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Last month, I received news from a former ACT student that he'd been accepted early into his first-choice college. This is always exciting news, but it was especially so in this case: when he took his initial ACT diagnostic, he scored a composite of 20 and believed his dream school was out of reach. Thanks to our work together, he raised that score 14 points to a 34 composite. Here’s how we did it:

1. Address psychological hurdles

As a tutor, my role is not just to address a student’s knowledge gaps, which are relatively low-hanging fruit—far more important, and often more opaque, are the mental blocks that limit their performance. "I'm a bad test taker," or "I'm not a math person," or "The reading is too boring," are all common (and valid!) refrains from students—but establishing a growth mindset is critical to overcoming them. Framing the challenge ahead in terms of actions the student can control puts them in command of the process, giving the confidence that their hard work can and will pay off.

In this case, the first few times my student attempted the ACT's Science section, he experienced "information overload" that made him give up and start guessing. We worked to reframe his notion that "I can't absorb all this information" to "I need to identify what's relevant for each question so I can ignore the rest." Once we'd broken through his erroneous sense that he needed to synthesize tons of information all at once, he was able to overcome his initial intimidation. On his initial diagnostic, the student scored a 17 on Science; he finished with a 34.

2. Start with strengths

It's tempting to look at a diagnostic test and start prep work in the area that’s weakest, but for students seeking substantial score improvements, it’s important to build confidence through quick results. In these cases, I start where the student is strongest—proving to them that they’re up for the challenge.

This particular student was a strong English student, so we started there. Because that material was more accessible, it provided a low-stress opportunity to practice the systematized approach that would help him tackle the more challenging sections. Seeing immediate improvement made the gap between where he started and where he hoped to get much less daunting than it originally had; once he'd seen that growth in one area was possible, he understood that he could replicate it elsewhere. This student initially scored a 22; he finished with a 35.

3. Unlock objectivity

Nearly all students struggle with the fallacy that the right answer will jump out to them when they read it. It’s not that this is never true—it’s just not true often enough to maximize scores. Instead of looking at options to determine what answer is "best" (a subjective process), students need a process that analyzes what the question requires and identifies the answer choice that delivers on that mandate (an objective one). This makes answer selection both simpler and less prone to bias, crucial elements in reducing a student’s error rate.

This particular student relied far too much on his memory of the text to answer questions in the Reading section. Instead, he was much better served by identifying what lines of the passage were most relevant and constructing an expectation of the right answer based on those lines. This also addressed his other weakness, which was favoring choices that were more complex or featured more advanced vocabulary; in other words, he was likelier to choose answers that "sounded smart." By creating an objective process, he was able to limit the impact of that bias. This student started with a 25; he finished with a perfect 36.

4. Reduce impulsivity

Most students and parents assume that top scorers know every tested pair of homophones, every esoteric math formula, and every bit of scientific trivia that may be featured on any given test. Not only is this unrealistic—it’s not even necessary! Minute knowledge gaps will not prevent a student from achieving a top score. If a student doesn't know how to use natural logarithms, that might be relevant on one question every few tests; if the student does not have full command of their attention or uses an ineffective workflow, that will be relevant on dozens and dozens of questions every single test. Therefore, perfecting how the student works and reacts to testing situations yields far better results than drilling minor concepts.

For this student, his approach to Math needed a significant overhaul. While he could not control whether he remembered the optimal method to solve every question, he could control how he accounted for and utilized all the given information, how he structured his workflow to minimize computation errors, and how certain he was that his answer delivered what the question asked for. Students who struggle with Math performance are often undone not by their capability, but by their disorganization. Disorganized work affects all questions, regardless of difficulty, so eliminating these mistakes greatly raised the floor of this student’s performance, enabling him to absorb misses on some of the hardest questions without limiting his top score. He started with a 16 and finished with a 31.

It's always gratifying to see a student make a dramatic improvement on their standardized tests, not only for the resulting impact on the student's admissions prospects but also for the boost in academic and self-confidence that usually accompanies it. With the right plan and sufficient dedication, any student can be successful on their standardized tests, no matter their starting score.