ACT Scores

My son is a 2016er and a Fuzzy. He is a Political Science Major. The opposite of a Fuzzy is a Techie. Think engineer or other technical major. All Fuzzies take Calc 1 and Calc 2 the first year unless they can validate out of one or both of them. But the math doesn't end there for Fuzzies. They will take Calculus based physics and engineering classes including mechanical, electrical, aero and astro. Even English majors at USAFA must survive hardcore math.
 
Does anyone know the month of the absolute last ACT/SAT one can take to be considered in their application file for appointment the Academy? January, February, March, April or May of my senior year in high school?
 
AirForceWon said:
Does anyone know the month of the absolute last ACT/SAT one can take to be considered in their application file for appointment the Academy? January, February, March, April or May of my senior year in high school?
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I called yesterday to ask the same question, and my counselor said that they will take scores up till the end of this month. I took the January 24th SAT, and she said that no later than the end of this month, and they may or may not even review my scores.

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Jumping in on the math question...

Everyone is required to take Calc 1&2 or validate. If you can validate math, I would HIGHLY recommend it. Some people recommend the "sleep through the validation and get an easy A" approach. Hint: at least with Calc, this often backfires! You may be perfectly ready for the next level, but still not do well in the level before.

I was in the group of 60-ish frosh who validated Calc 1&2 and went directly into 3. If you are at a point where you think you can validate 1 and 2, do it! If you are definitely going to be a fuzzy major, all you have to take after that is Stats (for lovers & poets.) If you're going to be a techy major, you get the advantage of the fact that the Math department loves fall semester freshmen in Calc 3 and would really like you to declare math. Result? You get some of the best teachers the department has to offer. (You are also in a class with only other freshmen, which is nice.)

Disclaimer: I am an applied math major. I was not considering math as a major until taking Calc 3. I am really glad I didn't take the advice of one of the cadre over the summer to get out of it! Your experience would likely be different from mine, but I would still recommend validating as much math as possible.
 
JoeyM said:
baileydb said:
So if we scored really high in one area but no so hot on another, will they kind of let one good score make up for a bad one? For example, I got 35 in English but only 26 in Math (and I have taken it 3 times and STILL can't seem to raise my math score!). Will a good English balance out the iffy math one?
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I don't understand any of this. The ACT has a composite score. The USAFA superscores. "Balancing" out anything makes zero sense. If you meet the scores, you're good, if you do not, then it's set in stone like that. An 800 in SAT reading (for example) won't offset a 400 in math if that's what you're asking. It has no relation with your aptitude in mathematics in any way, and since (hypothetically) you could do really well on a certain section, there's no way they could think, "well maybe (s)he is just a bad test taker."
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Alright so I see you don't totally understand how super scoring works so I shall give you a real life example, my real life example. My scores are not the best in the world because I am a bad standardized tester. I always do better than average but not super amazing! and I did better on my SAT but as far as ACT goes her how Superscoring works.

Here are all of my scores listed by date taken and broken up into Subscores

April 2014
Composite: 25
English: 20
Math: 25
Science: 26
Reading: 29
Writing/English Combined: 19

September 2014
Composite: 24
English: 25
Math: 23
Science: 25
Reading: 22
Writing/English Combined: 24

October 2014
Composite: 23
English: 24
Math: 20
Science: 23
Reading: 24
Writing/English Combined: 23

December 2014
Composite: 24
English: 26
Math: 21
Science: 25
Reading: 23
Writing/English Combined: 24

As you can see, my scores are all over the place but I sent every set of scores to USAFA regardless of the fact that they aren't perfect. I hoped they would consider I took it so many times, I am not sure if they do but any so the way super scoring works is they take all the scores that you send and pick the highest in each area. They update it as you continue to send them! So the final scores on my application were

English: 26 (From my December Test)
Math: 25 (From my April Test)
Science: 26 (From my April Test)
Reading: 29 (From my April Test)
Writing/English Combined: 24 (From either December or September)

Most of my scores are from my April test but as you can see they are mixed. I hope this helps. By the way, I had every intention to keep testing and improve my scores but since I was appointed I ceased to continue testing. THAT SHOULD BE THE ONLY TIME YOU STOP TESTING! or if you get 36 in every subscore, not as a composite!

hopefullcadet2015 said:
I have a 33 Math and 32 Science but only a 28 in English and 29 in Reading. Are these scores competitive with what gets into the academy?
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As you can see from my scores above, you are very competitve. You are scoring right in the means which ranges from 29-31 in each subscore! keep up the good work and keep testing!
 
RogersCO'19 thank you for the insight. This has been the most stressful process that I have ever gone through and they really want to see if you can hold your sanity with all the waiting!
 
hopefullcadet2015 said:
RogersCO'19 thank you for the insight. This has been the most stressful process that I have ever gone through and they really want to see if you can hold your sanity with all the waiting!
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You can't! Lol just kidding! But yes it is hard, when you feel like all you do is wait while your hopes and dreams rest in the hands of strangers. But, this too shall pass ;)
 
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