Guide to Understanding the PLAN Score Report
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Dear Parent,
As a parent, you have the greatest impact on your child’s goals and aspirations. Helping your child prepare for college will put him or her on a proven path to a brighter future.
Like most 10th graders in Oklahoma, your child took the PLAN test at the beginning of the school year. This test, paid for by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, prepares students for the ACT in the 11th or 12th grade.
You may have already received your child’s score report from the school. If you haven’t, it is important that you check with your child TODAY to make sure he or she has seen it and has a copy or contact your child’s school counselor for a copy. Once you have it, sit down with your child and discuss the results together.
PLAN will show you how your child is doing in English, math, reading and science. It also includes
questions that help
your child begin the
process of career
and educational
exploration. PLAN
also helps you and
educators monitor
student progress throughout high school.
For your child to be admitted to the college he or she wants and get needed financial aid, he or she must be well-prepared. The PLAN test is an excellent way for students to prepare for success in college and in the workplace.
This guide will walk you through understanding your child’s score report and also contains resources for planning today for your child’s college education.
Please feel free to contact the State Regents office for more information at
1.800.858.1840 or
visit
www.okhighered.org/epas.
Your Scores
Your Plans
Your Career Possibilities
Your Skills
Next Steps
Your Scores
The
Your Scores section shows what your child scored on the PLAN test, how the score
compares to others and how your child is likely to score on the ACT if he or she takes the right
courses and works hard.
Your child’s scores are between 1 (the lowest
score you can receive) and 32 (the highest score
you can receive). PLAN takes the number of
questions your child got right on each test and
translates it into a number between 1 and 32.
Your child’s composite score is simply the
average of his or her test scores in English, math,
reading and science (rounded to a whole
number).
The two scores directly under English and math
tell you how well your child did in two specific
areas of each subject. These scores added
together do NOT necessarily equal the total
English or math test scores. Next to your child’s
scores, you’ll find the percentage of students
scoring at or below his or her scores.
PLAN scores can be used to predict how your
child is likely to score if he or she keeps working
hard and takes the ACT as an 11th or 12th
grader. Remember that these scores are only
estimates, not guarantees. Improving study
habits and taking more challenging courses are
the best strategies for improving an ACT score.
Your Plans
When taking PLAN, your child was asked about the courses he or she
plans to take in high school.
The
Your Plans section of the score report compares your child’s plans
to ACT’s recommendations for “core” college prep courses. Talk to your
child’s counselor if his or her high school course plans fall short of the
“core” college prep course recommendations.
Your child’s PLAN results give you an early clue as to whether your child will be ready for college-level work if he or she maintains the same level of commitment to school. ACT has also developed college readiness benchmark scores. The checkmarks show whether your child scored above, at or below the benchmark scores. Students who score at or above the benchmark scores for PLAN in English, math and science will probably do well in entry-level college courses in these subjects if they keep up with their coursework. Students scoring at or above the reading benchmark are on their way to having the reading skills they will need in all of their college courses.
When taking PLAN, your child answered questions about his or her future educational plans. This information can help clarify your child’s goals and plan for his or her future, including a college education.
Your Career Possibilities
It’s not too soon for your child to begin exploring possible
careers!
The
Your Career
Possibilities section helps your child start by
focusing
on a few career areas. Exploring careers is easier if you
have a good map. The World-of-Work Map is your child’s key to
hundreds of jobs. Sit down with your child and follow the three
easy steps to exploring careers. You can also launch the map
at
www.actstudent.org/wwm/plan_world.html.
Your Skills
The
Your Skills section on the back of the score report describes the skills and
knowledge your child has already mastered.
You’ll also see some ideas for helping your child improve even more in the different subject areas. The suggestions are based on your child’s scores and can help him or her identify areas in need of improvement in order to improve skills and be better prepared for the ACT. Sit down with your child and discuss ways to get the most from his or her courses and become “college ready.”
- Stay in touch with your child’s counselor. Counselors are great resources and partners in helping students achieve success.
- If you haven’t already, sign your child up for Oklahoma’s Promise so he or she can earn free college tuition if your family meets the requirements outlined at www.okpromise.org. The deadline to sign up is June 30 the summer after your child’s 10th-grade year.
- Check your child’s progress on taking the core courses required by Oklahoma public colleges and universities.
- Be sure your child registers by the deadline for the ACT. The ACT is typically taken in the fall and spring of the junior year and fall of the senior year. Your child can take the test more than once to improve his or her score.
- Go to www.OKcollegestart.org – Oklahoma’s official one-stop shop for college prep – and help your child set up a secure account. Through the site, your child can create an individual portfolio, access campus information, apply for federal and state financial aid and apply to many of the state’s colleges and universities.
- Encourage your child to get involved in extracurricular activities that help develop teamwork, leadership and commitment.
- Be positive and encouraging and talk to your child about his or her concerns and plans for the future!
