sue Casetta, sent out a school wide mail encouraging seniors to use these days off to their advantage. She suggested students consider spending time by volunteering for a local organization, reading a book, researching and completing scholarship opportunities, or getting caught up or work ahead on a school project or paper.

Senior Arden Casanova said that, “Having two days off for seniors is good because we could use that time to tour colleges.”

And while many seniors took this as an opportunity to simply sleep in and spend the day in bed, many others used it as an opportunity to go adventuring. Emilie Graff and friends visited Lapham Peak, Alex King and Olivia Bohnsack saw the Milwaukee Art Museum, Zach Zander and friends visited Discovery World, and Nicole Hospel took advantage of Five-Dollar-Tuesdays at the Hillside Cinema Movie Theatre.

As for Juniors, once they finished taking their exams they got early release and were free to go home.

But lastly, junior Julia Sheppard said, “I think the ACTs days were pretty nice because we still got out early. It also was a reminder that we’re all going to be seniors next year and to start thinking about the future.”