Lexi is a very competitive student and a hardworking, goal-oriented volleyball player. From the start, she told us that she plays to win.  When she started test prep, we determined that the ACT was her best test, customized a tutoring program for her, and matched her with a fantastic virtual tutor.  Lexi did strong work at the beginning of tutoring as she learned the ins and outs of the ACT. One of her early challenges was getting her math brain going again. Since she wasn’t taking any math courses in school during the first semester she was learning ACT, and since the previous spring had been the first semester of COVID remote learning, she had some rust to work through. But Lexi was a very strong student who stayed patient and determined; she started mastering the test, and her scores in all four sections started to climb. Lexi was especially gifted at the English section, and week after week, she saw solid, consistent score gains there as she learned test content and strategies.

As her first official test approached, though, Lexi’s Reading score started to dip, despite it being one of her best sections early on. Lexi and her tutor debriefed after every Reading homework assignment, tweaking strategies and working for several weeks to figure out what was standing in her way. From all of their conversations, Lexi’s tutor realized her main obstacle to success on Reading was simply test anxiety and nerves. In the weeks leading up to the test, Lexi had become more and more anxious and worried about the section, which caused her to lose both her focus and her ability to perform on Reading at the high level she needed to reach her score goals.

With this in mind, and in consultation with the administrative team at RTC, Lexi’s test prep tutor asked her if she would like to try Mindfulness for Test Prep. Lexi had experience with meditation and was excited by this idea, agreeing to give it a try. One of the very first things Lexi told her virtual mindfulness coach was, “You know, I don’t know why I dread the Reading section so much. It’s actually not all that different from the English section, and English is my best section.” Her coach immediately latched on to Lexi’s insightful observation.

First, Lexi’s coach taught her how to breathe in a way that helped her reduce the test-taking anxiety she would sometimes experience during the Reading section. Lexi took these techniques for a test drive at school, trying them out before and during a few exams. She reported back to her coach, “Wow! These techniques really work!” Lexi was motivated by how much the mindfulness techniques she was learning helped her stay calm while taking tests. Second, Lexi’s coach began to help her examine the confidence she felt on the English section, exploring through visualization if she could take her English confidence with her into the Reading section. She discovered that she could: by the week before test day, her Reading scores were up by four points!

Meanwhile, as Lexi learned to incorporate mindfulness into her test taking, she and her test prep tutor worked on the other sections of the test, focusing especially on Math. Although her math skills were initially a little rusty, in the second half of the program Lexi was doing excellent work in her high school Calculus course. Her test prep tutor pointed out that this math was way harder than what she would see on the ACT. With this helpful context, in all of her lessons and homework, Lexi used her calming mindfulness techniques to build up confidence and care as test day approached.

On her final ACT, Lexi not only met her Reading score goal, but improved her baseline Reading score by a whopping 10 points! She also hit her highest ever Math score, an impressive 30, which became her best score on the test. Overall, Lexi’s ACT score increased from a Composite of 23 to a 28, which means now she has the scores she needs to apply to her top schools, including Georgia and Tennessee.  (A 23 on the ACT is equivalent to a 1140 on the SAT; a 28 is a 1310.)  We could not be prouder of Lexi’s perseverance and hard work, and we can’t wait to share her college choice with you in the coming year!