Trevor ran out of classes to take before he ran out of high school.
He’d worked through everything his school offered and was taking Calc II at a community college, so he skipped junior year and went straight from 10th grade into senior year. That’s normally a good problem to have, but it meant the ACT, which most students spread across junior year, had to happen in a few months.
He’d already tried to handle it on his own. Working through a book-and-video program by himself raised his score by one point, to a 28.
He knew the material
The problem became clear in his first meeting with us. Trevor knew the content, but he couldn’t yet show it with a clock running. Under time pressure he read carelessly. And on English questions where the right choice was to leave the sentence as written, he’d talk himself into changing it.
Studying alone is a hard way to fix that kind of mistake, because nobody is watching the moment it happens. Trevor also told us he does his best work when someone else sets the pace, which a self-paced program can’t do.
His own target was a 34, for engineering scholarships. The University of Florida was his first choice, and High Point, UVA and Virginia Tech were also on his list.
Math first, then the rest
Trevor enrolled with about two weeks to go before the July ACT. That isn’t enough time to work on the whole test, so his coach, Omer, put those two weeks entirely into Math. Trevor scored a 34 in Math in July, which meant the September test only had to raise his English and Reading.
From July to September he worked through a full sprint, our name for a stretch of daily practice, about an hour a day, built around one test date. Every day he did timed English and Reading practice, and Omer went through it with him, correcting the same two habits until they stopped showing up.
In September he scored a 35 in English and a perfect 36 in Reading.
A superscore combines a student’s best section scores from different test dates, and most colleges accept it. Trevor’s is a 35, seven points above where he started and one point above the goal he set for himself.
What changed
On his own, Trevor’s score went up one point. In 11 weeks with a coach, it went up seven. He was the same student with the same knowledge both times. What changed was having a coach who watched how he took the test, and a daily plan he had to follow.
"Hey, the scores just came out. I got a 35 in English and 36 in reading!"
— Trevor D.
What we did differently
- Spent the two weeks before the July test on Math alone, so the September test only had to raise English and Reading.
- Built his daily practice around timed sections, because the clock was costing him points he already knew how to earn.
- Worked on two specific habits: reading carelessly under time pressure, and talking himself out of English answers that should have been left as written.
- Gave him a set list of work every day and a coach checking it, since he does his best work when someone else sets the pace.
Coached by
Omer
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).