WE HAVE A UNIQUE APPROACH TO THE ACT AND A SPECIFIC STRATEGY FOR EACH SECTION.
ENGLISH
Rather than letting our students do the English section by ear, we start by teaching and reviewing all relevant academic content, and then quickly move on to developing the ability to classify every English problem. Once the student can classify what type of problem he or she is facing, the options for solving that type of problem follow naturally. Our students let the answer choices tell them what specific grammar, punctuation or rhetorical skill violation to look for.
Next, we take out the stop watch to begin working on pace.
Math
Our ACT Math approach is multi-faceted. We start by having new students take a diagnostic math test to determine which topics need work and which do not. We then work from a unique workbook of math tricks and techniques, which includes faster, easier ways to solve standardized test math problems and we also teach relevant academic math subjects.
The math section is broad in scope and contains 60 problems in 60 minutes. Therefore, in our approach, we seek FLUENCY, rather than familiarity.
Next, we take out the stop watch to begin working on pace.
READING
We start by teaching students how to analyze and notate the answer choices, and where to find evidence to support the best answers. We then take out the stop watch and get to work on time management, finding a unique strategy for each student.
To find the best time management strategy for each student, we use a number of unique TIMED EXPERIMENTS. Solutions may include: NOT READING the passage before approaching the questions, reading the passage MORE SLOWLY (believe it or not!), to increase comprehension, thereby requiring less time to answer the ten questions, STRATEGIC SKIPPING, putting the four passages in a different order…and others.
science
Without giving out too much info about our approach to the Science Section, let us say that we teach our students how to arrive at the best answers for various questions without relying on fully grasping the science or the particulars of any given experiment. Instead, they learn how to identify trends and relationships in the data, and how to eliminate answer choices to arrive at the best answers.
In a nut shell: we approach each Science passage as if it’s a LAB WRITE-UP, rather than a LECTURE.
Next, we take out the stop watch to begin working on pace.