The ACT English feels like a sprint. It’s 50 questions in 35 minutes, which gives students about 42 seconds per question. That means they have to read the passage, find the underlined portion, read the question, compare the answers, avoid the trap answers, and pick the correct one all in less than a minute. So naturally, the strategy is to speed up, right?

No.

The real strategy is to Slow. Down. I teach students to methodically hunt for the correct answer. They find the underlined portion, look at the answer choices, determine what strategy is being tested, and then apply that strategy to answer the question correctly. Then move on to the next. Slow. Methodical. Hunt. Not a sprint.

I’m a perfect referral for your friend Laura: packed calendar, Highlander full of volleyball gear, and her daughter Sophie, who reads fast but keeps missing questions she actually knows how to answer. The next time you see Laura, ask: “What’s one thing Sophie has done this year that surprised her, in a good way?”