ACT 

I have taught all subjects of the ACT since 2004 and stay up-to-date about changes to the ACT in order to provide students the most effective support. I actually never took the ACT as a high school student (my 1590 on the SAT was good enough for me!) However, I have scored 36 on ACT practice tests since then as a tutor. I have been formally trained as a tutor, and even won a National Tutor of the Year award for my work with one education company.

Perfect score students this year

Year I started teaching ACT

My Approach

Many of my ACT students come to me knowing that the ACT is a better test for them than the SAT, but struggling with certain aspects of the ACT, such as timing on the reading and science sections. Other students have a solid baseline score but are struggling to break into the next level with their score or feeling anxious about the whole process. I work one-on-one with students online to develop strong content knowledge, test strategy, and the confidence necessary to succeed.

I strongly believe that customization is the strongest advantage of one-on-one tutoring. Large classroom courses are often one-size-fits-all and are rarely inspiring. Online ACT tutoring instead helps you invest your time targeting the exact areas and skills necessary to raise your ACT score.

Approaches to each section

English

I especially love teaching grammar for the ACT English test because so many of my students have never been explicitly taught many of the rules that the ACT tests in this section. We systematically go through rules for punctuation, sentence structure, and wordiness. After this lesson, students typically see an immediate increase in their score! We also work on the trickier questions dealing with author’s purpose, organization, and reordering of sentences/paragraphs.

Math

ACT math spans Algebra 1 through some basic Trig, which can be a lot for students to review! Plus, no formulas are given to test takers, unlike for the SAT. In tutoring, we review content as necessary, prioritizing content that shows up most often on the test. We also work on developing strategies making use of the multiple choice question format alongside content review for these three areas.

I have worked with students from all levels of math, from students who find math incredibly challenging to students shooting for a 36. I vary my approach according to each student’s starting point, goal score, and time available.

Reading

The ACT Reading section is particularly difficult. While the questions tend to be more straightforward than their SAT counterparts, reading 4 passages and answering 40 questions in only 35 minutes is a real challenge!

I work with students to build good active reading strategies so that they can push themselves through the passages quickly. We also work on effective prediction and elimination strategies for the questions—one of the best ways to improve accuracy and speed at the same time. Once we have the process down, we work on getting it down to less than 9 minutes per passage.

Science

Like the ACT Reading section, the Science section is a speed test. 7 passages and 40 questions in 35 minutes! Even students who enjoy science often have difficulty getting the pacing down in this section.

In tutoring, we work on approaches to the three major types of science passages, focusing especially on skills for reading the charts, graphs, and figures. We then work on processes for going through the questions quickly and accurately. Eventually, we work on getting an entire passage done within 4-6 minutes.

Included in Tutoring

Convenience of Online

You’ll never have to sit in traffic to make it to lessons, which adds flexibility for families with busy schedules. Most students find online tutoring to be engaging and efficient. It also ensures that you can meet with a highly qualified tutor no matter your location.

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Customized Homework

After each session, I’ll assign customized homework for the week. We’ll make sure the plan targets your student’s goals, but we’ll also make sure it’s actually doable given their schedule. All homework is available through PDF, so no need to purchase any extra materials.

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Lesson Reports

As a parent, you’ll receive a report after each session, detailing what was covered, how your child is doing, and what homework needs to be completed by the next session. No more wondering whether your child is actually making progress.

Satisfaction Guaranteed

Not sure yet whether online tutoring will work for your child? I offer a satisfaction guarantee for the first session. It’s important to me that I only work with students who feel we’re a good match, so if you’re not 100% satisfied after the first session, the session fee will be completely refunded.

Testimonials

Carrie worked with our twins, one of whom took the ACT on his own without her help, and then again with her tutoring. His score went from a 33 to a 36. Carrie is focused, analytical and great at identifying and explaining the psychological as well as topical approaches to the test. She gave us a per-session email review with topics covered and work assignments. I can’t stress how much I recommend her services!!!

Tanya

ACT, Washington

Carrie helped my daughter study for the ACT when she took it for the second time. Her score from her first test was average, but we felt she could do better. In particular, she was trying to increase her score in the science section. They focused on science during the tutor sessions but also reviewed the other sections. We were so excited, my daughter’s overall score increased by 3 points and her science score increased by 5 points. She actually increased her score in all sections! We can’t thank Carrie enough for helping my daughter focus and study. I would highly recommend Carrie for your tutoring needs!

Wendy

ACT, Washington

Carrie did an excellent job quickly determining the areas with which my daughter needed help. We initially approached Carrie thinking my daughter would need significant help with ACT science, but within two sessions, Carrie had helped her develop a perspective that enabled her to bump her score significantly in practice sessions. Carrie then identified weaknesses in my daughter’s math abilities, including several that we thought she had well in hand. She ended up spending more time working on math deficiencies than she did anything thing else. In the end, my daughter scored a composite 36 (up from a first practice test composite 32). Carrie was timely, thorough, and efficient. I would highly recommend her to any student looking for ACT/SAT prep.

Jon

ACT, Oregon

Carrie is simply lovely to work with. She was responsive, caring, prompt, willing to be flexible and so supportive of my daughter. I would highly recommend her for so many reasons.

Adrienne

ACT, Minnesota

He got a 36. He is really happy. We all are. And a huge credit goes to you to prepare him. I can’t thank you enough.

Tarun

ACT, Oregon

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