Maximize Your ACT Reading Score-Certified Teacher/Experienced ACT Tutor (1-On-1)

I am kind, patient, creative, flexible, and empathetic. I am also hilarious, and my (spurious) data shows that students who laugh at my jokes score 10-72% better on the test. (I made that up, but I'm usually very honest.) 

I've worked with many students with ADHD, ASD, dyslexia, processing disorders, and other learning differences. While I don't teach students to decode words in these sessions, I do work on reading comprehension strategies that students need for the test and for college reading in general. Students report using my strategies when reading textbooks and other material with great success. 

Because it's best to use official test questions to prepare, I highly recommend that students purchase The Official ACT Prep Guide 2024-2025 for use in sessions and for homework. 

In one-on-one ACT Reading sessions, we typically cover the following: 

Close reading strategies--mapping the passage, what to write down when you read, how to follow the thread of the main idea through a passage by tracking pronouns, synonyms, repeated ideas (different from SAT sessions because the passages are longer), figurative language, comparisons, superlatives, "time" words, and more. 

Strategies for reading the question carefully--paying attention to the how vs. why, how to avoid skipping important words, the difference between main idea and main purpose, the difference between literal answers and inferences. 

Selecting the best answer--predicting the answer, finding a match, identifying and eliminating trap answers, using process of elimination, knowing when to guess and move on.

Pacing--although the goal is scoring as many points as possible, students want to answer all the questions. We'll work on which questions eat up too much time and should be answered last if time remains. 

Instruction consists of teacher-made instructional material including slide presentations and questions from The Official ACT Prep Guide. 

In order to see a score increase, it's essential that students not only attend sessions but also complete homework, take practice tests, and, if necessary, study vocabulary outside of sessions. I offer Vocabulady's SAT Vocab Game Night classes on Outschool to help with this. They're fun and effective. I recommend Level A for the ACT. 

Because the sessions are one-on-one, we'll cover whichever reading questions the practice test identifies as priorities (taking into account how frequently the question type appears on the test). We'll also discuss how to read the different types of passages, what kind of notes to take, and how to avoid trap answers.

Additionally, I highly recommend that students purchase this book for homework practice: The Critical Reader: The Complete Guide to ACT Reading by Erica L. Meltzer. It has a lot of practice for each question type.