Does your student need to learn the fundamentals of test-taking strategies to beat the ACT or SAT?

This is our amazing student Kenzie, whose family contacted RTC after she had worked with an ACT tutor who was not helping her.  Kenzie was stuck at a 26 on the ACT, and she and her parents feared she would never reach her dream school, Villanova. (26 on ACT is equivalent to 1240 on SAT.)

When we first assessed Kenzie, we realized that her previous tutor had never taught her basic test-taking strategies on the ACT. There were so many places we could help her see gains, but first we had to get her over the tremendous anxiety she had developed around taking the test — especially the Reading section.  This required mindfulness strategies, as Kenzie learned she could become calm and focused at a test section that previously had felt out of control to her.  Along with her test prep curriculum, Kenzie learned focus and breathing strategies that enabled her to take her best test, her way.

With 18 hours of tutoring and incredibly hard work, Kenzie saw her Composite rise to a 29, which landed her that dream spot at Villanova to study Nursing.  When her mom Jen called us to tell us, she said that Kenzie had cried in relief for the first time in years when she found out she was accepted.

With hard work, dreams do come true!  Kenzie started her first year at Villanova in fall 2018, studying nursing.  Before she started, we put her in touch with another one of our alums, Kate, a senior Villanova premed student, to give her a connection before she even set foot on campus.

In the 2018-2019 year, we were lucky enough to work with Kenzie’s sister Sadie on ACT prep.  She climbed from a 21 to a 30 Superscore  and will be attending Villanova as well. (21 is equivalent to 1080 on SAT; 30 is equivalent to 1370.) Such amazing sisters!