ACT preparation, live online
The ACT is a pace test before it is anything else. Science and Reading are where students who know the material still run out of time, and the enhanced format has made section choice part of the decision — Science is now optional, and whether to take it depends on where you are applying. Preparation starts with timing and works back to content.
Exam format
What the ACT actually looks like
The structure, the timing and the scoring, stated plainly — before anything about a course.
- Length
- Around two hours for the core sections, longer with the options
- Questions
- English, Mathematics and Reading are scored; Science is optional
- Scored
- Composite 1–36, averaged from English, Mathematics and Reading
English
Usage, mechanics and rhetorical skills, tested through passages with underlined portions. Fast, and rewarded by knowing the rules rather than by reading carefully — the opposite instinct from the Reading section.
Mathematics
Pre-algebra through trigonometry, in roughly increasing difficulty. The content is not the hard part for most candidates; finishing is.
Reading
Four passages including a paired set, under tight time. This is where students who know the material still run out of clock, and where pacing practice pays back fastest.
Science — optional
Data representation, research summaries and conflicting viewpoints. It tests reading graphs and experiments under time far more than it tests science knowledge. Taken separately, it produces its own score.
- The Composite is now averaged from English, Mathematics and Reading. Science is optional and reported separately when taken, so whether to sit it depends on what your universities and intended major ask for.
- Writing is optional too, and required by a shrinking number of institutions — check your shortlist rather than defaulting either way.
- Enhanced international testing arrived in February 2026, so material older than that may describe a different shape.
Before you start
Is ACT preparation right for you?
Who it suits. Students choosing the ACT for their university applications and looking for targeted work on accuracy and pacing.
When to check another option. A decision made only because a friend takes the ACT. Compare the required test and your own diagnostic before choosing ACT or SAT preparation.
Why it matters
What a ACT score is for
The ACT is accepted everywhere the SAT is, and for some candidates it is simply the better fit: it rewards speed and straightforward question-reading where the SAT rewards precision and adapts against you. If Science is a strength, the optional section gives you somewhere to show it that the SAT has no equivalent of. And for a student whose grades are stronger than their standardised testing suggests, a composite built from three sections is more forgiving of one weak area than a two-section total.
Coverage
What the preparation covers
The ground a course goes over. A group course takes it in its published order; for one-to-one lessons, how much of it you need and in what order is what the diagnostic decides.
- English: usage and mechanics, rhetorical skills
- Mathematics: pre-algebra through trigonometry, and the pacing to finish it
- Reading: four passages under time, including the paired-passage set
- Science: data representation, research summaries, conflicting viewpoints
- The optional Writing task, and whether your universities want it
Where marks go
Where candidates lose marks on the ACT
Not a list of study tips. These are the specific ways this particular test takes marks off people who know the material.
Running out of time in Reading
The defining feature of this exam. Four passages, tight minutes, and a paired set that takes longer than it looks. Candidates who read every word thoroughly finish three passages well and one badly, which costs more than reading all four adequately.
Reading English passages for meaning
English questions are about rules — punctuation, agreement, modifier placement, transitions. Reading the passage as prose slows you down without helping, because the answer is almost always local to the underlined portion.
Working Mathematics strictly in order
Difficulty rises through the section, so time spent grinding a hard question in the middle is time taken from easier ones at the end. A first pass for what you can do quickly is worth several marks.
Studying science for the Science section
It rewards reading figures under time, not recall. Candidates who revise biology for it are preparing for a test that is not there, and neglecting the skill that is.
Sitting Science or Writing by default
Both are optional now. Sitting them when nothing on your shortlist asks for them spends energy and stamina you needed for the Composite; skipping them when a university does ask is worse.
Preparing from pre-2026 material
The enhanced format arrived for international candidates in February 2026. Older books describe a longer test with a mandatory Science section and a different Composite.
Lesson format
Group course, or one-to-one
Group · 72 hours
Seventy-two one-hour lessons over sixteen weeks, on weekday evenings: 16 in English, 15 in Reading and 31 in Math, then 10 working through practice tests together. Science and the optional Writing test are not part of the group course; one-to-one lessons can add them if your universities want them. Classes hold at most six.
One-to-one
One-to-one lessons for a composite target, or for the one section dragging the average down — usually Reading pace, or the Mathematics topics that appear late in the section.
Group course
How the ACT group course runs
A fixed timetable, in Türkiye time (UTC+3). The dates and lessons below are the ones the classes are actually taught to.
- Lessons
- 60 minutes each
- Days and times
- Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, 18:00–20:15
- Length
- 16 weeks · 72 hours
- Class size
- Up to 24 students per group, taught by level in classes of at most 6
Week by week
- Weeks 1–10: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 18:00–20:15 — two one-hour lessons an evening with a 15-minute break: one English or Reading, one Math.
- Week 11: Monday evening, both lessons.
- Weeks 12–16: Wednesday evenings, working through practice tests together — English and Reading at 18:00, Math at 19:15.
