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One of the major hurdles to clear for high school students seeking enrollment at Midwestern universities is scoring well on the ACT test.

Scoring well on the test may be the difference in being accepted into some colleges, which makes preparation very important. While the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and other institutions have offered preparatory classes for the test, the fees can run between $150 to $200.

This year, the Melrose-Mindoro School District trained some of its teachers and offered its own ACT preparatory classes for $20, said Del DeBerg, Mel-Min High School principal. The results were impressive: the average student gained 1.7 points between the pre-test and the test.

DeBerg said the district wanted to have at least 10 high school juniors sign up for the course to make it work. Fifteen signed up and spent five sessions — four on a Saturday and one on a Friday night — in March and April studying.

“In our promotion of this, we said any type of structure preparation for the ACT is better than nothing at all,” DeBerg said. “We couldn’t guarantee anything, but we could promise them an actual testing atmosphere.”

Of the 15 students who took the test, the average was a 1.7-point increase. Three students had their scores decrease, but some went up by as many as 5 points, DeBerg said.

“Invest $20 and a few hours of time and you get into the school that you want to get into,” DeBerg said.

Six teachers helped with the studies, who were paid a stipend for their time, DeBerg said. The students said they were glad to have had the opportunity and DeBerg anticipates the sessions to be repeated next year.

“As long as we have the student numbers and as long as we can build the schedule, I definitely foresee us offering that again,” he said.