Michael goes by MJ. When he started with us in June, two of his three ACT sections were already where he wanted them. His best Math score was a 34, from an April test, and in June he scored a 32 in English. His Reading was a 22.
He’d also taken the ACT more times than most students do. By September he had six tests behind him, most of them from before he started with us.
Why Reading was the whole game
A superscore takes a student’s best score in each section from every test date and averages them into one composite, and most colleges accept it. MJ’s best Math and English scores were already high, so Reading was the one section that could still move his superscore. It also had the most room to grow.
MJ’s trouble in Reading was time. On the July ACT he ran out of time on the last two passages and had to guess on about seven questions.
A new way through each passage
In the three weeks before the September test, his coach, Herbie, changed how MJ worked through each passage. MJ had been going straight to the questions and hunting for answers. That saved time, but it meant he missed what the passage was actually saying. On one practice question he chose the wrong answer because he’d skipped the sentence, starting “But although,” where the narrator’s first impression turns out to be wrong.
So they changed the order. MJ answered the questions that point to specific lines first. Then he skimmed the passage by reading the first and last sentence of each paragraph, underlining words like “however” and “but,” which is where passages turn. With that context he answered the remaining detail questions, and he left the main-idea questions for last. He timed every skim to keep it under four minutes.
In September he finished each passage with a minute or two to spare for checking his work, and he scored a perfect 36 in Reading.
That took his Reading from a 22 to a 36, and his score from the 26 he started with to a 34 superscore.
Herbie’s message to him the day scores came out read: “What a fantastic result, MJ. You should be proud of the work you put in!”
What we did differently
- Put the work into Reading, the one section that could still raise his superscore.
- Changed the order he worked through each passage: line-reference questions first, then a quick skim of each paragraph's first and last sentence, then the rest.
- Had him underline turning-point words like "however" and "but" as he skimmed, so he wouldn't miss where a passage changed direction.
- Timed the skim on every practice passage to keep it under four minutes.
Coached by
Herbie
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).