Just wondering, as I have the ACT coming up and would like suggestions for a good way to study.
Different things work for different people. But I think typically repeating the practice, review, practice cycle as many times as a necessary to feel confident you are doing your best is the key thing. I note once you feel like you have a certain section down, you can do some cycles without that section. But you probably want to wrap up with a full test or two.
Thank you
I am not sure about the ACT, but there was an SAT course at the local community center when my daughters were in high school.
We also found a tutor who was helpful. The tutor first gave our daughter a mock SAT test, and then was able to focus on the areas where a small amount of help would make the most difference. We just used a local company. I think that they might have had three total employees (two tutors and one person to organize things). I am pretty sure that they did ACT tutoring as well (in addition to SAT and GRE tutoring).
And I do agree that taking at least one timed practice test is a good idea. As one example, you will want to keep a pace that fits the amount of time actually available on each section, and practice can help with this.
Do you know what the company was called and where they are located? I would love to look into them. Thank you!
In your other thread you said you were already accepted to a few colleges. Why are you taking the ACT?
I have not graduated high school yet. I have taken the ASVAB, but would like to also take the ACT to allow my colleges to understand better where I stand, as my GPA does not reflect that due to a personal issue I had earlier on in high school.
I note ACT provides access to a lot of free prep resources:
There are also links there to various paid services thay have officially endorsed.
Thank you. I did not schedule my ACT, my counselor did that, so I didn’t know the website itself had resources.
No problem! I think quite a few people end up unaware of the prep resources available for free.
Of course if you want to pay for additional help, that is also fine. But I think it can make sense to start with the free stuff, and see where you are getting. If you do end up feeling you could use more help, you can then focus on paying for just what you actually need.
I just looked for them and they might have gotten bought up or otherwise merged with a larger company. They were in Massachusetts anyway so if you are in Indiana it would not work for you. I also know a tutor in Florida (who works by themselves part time only – a retired high school teacher) which also would not work for you. However, I figure that if there are small one-to-three people outfits in Massachusetts and Florida there are probably similar efforts elsewhere. I would expect that you most likely should be able to find someone local relatively close to where you live.
If you are a high school senior, then your applications are likely already in so I am not clear how much taking the ACT now would help you.
And starting with the free stuff also makes sense. You might however also want to see if any local community center offers a course, since these can be quite inexpensive and again might be a good place to start.
EDIT: It appears that our local community center also has a “tutor connection” program, to match students with tutors. Again you might want to see whether your local community center has a similar service.
There are books, there are private tutors, there are tutors (private or group) that work for companies (ours was in a strip malll), there are online assessments, etc. Everyone learns their best differently.
Get this. Lots of tutors use it. It has good sections to explain things. https://a.co/d/0f7XMIl6
Act can be a “fast “test for many. Get the timing down
Thank you, you have been very helpful! I will look into local programs and such.
Thanks! That actually might be helpful. I didn’t know they had things like this to be honest.
Np. My son used it to good avail. Mathy engineering kids seem not to be fond of writing
.
Try one of the practice tests. Find out which particular types of questions you have the most difficulty on and study to improve those types of questions.
Math: SupertutorTV (if you’re a strong math student, instead look at college panda and Joseph Hammerman)
Reading: Master Key to ACT Reading
Reading: Erica Meltzer
Writing: Erica Meltzer
Strategy: ACT Prep Black book
If your test date is coming up, your best bet would be to work through official past ACT questions.
Reviewing and using the practice tests in the ACT prep books (sold on the ACT website) is effective for students who are motivated to work independently on ACT test-taking skills. Erica Meltzer is also really well-regarded. My S26 wanted to bring his score up by a few points, and let’s say that convincing him to sit down and drill himself (especially during the summer,when he was prepping to retake the ACT) was a tall order – he’s academically motivated, but it’s hard to get motivated about a standardized test. We couldn’t afford the cost of a full tutoring package, and really didn’t want to invest that kind of time, but we thought it might help to have someone who could give him some strategies and do some diagnostics. We paid for four hour-long tutoring sessions, and that plus independent practice helped him raise his composite by three points, which was well within the range he was targeting. So if you can splurge a little for a little tutoring, I think the payoff can be significant.
ACT completed! I don’t know if I can say it on here, but it was decent.