20 Years of One-on-One ACT Tutoring

I have been preparing high school students for the ACT for 20 years for Chicago and the suburbs. Over this time my students have seen significant success in raising their ACT scores. Many have received thousands in financial aid for high ACT scores to a college of their choice. Several students have earned free college tuition through my improving their scores and college applications.

I am on the referral list at several area high schools, and most of my business comes by word of mouth through parents recommending me to other parents. I have had students come weekly from as far as Lake County, IL and Indiana to my home in Batavia, IL for tutoring.

Over the years I’ve gotten to know the test very well, including recurring patterns of how questions and answers are presented, worded, and sequenced. I choose to tutor only the ACT, and not the SAT because the SAT does not keep to predictable patterns. This is why students taking the SAT repeatedly hardly ever significantly raise their scores.

On the other hand, students taking the ACT using my tips, and who have learned the ACT patterns described on my worksheets, and who have taken many practice tests (available online for free and do-able during our tutoring sessions) can significantly raise their scores. Of course, this depends on the commitment of the parents and students to devote themselves to learning my system. The speed at which students learn my system doesn’t usually correlate with their school grades, but those who see a significant rise in scores are usually with me weekly for six to nine months.

Students are taught one-on-one during their session. Normally there are one to five students at private desks and/or rooms, each working at their workstation in my house. Most of the time they will be working on my worksheets, taking practice tests, and going over their answers with me.

The A.C.T. is full of patterns. I take the students through each section of the test: the English test has the most strategies, so I teach 3½ pages of tips on this part of the ACT. I have different strategies for taking the Math test depending on your student’s relative ability in math. Those who are weaker in math should know that if they are willing to do enough math drills with my strategies, they can raise their score significantly (many by 10 points!).

The Reading test is the hardest, not only because of the difficulty of the passages but because there is less than a minute per question allowed, not even taking into account the time required to read the passages. I teach speed reading for this test, which is a valuable life skill for other schoolwork as well. A former student told me it was the best preparation she ever learned for college. I also have a successful strategy for the Science test which has been getting students good scores.

I’m going to share a story on a conversation I had with the official ACT office:

Dr. Karen: “Hi, I’m looking for statistics on students’ score improvement.”

ACT: “50% of the students who take it again do not change their score. The other 50% who take it again raise by 1 point.”

Dr. Karen: “My students gain 3 to 10 points or more on a regular basis.”

ACT: “Well, the percent of students who raise their scores that much is so statistically small that we don’t have data on them.”

Sometimes a single point higher is worth thousands of dollars a year in scholarship money. Besides the scholarship benefits, I have had many parents tell me their child is doing better in school because of the increased confidence he or she has gained from tutoring.

College Admissions Essays

I have a formula/pattern for successful college entrance essays, and I provide tutoring for such writing.

My students have received personal letters from college presidents  praising their essays, and one student received $17,000 in aid for her essay. Students with excellent essays have even been told by admission counselors that they shouldn’t have gotten into a particular college because their GPA and ACT scores were lower than the requirements – but the essays were so fantastic! Such is the power of a well-written essay in our current, university-admissions environment.

Students bring their laptops and we write them here. We take quite a bit of time choosing which question to write about  because it needs to be a question that they feel strongly about and personal with enough detail to make their essays stand out.

Coaching college essay writing is one of my favorite focuses of tutoring because I get to know each student and their story. I am a published author. My first book sold over 100,000 copies, went into two printings, and was later picked up by another publisher and sold 30,000 additional books. 

I have taught writing courses at Temple University, Marquette University, Indiana University, Aurora University, and Gordon College. I have also taught writing at the high school level.

Pricing

You do not sign a contract. I currently charge $70 per hour which, even for six to nine months, is much less than advertised programs. My students also do better on re-takes of the ACT than students of those programs.

Payment is by check or online through Zelle. I give receipts (and pay taxes on everything!)

I have a 24-hour rule for cancellation which requires payment if I don’t get an email or phone call by that time. However, students can make up a missed session within the same calendar week.

I provide a free session for students who refer me to another student who comes for tutoring. Some parents have taken good advantage of this by referring several teammates and friends and getting multiple free sessions.