Award-Winning ACT Tutors Near You

If you're in the market for ACT tutoring, Varsity Tutors can help connect your student to knowledgeable ACT tutors. This exam is generally taken by students in either their eleventh- or twelfth-grade year of school. The ACT is a standardized exam used by many universities and college for admissions purposes. This makes it a critical step for your student as they begin to think about applying to college. Working with an ACT tutor can assist your student in preparing properly for this important exam.

The ACT was created in 1959 and focuses on aptitude and educational achievement, as well as your mastery of the various skills and content taught in school up until the beginning of 12th grade. The intention of the exam is to assess your college and career readiness. With this in mind, it is important to make sure your student does everything possible to put his or her best foot forward with their ACT score in order to attempt to impress a college admissions office. ACT tutoring can help your student gain confidence and improve the skills necessary to do well on each section of the exam.

What content and skills can ACT tutoring help me to better understand?

The ACT consists of four different sections plus an optional Writing assessment. The exam takes just over 3 1/2 hours to complete when you choose to take the Writing section. Without the Writing section, the ACT takes just under three hours. The material covered on the ACT consists of Reading, Writing, Science, Math, and English. With so much content to study, it can seem overwhelming to review for this exam. Working with a private teacher can help your student break the material in the smaller pieces, making it more manageable. Let's take a closer look at the different sections of the ACT and the ways your instructor can help your student prepare.

The English portion of the exam consists of 45 questions and measures your understanding of English rules, the production of writing, and your knowledge of language skills. This is your student's opportunity to showcase his or her ability to use English grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. An ACT coach can help with working on topic development, organization, and cohesion of written thoughts.

The Math portion of the ACT consists of 60 questions that measure the mathematical skills your student is expected to have acquired in his or her schooling. An ACT instructor can help your student brush up on pre-algebra, elementary and intermediate algebra, plane and coordinate geometry, and trigonometry. He or she can help work through problems that involve number systems, interpreting equations, and geometric shape calculations. Your student will also want to review polynomials, logarithmic functions, and trigonometric ratios. If the idea of practicing all these different math skills is overwhelming, an ACT instructor can help you practice working through the various types of problems. This can help your student gain confidence in his or her ability to tackle the section and showcase mathematical skills.

The Reading portion of the ACT consists of 40 passage-based questions that assess your student's reading comprehension skills at the level typically encountered in a first-year college course. An ACT instructor can help your student practice determining an author's purpose in writing a passage, summarizing texts, determining fact versus opinion, and being able to connect concepts between similar but different texts. In addition, a private teacher can assist your student in using context clues to determine a word or phrase meanings.

The ACT is the only college admissions exam that contains a Science section. This part of the ACT consists of 40 multiple-choice questions that evaluate interpretation, evaluation, analysis, problem-solving, and reasoning skills. The concepts assessed on this part of the exam will come from your student's previous biology, chemistry, physics, and Earth and space science courses. This is an opportunity to demonstrate the ability to decipher experimental results and analyze scientific information.

If your student decides to take the Writing section of the ACT, he or she will have 40 minutes to respond to one essay question. The essay question will present students with a prompt that conveys an issue and three different perspectives on that issue. The essay response must state your student's personal perspective and analyze if there are any connections between his or her personal viewpoint and at least one of the three given perspectives. This section evaluates the ability to draft and organize thoughts as well as analysis and comparison skills. Your student will need to be able to write this essay response at the level required for an entry-level college composition course.

In addition to covering specific concepts and skills that your student will find on the ACT exam, an ACT instructor can help your student with test-taking skills such as time management or stress reduction. Standardized tests can be unfamiliar if your student isn't used to taking this type of exam. The ACT covers a lot of content and each section has strict time limits. An ACT coach can assist your student in learning how to properly pace him or herself. For example, an ACT instructor can assist your student in learning strategies for answering different types of questions. When answering multiple choice questions, your student will want to use different strategies as opposed to answering essay questions. An ACT coach can help your student to understand how to make educated guesses and move onto the next question when working through difficult multiple choice questions. Stress reduction is another skill your student's instructor can assist with. Many students have a hard time controlling their stress levels during an exam, especially a long exam with so much riding on it. Your student's instructor can assist by providing different strategies and tips on reducing anxiety during the exam, such as various breathing techniques or confident self-talk. These skills will be extremely helpful when taking the ACT, but can also be applied to any test experience your student may have in the future.

No matter where your student is in the ACT review process, working with an ACT instructor can be a very valuable resource. Working with an instructor who has experience in teaching these skills and knows the ins and outs of the ACT exam can help your student prepare more thoroughly than might be able to on his or her own.

How is working with private ACT tutors different than being in a traditional classroom?

Working with private ACT tutors is a very different experience than students might receive in a traditional classroom. One of the major advantages of working with a private instructor is the opportunity to take advantage of personalized, one-on-one attention. Private instructors have the ability to figure out what your student's exact learning style and adjust their teaching methods to fit that style. Additionally, a private instructor has the ability to determine the content or skills your student is having the hardest time understanding and can spend as much time as necessary to assist your student in fully understanding it. Alternately, if your student has already mastered the skill, study sessions can invest only a small amount of time or skip over that section completely and focus on other areas. This ability to work at your own pace can be difficult to find in a typical classroom setting.

Private instruction can also help your student to determine their specific academic strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge can help your student gain confidence as he or she uses these strengths and improves the areas of weakness. Your student's private teacher can use all this information to create a customized study plan.

Another benefit of signing up for private instruction is the ability to fit study sessions into an established schedule. With Varsity Tutors, students have the option of either meeting with their instructor online or in person. If you and your student elect to meet with an instructor online, he or she will be able to access study sessions using our unique Live Learning Platform. This brings face-to-face educational sessions to your student's favorite study spot, as long as there is access to high-speed Internet and a computer. It also increases the number of instructors available since your student is not limited to working with people in your area. If you and your student decide to meet with a tutor in person, you can elect to meet at the time and location of your choice. This means your student can meet with his or her instructor at the public library, a favorite coffee shop, or in the comfort of your own home. This makes it very convenient to fit exceptional private instruction into an already busy schedule filled with classes, extracurricular activities, and family obligations.

How do I get signed up to work with an ACT tutor?

If you're ready to sign your student up to work with a knowledgeable ACT tutor, all you need to do is call Varsity Tutors. You'll be able to speak to one of our educational consultants, who can help you get signed up. The ACT is one of the first obstacles your student will face when preparing to apply to a college or university. It makes sense to take advantage of every resource at your disposal so your student can receive help while reaching for his or her goals. Call Varsity Tutors right now and let us set you up with the best ACT tutors available.