finding help for ACT test taking

[kfeusse]

My daughter wants to improve her ACT test score.  I know she does best with a real person helping her instead of doing something online ( we did that...and I don't know how helpful it was.)  She even did a live class right before the test...and I don't know that it was very useful to her.  She really needs someone sitting next to her teaching her the strategies for taking the tests.  I know there are tutors "out there" but I am uncertain as to how to find them.  Can someone give me some guidance on this?  Thanks.

[fourisenough]

We found a good one locally on Craig’s List. I called his references, and I observed the first few tutoring sessions. He was great and actually made the tutoring fun. My DD raised her ACT score 5 points by working with him 1-2 times per week for a few months. It wasn’t cheap, but was a good investment.

[kfeusse]

Great idea. Did you simply just look for ACT tutor?  

Also what did your tutor do that was better, different than anything else? How did what they did, work better than other options? I feel this is the best option for my daughter, but I would love to know more about how this worked. 

Thanks.

 

[fourisenough]

Yes, I just searched for ‘ACT Tutor’ on our city’s page. There were several hits, but I ruled most out after the initial email exchange.

They sat side-by-side and worked problems, shared strategies, and compared answers. He also assigned her homework (timed sections to complete & score on her own); just keeping her on track and accountable to someone was important. Like most students, she had a very tough schedule and many outside commitments that made test prep difficult to squeeze in. She accomplished more with him than she ever would have on her own. She never wanted to miss a session or show up without having done her homework.

By contrast, our oldest was a one-and-done test taker. She/we were happy with her initial score so never needed any prep.

[kfeusse]

we live in a rural area....and there is nobody here (not surprised).  Wonder if your person would do it via skype or something??  Sort of just curious.  You mentioned it was a bit expensive...would you mind sharing what you paid him?  thanks.

[Lanny]

My DD took the ACT this month. She was gifted this ACT Kaplan Online Live Prep.   She said it is MUCH better than the Free Khan Academy help she used for the SAT because there are Lessons. I believe a few of the lessons were live and the students can submit questions to the instructor. It is $100 USD for 6 weeks.  Possibly this is another option since you are rural.

https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/act-kaplan-online-prep-live.html

[kfeusse]

I wonder how this is different than the thing my daughter did....we got an email from the ACT testing site for a live 2 1/2 hour session for Math/Science and 2 1/2 hours session for English/Reading right before she tested.  It was live and we had to make copies of a 100 page book for each session that they went through.  The kids could ask questions but there were like 300 other kids and most questions never even got answered.   I don't think it helped one bit because her score didn't go up from the practice tests she had taken for me...so that was a waste of $40.  

Thanks for the link...I will check it out.

[fourisenough]

12 hours ago, fourisenough said:

Yes, I just searched for ‘ACT Tutor’ on our city’s page. There were several hits, but I ruled most out after the initial email exchange.

They sat side-by-side and worked problems, shared strategies, and compared answers. He also assigned her homework (timed sections to complete & score on her own); just keeping her on track and accountable to someone was important. Like most students, she had a very tough schedule and many outside commitments that made test prep difficult to squeeze in. She accomplished more with him than she ever would have on her own. She never wanted to miss a session or show up without having done her homework.

By contrast, our oldest was a one-and-done test taker. She/we were happy with her initial score so never needed any prep.

I think he was maybe $60/hour? I’m forgetting now. I believe he would do a minimum of one hour-twenty minutes, but preferred two hour sessions so they could really dig in and make progress.

He might tutor via Skype. I can give you contact info if you pm me.

Edited June 21, 2018 by fourisenough
Quoted myself by accident, duh!

[Lanny]

7 hours ago, kfeusse said:

I wonder how this is different than the thing my daughter did....we got an email from the ACT testing site for a live 2 1/2 hour session for Math/Science and 2 1/2 hours session for English/Reading right before she tested.  It was live and we had to make copies of a 100 page book for each session that they went through.  The kids could ask questions but there were like 300 other kids and most questions never even got answered.   I don't think it helped one bit because her score didn't go up from the practice tests she had taken for me...so that was a waste of $40.  

Thanks for the link...I will check it out.

 

You are welcome.   I don't think what you were offered is the same.  I think what DD has access to (the Paid part) has about 25 or 30 hours of class lessons. I think a few of them are live. My DD did not mention anything about 300 other kids. There is also Free stuff available, which my DD said is about the same as the stuff on Khan Academy for the SAT.  She said the Paid things she has access to are "Much Better" because on Khan Academy for the SAT, for example, they take a problem and show how to solve it.

NOTE: My DD said they also teach Strategy for the ACT test, which I believe she found very helpful.

I would suggest you consider this, and only this, because the costs seem reasonable. $100 f9r 6 weeks and if one signs up for 3 months or 6 months I think it is less per week.

When I look at the prices of the other things Kaplan and other test preparation services offer, I would be hesitant to suggest to anyone that they spend that kind of money, because I am not sure what the results are going to be.

Obviously, any test taking prep willl help a weak student more than a strong student, but I believe strong students can also benefit. It is just that I believe it is harder for strong students to increase their scores, as much as a weak student can.

