Minnesota is No. 1 in ACT scores

08/17/2005

Mary Jane Smetanka,
Star Tribune
August 17, 2005

For the first time in at least a decade, Minnesota tops the nation in average scores on the ACT college-entrance exam.

In states where more than half of the students took the test, Minnesota’s score bested Wisconsin, the perennial leader, and pulled away from Iowa, which usually runs third.

The Minnesota score also increased for the second year in a row, while the national average was unchanged.

The ACT is the test most Minnesota high school seniors take if they’re going to college. It’s an entrance requirement for almost all four-year colleges and universities in this region.

While state scores can be revealing, the test’s real meaning lies with each of the 41,646 Minnesotans who took the test last year and rely on it to help them get into the college of their choice.

Kevin Friede got a perfect ACT score.Jim GehrzStar TribuneOne student who didn’t have to worry is Kevin Friede, an Edina High School graduate who in a couple of weeks is headed to St. Olaf College in Northfield. The 18-year-old is one of eight Minnesotans who achieved a perfect ACT score of 36 on the 2005 test (the state average score was 22.3).

To give that achievement a little perspective, of the 5,300 freshman who are expected on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus this fall, three have perfect ACT scores. Two of those were Minnesotans.

For Friede, acing the ACT is just the latest in a litany of honors. An avid soccer and trumpet player, he is one of just two Presidential Scholars in the state. He was a semifinalist in the National Merit Scholarship program and as a junior scored 1540 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT college-entrance exam, which is usually taken by Minnesotans who intend to go to college on the East or West coasts. He graduated 12th in a class of 525.

Woken from a nap at noon—he’s been working a lot to save money for college—Friede said he was surprised to get a perfect ACT score on the test he took last October.

“I figured I was close, up there, but I thought I had answered more than a few wrong,” he said. His scores were waiting him in the mail one day after he got home from school. He called his father at work to tell him the news. “There were a couple of seconds of silence—he was very happy,” the son said.

He didn’t sweat it

Friede attributes his rare performance on the ACT partly to lack of anxiety. He had already done well on the SAT and knew he could get into most of the colleges he was interested in. “The ACT was almost an afterthought,” he said. “I didn’t get all freaked out about it because I knew my SAT score was good.”

Friede took a college-prep curriculum in high school, something ACT officials say is critical to doing well on the test. Of the nearly 1.2 million high school graduates who took the test across the nation, only 56 percent took the four years of English, and three years of math, science and social studies that make up a core curriculum. In Minnesota, 62 percent of test-takers took those classes.

The proportion of Minnesota students who took the test increased from 66 percent last year to 68 percent. That pleased Susan Heegaard, director of the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.

“The top score is great news for Minnesota, and the fact that a growing percentage of Minnesota students are taking the test is also important,” she said. But Heegaard added that the state shouldn’t gloat over what could be a temporary advantage in ACT standings over the Badgers and Hawkeyes.

“With global competition, it’s important to note that our academic competitors are more than Wisconsin and Iowa,” she said. “We also need to know how well our students stack up against those in other countries.”

ACT has sections on English, math, reading and science and is the predominant college entrance exam in 25 tests, most in the Midwest and South. An optional writing test was added this year. Results of the other major exam, the SAT, will be released at the end of this month. In most years, only about 10 percent of Minnesotans take that test.