Florida Bright Futures full tuition (chose Florida), plus $134,000 at Marquette, $60,000 at Louisville, $60,000 at Auburn
Chose: University of Florida
Mia was a strong IB/AP student. Straight A’s, full AP load, top of her class. Her 25 on the ACT didn’t reflect any of that. The family had already worked with an SAT tutor who spoon-fed answers in sessions, and none of it stuck. Mia was studying, the score wasn’t moving, and the friction between her and her mom kept building.
By the time Anabelle reached out to Boosted Brains, the question wasn’t whether the family was working hard enough on prep. The question was whether anybody had a plan.
The counterintuitive first move
Most prep programs would have looked at Mia’s score breakdown, noticed math was her weakest section, and started there. We didn’t.
For the first five weeks, we ignored math entirely.
Mia’s Reading and English had more upside per hour of work. Her error patterns were specific and addressable—subject-verb agreement, little-picture questions in Reading, careless errors driven by pacing. If we could lock down two sections with a 5-week sprint, she’d walk into the February test with two near-perfect scores in the bank, and a much shorter to-do list for sprint two.
February results: Reading 35, English 35. Composite jumped. And the score range was high enough to qualify her for Florida Bright Futures full tuition on its own.
Sprint two: only math
Sprint two pivoted entirely to math. Same model: daily to-do list, targeted drills on the specific question types still costing her points, weekly coach session, Slack messaging access between sessions for the questions that came up at 9 PM on a Thursday.
By the April test, Mia had a 33 composite. Two five-week sprints, two test dates, done.
What the 33 unlocked
Mia got into 10 out of 10 schools she applied to: University of Florida, Florida State, Marquette, Auburn, Louisville, UCF, and several others.
The scholarship breakdown:
- Florida Bright Futures—full tuition, four years
- Marquette—$134,000
- Louisville—$60,000
- Auburn—$60,000
She chose the University of Florida and the Bright Futures full tuition.
Anabelle’s side of the story
The score and the schools matter. The thing Anabelle keeps mentioning is what happened to the family dynamic.
“Finally having a plan lifted a huge burden off my shoulders. For the first time in this college process, I felt like I knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing.”
Anabelle stopped being the project manager for ACT prep. She didn’t have to check in on Mia’s practice. She didn’t have to remind her about test dates or score reports. The coach owned the ACT side of the process, and Anabelle got to be Mia’s mom again instead of her study supervisor.
The friction between mom and daughter, the thing that quietly wears down a lot of families during junior and senior year—gone.
What Mia’s story shows
Mia was always going to be a strong student. What she didn’t have was someone telling her which of the right things to work on, in what order. The IB/AP work ethic was already there. The missing piece was the plan.
If your student is a high-achieving kid stuck at a number that doesn’t match her grades, this is what that looks like solved.
"Finally having a plan lifted a huge burden off my shoulders. For the first time in this college process, I felt like I knew exactly what we were supposed to be doing."
— Anabelle S., Mia's Mom
"I always felt like I could have done more, but I just didn't know how."
— Mia
What we did differently
- Ignored math (her weakest section) for the entire first sprint. Spent five weeks only on Reading and English.
- Drilled the specific question types she was missing—subject-verb agreement, little-picture questions, careless errors—not generic content.
- Daily Slack check-ins so mom didn't have to be the accountability layer.
- Sprint two pivoted entirely to math once Reading and English were locked in.
- Done by spring of junior year, with senior year completely free of ACT stress.
Coached by
Boosted Brains coaching team
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).