ACT Test Preparation Tips for Colorado Students

It’s that time of year and although you may be feeling the pressure to perform well on your ACTs, you know the best course of action is to be prepared. Start getting organized and augment your study program with past tests and online test questions. If you are struggling with things you don’t understand or you want to move your score up to get into a good school, consider some ACT tutoring sessions which will help to fill in the gaps in your foundation of knowledge.

Get organized

Create a schedule that is realistic and leaves enough time for you to properly study each subject thoroughly. Don’t block off hours of study at a time. You should hit the books for about 45 minutes to an hour at a time, then schedule an activity that involves getting up from your desk. Movement is a great way to stretch out tired shoulders and it also helps to stimulate higher cognitive functioning.

Use your Downtime

Make flashcards, record lectures, or make short notes that you can review during downtime when you are waiting or commuting, between classes or when you are on a break from something else.

Study Groups

Get together with three or four other students who are going to pull their weight in the study group. Divide the text up and get each student to review a section and make notes. Then teach each other and share notes.

Learn from your mistakes

Going over past ACT exams is a must for students who want to be successful. This will help you to become familiar with the way in which questions are posed and how best to answer them. When you make mistakes on past tests, don’t erase them. Instead mark them in a colored pen and write the correct response alongside so that you can learn from your mistakes.

No distractions!

This is a tough one, but you need to find a space where there are no distractions; not even your phone! You can text and talk to your friends later; you don’t have to say no, just put them off until you have a break. Turn your phone off when you are studying to avoid distractions completely.

Find a space in your home, a neighbor’s home, the library or at school where you can work quietly without interruptions or noise from siblings or the TV. You know what works best for you, so create a space which is optimized for success. You will feel better and study faster when you are working in an environment conducive to studying.

Eat right

The temptation may be to live on candy and energy drinks, but your brain needs proper sustenance to work. When you eat junk it affects your brain’s ability to function which means all that studying is going to waste. Eat healthy balanced meals with tons of fruit and veggies and drinks lots of water. If you must go on a diet, wait until after exams because your brain needs carbs to function.

Get a great online resource for practice questions in math, reading, English, science and writing here.

If you are not planning on taking the ACT test on February 8th and are interested in the next ACT test date and location near us, the ACT Test will be on April 14th at Mountain Vista High School and Thunder Ridge High School in Highlands Ranch, Aurora Central High School, Overland High School and William C Hinkley High School in Aurora, Eaglecrest High School in Centennial and Chatfield High School in Littleton.

If you are interested in increasing your ACT score, we offer some wonderful programs that will help you do your best.

Call us today for a free consultation to find out how to get started. 720-524-3191

4 Cherry Creek School District Students Earn Perfect ACT Score of 36

Four Cherry Creek School District students were among 17 students statewide who were honored Nov. 14 by the Colorado Board of Education for earning a perfect score of 36 on the ACT taken by every high school junior in Colorado last spring.

Those students are:

•    Rick Laoprasert, Cherry Creek High School

•     Nate Gibby, Cherokee Trail High School

•    David Mathews, Cherokee Trail High School

•    Susan Niederhoff, Smoky Hill High School

Students in the Cherry Creek School District consistently score above the state and national average on the ACT. The district average ACT composite score for 2013 is 21.6. The Colorado average is 20.1 and the national average score is 20.9.

Cherokee Trail seniors David Mathews and Nate Gibby both took the test more than once, but didn’t do any other significant preparation.

“I took the test twice before and got a 35 both times,” said Gibby, who hopes to attend Stanford and study finance and investment banking. “Once I got a 35, I set my goal for a 36. I knew I could do it.”

Mathews, who plans to study business at Stanford, said he was “kind of surprised” by his score. “It was great! The best part was the odds of getting a perfect 36,” he said. “There were 788 students who got a perfect score out of 1.6 million students who took the test.”

The ACT is a standardized exam taken by high school students to gauge their college and career readiness. Students are assessed with four multiple choice subject tests in English, reading, math and science. All four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. accept the ACT for the college admissions process. Students often see an increase in their score the more times they take it, but few attain a perfect score.

If you would like to know how we can help increase your score. Please give us a call for a free consultation today! 720-441-2772

7 ACT Test Strategies that Work

The ACT is a daunting test and the outcome has serious consequences for every student. While there is no substitute for working hard, you can optimize your chances of succeeding in the ACT test by learning strategies for answering questions effectively. Learning to navigate the landscape of an ACT will ensure that you get the best possible results.

Practice makes perfect

Practice tests are available online for you to try. Practice subject tests prior to writing your ACT test in order to familiarize yourself with the way questions are asked. You should also study the instructions for each subject test prior to writing. Since time is such an important factor in your ACT test, knowing the instructions beforehand means you won’t waste time reading them more than once during the exam.

Prioritize your questions

Read through the questions before you start writing. Order them from easiest to hardest and start with the easy ones. Getting the easy points done is a great way to ensure the best score. Doing the easy questions first will also help to build your confidence and get you in the right headspace to take on the more difficult questions.

Shake it off and move on

If you get to a question you just can’t find an answer to, move on. Don’t waste any time getting bogged down on difficult questions. You can come back to it if you need to at a later stage. As you are working through questions, make notes in the margins. You don’t need to hand in a pristine paper, use every inch of paper to make notes and jot down thoughts. That way, when you come back to the difficult questions, you can see what you were working on before.

Don’t know the answer? Guess!

Never leave an answer blank. The ACT test doesn’t penalize you for incorrect answers, so taking a guess may just render the right answer.

Bubbling with care

Take great care when bubbling. It’s easy to accidentally colour in the wrong bubble even when you have the right answer. While you may be working through the answer quickly, double check that you have filled in the right bubble. It’s best to get a couple of answers ready and then fill the bubbles in at the same time to make it faster. Ensure absolute accuracy by saying the question number and the answer in your head as you fill out the bubble grid: “24, F and 25, C.”

Take it easy

This may sound like the worst idea ever when time is such a crucial factor in a successful ACT test, but taking the time to read questions carefully will prevent misinterpretation. Some answers will try to trick you and if you rush through, you will fall victim to these partially right answers.

Stay positive

Adopting a defeatist attitude will result in a poor test score. Tell yourself you can do it, take a deep breath and start with the easy questions so that you can build on your confidence before tackling the more difficult ones.