I started the session by having Nina review a few of the more difficult passages in the English section. As she did that, I edited and made comments on her sample writing response. We then went over her answers to the English section. I had Nina do the same for the more difficult reading passages, and again for the Science section. We went over her answers for each section and I reiterated the corresponding testing strategies that will help her do well.
Assignment
Drill everyday until the test.
Session Minutes
120
Minutes Student Attended
120
Lesson Comments
Nina spent time the past week practicing and she did better during her drills this week. As long as she keeps this up daily over the next week, I believe she will do extremely well next Saturday. She has the natural ability, it just depends on how well she applies the testing strategies during test time. I would score Nina's writing response at a 3. I again went over multiple tips for her to increase her writing score; including adding more specific details, using transitional statements, organizing for clarity, etc.
It has been a couple of weeks since I have seen Nina, we went through some of the practice problems that I gave her back then, and practiced some other concepts that she may have forgotten or not seen.
Nina and I spent some time reviewing a reading comprehension strategy. I had her read through and annotate a few sample passages, and then she completed corresponding drills. We then reviewed the common grammatical errors to be on the lookout for in the English section, and then completed some English section drills.
Assignment
Complete a practice essay for the writing section
Session Minutes
120
Minutes Student Attended
120
Lesson Comments
Nina admitted that she did not practice her drills this week as she was on a road trip to visit Florida universities. While Nina has the potential to score very high in the reading and english sections, she did not seem to be consistently using the strategies that we have covered. We noticed that most of her incorrect answers were due to over-analyzing or not reading carefully enough. She has a road map on how to avoid these pitfalls in the future, and should do well if she devotes some time to rote practice of the strategies and drills. Next Saturday, I am unavailable from 10:30am-12:30pm. Nina said she could Skype that morning's session if necessary. I am going to speak with Abigail about meeting Saturday afternoon or possibly one afternoon during the week, and then send Betsy an email.
Nina and I went over 22 strategies to help her create a game plan for the science section. Then we spent time doing science drills to figure our what her strengths and weaknesses were so that she could have a targeted approach to this section. Then we discussed the writing section; what to expect, and how to organize and plan for the writing. I asked her to read a prompt and create an outline. Then we read sample prompts with different scores to understand what the test makers are looking for.
Assignment
Continue practicing.
Session Minutes
120
Minutes Student Attended
120
Lesson Comments
A great session. Nina has the ability to score very high on the ACT. She does need time to practice the strategies under the pressure of time.
Today we covered test taking strategies and discussed the areas Nina could improve. We covered English, Reading and Science briefly.
Assignment
Practice the Reading and Science
Session Minutes
90
Minutes Student Attended
90
Lesson Comments
Nina has a good understanding of English, but needs more practice with her new test taking strategies to keep her English and Reading score high. Science seems to be her hardest section so we will devote more time to that next week. We did not have time to practice her writing response. I suggested doing 120 minute sessions until the test in April.
We went through some tricks on the ACT such as POE, and what I like to call the "Plug In Method." We went through some sample problems dealing with these topics. We also went through the last set of practice problems that I gave her last week, and I filled in some gaps on Law of Sines, finding the area of a triangle (with 2 known sides and the included angle), and difference of squares factoring to answer a problem quickly and efficiently. I noticed that she has some weakness on manipulation of expressions and equations, so we will practice more of that as well.
Today was our first meeting, so I gave her a bunch of problems from the ACT with different concepts to see where she is. Nina has a lot of knowledge, however, feels most uncomfortable with some topics in Geometry. The focus with her would be review of topics from Geometry, as well as practice exams over and over, practice with speed and tricks (she learned the "Plug In Method" and the POE).
