Private ACT® Tutoring

• Without the Science or the Essay: 2 hours and 15 minutes
• With the Science but without the Essay:  2 hours and 55 minutes
• With the Science and the Essay:  3 hours and 40 minutes

• First, establish a baseline by taking a real past ACT (we also recommend taking a real past SAT as well to determine which test fits you best). You can find an official ACT here. Make sure to simulate the real test: print the test and take it all at once with the appropriate breaks. Or, reach out to us, and we can schedule you to take a practice test with us.
• Now that you have a baseline score, you need to evaluate how far you are from your score goal. The farther you are, the more work you will need to put in to hit your score goal — but the work you put in will also help you excel in college as well (see here). Here’s the work you need to put in:
  • Take practice tests (both to identify weaknesses but also to practice test-taking stamina)
  • Not only go over the questions you got wrong on the practice tests but look up how to do those topics and do additional questions on those topics so that you eliminate any weaknesses on the tested topics (our tutors, for instance, identify the topic of any questions missed and give students additional questions on those topics so that students will get any questions on those topics correct the next time they see them).
• Take the real test multiple times. Most students get nervous the first time they take any test, so almost all students will score better after taking the ACT a few times (and there is natural variability in scores — see here — so re-taking the test increases a student’s chances of a higher score, particularly of a higher superscore, which some colleges use). Additionally, students can delete ACT scores for free at anytime, so there’s no downside to taking the test as many times as a student wants or needs to do so.

• Get calculator programs that will solve distance, midpoint, slope, the quadratic formula, etc for you so that you spend less time on these questions and so that you do not make a silly mistake in your calculations. (We have a suite of calculator programs that are custom made to help students on the ACT.)
• Learn the “tricks” to the exam. The fastest way to do so is to work with a tutor who knows the strategies to help beat the test. But, if you practice long enough, you might figure out those tricks too, such as knowing that the word “being” in an answer choice on the grammar section (the “English” section) of the ACT almost guarantees that the answer is incorrect.
• Discover the optimal ways to approach different question types. For example, on the “Reading Section,” students should never look at the answer choices before looking back to the passage for a “vocabulary in context” question because the meaning of the word in context will always have a different meaning than the standard definition of the given word. Looking at the answer choices first will just throw a student off. So students should go straight to the context, treat the given word as a “blank” in the sentence, make up their own definition for the “blank” based on the context, and then compare this definition to the answer choices. This approach almost guarantees that they will get all “vocabulary in context” questions correct.

• Algebra: particularly functions, manipulating equations, quadratics, and equations of lines
• Algebra 2: particularly exponents, radicals, probability, polynomials, and imaginary numbers
• Geometry: particularly triangles, perimeter and area of rectangles and circles, volume of cylinders, and equations of circles in an x,y coordinate plane
• Trigonometry: particularly the basics of the unit circle, sine/cosine/tangent, the law of sines and cosines, and trigonometric identities

For comprehensive information on extended time on the ACT, please see our blog on the topic: Extended Time on the SAT and ACT.

1. Check in and fill out scantron cards (30 minutes)
2. English section (35 minutes)
3. Math section (50 minutes)
4. 10-minute break (enough time to have a quick snack and use the restroom)
5. Reading section (40 minutes)
6. Optional Science section (40 minutes)
7. If taking the optional essay, a 5-minute break and then the essay (40 minutes)
8. Freedom! (and probably a nap)

Yes. There are no penalties for wrong answers, so answer every question.

Here’s a link to a blog post on what to eat. Please bring a snack — it will help give you an edge for the last half of the test. As part of your snack, bring water or another drink to keep yourself hydrated — hydration is key for avoiding a foggy brain.

Dress comfortably. Wear a sweater and a T-shirt underneath. Who knows what the temperature will be in the classroom, so students will want to have options to make themselves comfortable.

• The English, Math, and Reading sections are scored out of 36. These three section scores are then averaged to provide students with a composite score out of 36.
• The optional Science score also gives a score out of 36. This score does not factor into a student’s composite score.
• The optional essay is similarly scored separately, and its score (out of 12) is not included in the ACT composite score.

Usually 10 days. Check here for the scheduled score release date for your test.

Yes. You can delete past ACT scores at any time. The following link gives the instructions on how to do so: How to delete ACT scores.