The Kaplan prices for the SAT are IMO astronomical and I don't think they offer something like this for the SAT, because of the tie in between the College Board and Khan Academy.  Kaplan has a tie in with ACT.

There are others, Princeton, etc., but I don't know how one can compare them other than Googling for Reviews, reading on College Confidential, etc. Lots of Advertising claims but who knows about the results?

We are in South America.  You mentioned that you are rural. If my DD used the Kaplan thing from South America, which she did, you will be able to use it from your rual location in the USA.

Good luck with whatever you decide to go with! Look before you leap!

 

 

 

[katilac]

My dd does test prep and other subjects, and a lot of times the students enjoy having a younger person as their tutor. Unfortunately, she's leaves this weekend for 5 weeks in France, but I'll put her Chegg link in case you need someone in the fall. 

https://www.chegg.com/tutors/online-tutors/Gabrielle-C-4493360/

Chegg usually has something going for "try it free for 30 minutes," I would guess Tutor.com does as well. 

Our library does free online tutoring, but it's text and whiteboard only, no video or chatting. 

This same dd says that taking practice tests under realistic testing conditions is the most important prep you can do. So leave the house at the time you'd have to leave for the real thing and be strict about all the rules: timing, potty breaks, no talking, and so on. The rules should be at the ACT site. We did our practice tests at an open table at the library, because it's also good to learn to deal with a certain level of distraction - you might be in a crowded room, it might be too hot or too cold, they might be doing noisy roadwork outside the window, whatever. It's not going to be perfectly comfortable like at home, and it's not going to be perfectly quiet like in a study room. 

 

[kfeusse]

12 minutes ago, katilac said:

My dd does test prep and other subjects, and a lot of times the students enjoy having a younger person as their tutor. Unfortunately, she's leaves this weekend for 5 weeks in France, but I'll put her Chegg link in case you need someone in the fall. 

https://www.chegg.com/tutors/online-tutors/Gabrielle-C-4493360/

Chegg usually has something going for "try it free for 30 minutes," I would guess Tutor.com does as well. 

Our library does free online tutoring, but it's text and whiteboard only, no video or chatting. 

This same dd says that taking practice tests under realistic testing conditions is the most important prep you can do. So leave the house at the time you'd have to leave for the real thing and be strict about all the rules: timing, potty breaks, no talking, and so on. The rules should be at the ACT site. We did our practice tests at an open table at the library, because it's also good to learn to deal with a certain level of distraction - you might be in a crowded room, it might be too hot or too cold, they might be doing noisy roadwork outside the window, whatever. It's not going to be perfectly comfortable like at home, and it's not going to be perfectly quiet like in a study room. 

 

thanks.  We are actually leaving for a 3 week vacation in a week...so the wait won't be a problem.  I will keep this link and might very well be contacting her in August.  Thank you very much.

 

[catz]

I used several online tutors through Varsity Tutor.  I would not do that again.  And I would probably not go through any online tutoring company.   First of all, everything they did is stuff you could easily do at home.  Methodically do timed practice tests, find your errors.  They didn't intentionally review concepts as needed nearly as much as I would have hoped and expected.  2nd of all, I specifically asked for focus on the math and most especially the science section.  That request was ignored.  Out of 10 sessions my kid maybe had 2 on math, 1 on science.  The last 2 sessions I message the most recent guy and said PLEASE just work on science strategies.  Those requests were mostly ignored.  3rd, I don't think all the practice materials they provided were always good.  My kid was scoring above a certain score consistently in math in practice.  Score was lower than expected in his June test.  And I'm not complaining about his score.  He scored 99% composite and is very happy and moving on.  But he scored 97% a year ago as a sophomore.  He started taking it in middle school annually without much if any prep and I had a very good sense of a what a year's progress looks like for him.  I think it barely made a difference at the end of the day given his subscores.  If he had a hands on tutor that really got to know him and his quirks and focused specially on math and science concepts and strategies in a focused and directed way, I definitely think he could have moved those scores more.  It was WAY too expensive for what they did.

For my next kid if we use a tutor for this I will look for someone local and be pretty hands on with what we want and be printing/buying copies of official tests to use.  I think a good tutor will assign timed sections between sessions and/or review work.  And the online tutors did occasionally assign sections.  It was just way more generic and less personalized than I would have expected for a 1-1 tutor at $60+ per hour.  I think an online tutor who is working with a bunch of different people is going to have a much harder time connecting with student.  

[4ofus]

Fundafundaacademy.com has just added this very thing to their offerings! It is video-conferencing one-on-one tutoring (I think). We use something from fundafunda every year :). My sons are taking Python right now :). https://www.fundafundaacademy.com/product/act-tutoring/

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I just watched a webinar about testing from someone at Compass Prep.  One thing he pointed out was that the expected improvement potential depended on the initial score.  He said it's reasonable to expect a student to be able to improve about half the distance between the starting score and highest possible.  So for example a student starting at 50% might be able to get to around 75%.  Another student might put in similar effort to move from 80% to 90%.  

Compass Prep has some ACT tips on their blog.  I thought their posts on questions with graphs were helpful.