Ella had already taken the ACT twice in 2026. She scored a 31 in February and a 29 in July, when her English was a 28 and her Reading a 30. She wants to study geophysics, and her goal was a 31 or higher.
She started with us at the end of August. The September test was three weeks away.
Three weeks, two sections
Three weeks isn’t enough time to work on the whole test, so her coach, Angelina, put it all into Reading and English and saved Math for October.
Ella’s routine alternated days. She took one timed practice section, and the next day she worked back through every question she’d missed, writing down what each one tested and why she got it wrong.
In Reading, her mistakes came when she was down to two possible answers and started overthinking. Angelina gave her one rule to settle it: the right answer has to be backed up by something the passage actually says. Ella began marking the key words in each question, like “the last paragraph,” and finding the sentence that supported her answer before she chose it. Her mistakes had been bunching up in the science passage, which usually comes last in the section, when she was tired. Her session the week before the test worked through a science passage using the new rule.
In English, the work was learning the 20 to 30 grammar rules the section keeps testing.
One sitting
Ella scored a 34 in a single sitting, with English 35, Math 31 and a perfect 36 in Reading. Her English went up seven points from July, and her Reading went from a 30 to a 36. The 34 is three points above her goal and higher than either of her earlier ACTs. Going in, the expectation had been a 32 or a 33.
She’s taking the October test to raise her Math from a 31 to a 33, which would round her composite up to a 35.
"Mama asked me yesterday, do you think this class is like actually giving you something? I was like, I think it is."
— Ella B.
What we did differently
- Spent the three weeks on Reading and English only, and saved Math for the October test.
- Alternated days: one timed practice section, then a full review of every missed question the next day.
- Gave her one rule for Reading: the right answer has to be backed up by a specific line in the passage.
- Had her learn the set of grammar rules the English section keeps testing.
Coached by
Angelina
Every Boosted Brains coach has a perfect or near-perfect ACT score and has been personally trained by Carson Weekley (perfect 36) and Martin (Head of Student Success).