Award-Winning ACT Courses & Classes

Varsity Tutors offers several ACT courses to help students as they pursue their academic goals. If you've been searching terms like "ACT courses near me," look no further than Varsity Tutors. We can connect your student with ACT prep classes that are designed to meet their individual needs. Whether your student works one-on-one with an ACT tutor, or they take part in a small-group class setting, there are many ways they can benefit from the personal attention provided by the instructor as they study for what could be an impactful exam. Your student's ACT prep course may help build their self-confidence, which can be an important part of doing well on the test.

The ACT is the most commonly used college entrance exam taken by high school juniors and seniors around the country, and the stakes are high. The basic purpose of the ACT is to determine your student's level of readiness for college-level work and to predict their future academic success. ACT course instructors are familiar with how the ACT can affect your student's future and may spend part of their time together discovering which test prep methods may best help your student reach their full potential. An ACT class instructor understands the right blend of methods will be different for each student, which gives them the opportunity to customize each session to focus on your student's particular test-taking strengths.

Because all colleges and universities in the US accept your student's ACT scores as a part of the application process, it's important that they prepare thoroughly. In fact, this is probably the reason you've been searching for "ACT classes near me." But did you know that the ACT is more than just a college admissions test? The results can also be used by the college or university they attend when making decisions on class placement in their first semester. Additionally, there's a career planning component to the ACT. Your student's tutor can help them take full advantage of everything the ACT has to offer.

Your student's private or ACT course tutor can help them gather together the requirements necessary for registration, which are pretty basic. Some of the information they need to include is their preferred test date and location, career choices, and a list of the colleges and universities they'll be applying to, along with a few other simple items.

Your student's ACT prep classes will focus mostly on the content covered in each of the five sections: English, Math, Reading, Science, and an optional Writing task. Since the main goal of an ACT course is to make sure your student is able to build their understanding of each subject, their tutor can make sure to spend more ACT prep class time focused on sections your student finds most challenging, and spend less time covering content they already understand well.

Your student's ACT classes are designed to provide comprehensive coverage of all content found in each section. For the English section, this includes student abilities in mechanics and usage, sentence structure, and rhetoric. They'll face questions on topics like punctuation, grammar, style, organization, and sentence structure. The Math section includes questions in pre, elementary, and intermediate algebra, plane and coordinate geometry, and trigonometry. Calculators are allowed during the Math section.

The Reading section provides your student with prose passages written at a college entry level, followed by questions regarding craft and structure, key ideas, details, and integration of knowledge and ideas. This can involve understanding a sequence of events, determining implicit meanings, and cause-and-effect relationships, among other comprehension skills. The Science section also includes passages followed by questions on data representation, research summary, and conflicting viewpoints.

One of the first things discussed in most ACT prep courses is the exam's structure. The first four sections utilize a multiple-choice format and are scored on a scale from 1-36. The English section allows 45 minutes to complete 75 questions; the Math section gives 60 minutes to complete 60 questions; and both the Reading and Science sections provide 35 minutes to complete 40 questions. The composite score is the average of their scores on the multiple-choice sections rounded to the nearest whole number. The optional Writing section consists of one essay prompt to be answered within 40 minutes, and is scored separately on a scale from 2-12.

Because there's no penalty for incorrect answers on the ACT, your student's ACT course tutor can teach time management strategies to help your student pace themselves in a way that allows them to answer every question within the time limits. Their ACT class instructor can likewise demonstrate techniques to help them choose the right answer even when they're not sure what that is. Questions on the ACT are sometimes presented in a different way than your student may have seen before, and they may find the wording confusing. Therefore, another non-content skill your student can work on in their ACT prep class is how to understand what each question is asking.

Once an ACT prep course instructor has determined that your student is comfortable with the structure of the exam, their ACT class focus can move on to specific questions that might appear on the exam. For example, consider the ACT Math problem below:

What is the value of x when 2x + 3 = 3x – 4?

• -7
• -?
• 1
• ?
• 7

If it wasn't obvious, the answer in bold is the correct response. If your student missed it, they might benefit from concentrating on the Math section during their ACT prep class.

Here's a practice problem from the English section:

At the top of the tiers, stood a woman dressed as Lady Liberty.

• NO CHANGE
• tiers stood a woman
• tiers stood a woman.
• tiers stood, a woman

Again, the response in bold is the best answer provided.

One of the greatest benefits of taking an ACT prep course is the flexibility your student and their instructor have to customize each session. For example, if English and Reading section answers come easily to them, they can spend more of their ACT class time focused on the Math and Science sections.

How can ACT classes near me help me improve my study skills?

In addition to being knowledgeable about the content found on the ACT and test-taking strategies that work with each student's strengths, ACT course instructors can help your student discover and practice the kind of test preparation skills that could benefit them throughout their college career and the rest of their life. As mentioned above, some of these include time management, understanding the wording of the questions, and how to choose an answer when they're not sure.

By studying with the help of an ACT course, your student is already practicing another test prep skill, which is to be prepared. This includes much more than being familiar with the content on the ACT exam. ACT courses include preparation for the structure and timing of the exam, the interpretation of questions, and the time they are allowed to complete each section. ACT class tutors can provide your student with realistic, timed, simulated ACT practice test sections or full tests. These can help your student address any anxiety they have over facing something unknown. By becoming as familiar with the test as possible, ACT prep courses can help your student feel confident as they enter the testing center to sit for the exam.

What can an ACT course near me do to help me on the day of the test?

Of course, your student's ACT tutor can't be there with them on test day, but there are a number of things your student can do on the day of the exam to enhance their performance, and their ACT instructor can go over these during their sessions. To begin with, your student should plan to arrive earlier than necessary so they can take a few minutes to relax and become comfortable in the space. They then have the opportunity to ask any last-minute questions of the proctor.

A memory dump can be particularly useful to improve your student's performance during the ACT exam. A memory dump involves quickly writing down certain information they know they'll need to use during the test but fear they may forget. The content of the memory dump will be unique for every student, which is another benefit of small-group ACT prep courses. Your student's course instructor can help them determine which information they should focus on directly before the exam to include in their memory dump. For some students, this may include formulas and equations, and for others, it may include grammar or language usage rules that tend to slip their mind, especially during a stressful testing situation.

Though it may seem less technical than many of the other test-taking strategies your student will learn during their lessons, simply maintaining a positive attitude towards the ACT exam while taking it can be extremely beneficial. The prep work they've done to prepare to answer questions they're not sure of, to answer the questions they are confident of first, and being willing to skip a question and come back to it later can help them stay confident during the exam. Rather than wanting to give up when they run into trouble, your student's ACT classes can prepare them to know exactly how to handle it and move on.

A tutor can also help your student trust their first instincts. Usually the first answer to pop into their heads is the correct one. By formulating an answer in their minds before reading the choices, they can be especially reassured if they see their answer among the choices. Having time to review their answers upon completion can be useful, but their ACT tutor can help them learn when to trust they've done their best and be finished. Because the ACT can be taken more than once, it may be helpful for your student to view each exam as a "practice test," knowing they can take it again if they don't reach their goal score.

Varsity Tutors offers two different ACT classes to help students work towards reaching their academic potential. First, our private ACT prep classes provide one-on-one instruction that is entirely customizable. Your student can work with a knowledgeable tutor on anything they need to review. Any questions they may have can be answered promptly, and there is no time limit on the duration of the class or how long your student can spend on a specific subject. In a private setting, there is complete flexibility to adjust the study calendar as needed, in real time.

Alternatively, you may enroll your student in one of our small group ACT courses. This is a private ACT course where your student has a handful of classmates. This may promote a collaborative learning environment, as students can help each other out while their teacher's attention is elsewhere. Because they're in the same boat, this can be helpful. An additional advantage to this small group setting is the availability of "moral support" among the students. They can cheer each other on, encourage one another, and provide a positive study environment. Students who sign up for the small group classes still have the option to reserve one-on-one time with a private instructor any time they need more assistance.

Both options allow students to meet with tutors over our Live Learning Platform, an online classroom that takes the logistics out of face-to-face instruction. The unique platform also includes a virtual whiteboard that students and instructors can share to diagram ideas and solve problems, Varsity Tutors has also designed our products with your convenience in mind. We try our best to refer every student interested in tutoring to an instructor who fits their schedule, while we offer multiple courses concurrently to help you find one that suits your family's needs.

If you would like to discuss your options with an expert, our Educational Directors are standing by to answer any questions you have and to get your student set up with their first ACT class. We're looking forward to providing your student with top-notch test prep services that help them feel ready for the exam and build their overall test-taking skills. Contact Varsity Tutors today to start helping your child work toward academic success on the ACT!