What the lessons cover
- English · 16 lessons — Production of Writing 7, Conventions of Standard English 6, Knowledge of Language 3
- Reading · 15 lessons — Key Ideas and Details 7, Craft and Structure 5, Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 3
- Math · 31 lessons — Number and Quantity 3, Algebra 6, Functions 6, Geometry 6, Statistics and Probability 4, Integrating Essential Skills 6
- Practice-test review · 10 lessons — 5 English and Reading, 5 Math
Science and the Writing test are optional on the enhanced ACT and do not count towards the Composite, so the group course does not teach them. One-to-one lessons can.
Start dates open for enrolment
Starts Mon 19 October 2026
Last lesson 10 February 2027 · the enrol-by date has passed, so ask us whether a place is still free
For the ACT test window opening on 12 February 2027
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 17 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 30 November 2026
Last lesson 31 March 2027 · enrol by 27 November 2026
For the ACT test window opening on 2 April 2027
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 18 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 1 February 2027
Last lesson 9 June 2027 · enrol by 29 January 2027
For the ACT test window opening on 11 June 2027
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 19 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 1 March 2027
Last lesson 7 July 2027 · enrol by 26 February 2027
For the ACT test window opening on 9 July 2027
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 19 calendar weeks.
7 later start dates, to 6 March 2028
Starts Mon 24 May 2027
Last lesson 8 September 2027 · enrol by 21 May 2027
For the ACT test window expected to open on 11 September 2027 (ACT's projected date)
Starts Mon 28 June 2027
Last lesson 20 October 2027 · enrol by 25 June 2027
For the ACT test window expected to open on 22 October 2027 (ACT's projected date)
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 17 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 16 August 2027
Last lesson 15 December 2027 · enrol by 13 August 2027
For the ACT test window expected to open on 17 December 2027 (ACT's projected date)
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 18 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 1 November 2027
Last lesson 16 February 2028 · enrol by 29 October 2027
For the ACT test window expected to open on 18 February 2028 (ACT's projected date)
Starts Mon 20 December 2027
Last lesson 12 April 2028 · enrol by 17 December 2027
For the ACT test window expected to open on 14 April 2028 (ACT's projected date)
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 17 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 7 February 2028
Last lesson 14 June 2028 · enrol by 4 February 2028
For the ACT test window expected to open on 16 June 2028 (ACT's projected date)
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 19 calendar weeks.
Starts Mon 6 March 2028
Last lesson 12 July 2028 · enrol by 3 March 2028
For the ACT test window expected to open on 14 July 2028 (ACT's projected date)
Some weeks have no lesson, so this class runs across 19 calendar weeks.
What the course includes
- 20 full-length ACT practice tests
- The ACT question bank, full access
- TestPrep AI Tutor, which talks you through the mistakes in your practice tests — your first 2 are free
- Every lesson recorded, to rewatch for 14 days
- A study plan written for you by TestPrep
- Homework, with your progress tracked from lesson to lesson
- Questions answered within 24 hours
- Regular progress reports for parents
- All course materials, at no extra cost
The question bank opens on your account once the first week of the course is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson.
Each class finishes in the week of an international ACT test window. The test is taken on computer at a test centre over a Friday and Saturday, and the last lesson is that week's Wednesday.
Classes starting from May 2027 follow ACT's projected international test dates. If the confirmed dates differ, the programme moves to match them.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.
How it runs
How the teaching works
A diagnostic before one-to-one lessons are planned
One-to-one lessons start by finding out where the marks are actually going. That is not a formality: on most of these tests the gap a student describes and the gap the diagnostic shows are different, and hours spent on the described one are hours wasted. A group course starts on its published first lesson instead. If you want a baseline of your own first, the free ACT diagnostic test is there for that.
Teaching in the order your deadline allows
A group course works through the syllabus in a fixed order because a class has to. One-to-one starts with whatever is costing you most and works outwards, which is why it suits a retake or a short runway better.
Timed work from early, not saved for the end
Untimed accuracy is a poor predictor of a timed score, and finding that out three weeks before the test is too late. Timed sections start in the first fortnight, short at first.
Review and progress checks
Review looks beyond the mark: which errors recur, whether the reasoning is clearer and how accuracy holds under time pressure. Bring earlier attempts to the discussion so the next practice has a specific purpose.
All of it runs in the browser, live, with a teacher on the other end. There are no recordings sold as a course and no premises to travel to.
Timeline
How long ACT preparation takes
A rough shape rather than a promise. People arrive at different starting points and the plan is built around yours, but this is what a full run usually looks like.
- 1
Ten to sixteen weeks out — diagnostic, timing first
A full timed test before any content teaching, because on the ACT the first question is always pacing. It also settles whether Science and Writing are worth sitting for your shortlist.
- 2
Weeks 2–8 — content with a clock on it
English rules, the Mathematics topics that appear late in the section, and Reading strategy — all practised timed from the first fortnight rather than untimed and then accelerated.
- 3
Weeks 8–12 — full timed sections
Complete sections under real timing, each followed by a section-by-section review that looks at where the clock ran out as well as at what was wrong.
- 4
Final fortnight — pacing only
Timed sections and the specific question types still costing marks. No new content, and a plan for what to do when a passage is going badly at the halfway mark.
Practice
Practising between lessons
Lessons are where something gets explained; the marks move in the hours between them. The ACT group course includes both: the question bank opens once its first week is over, and the practice tests on the day of the last topic lesson. Of the one-to-one packages, only the 50-lesson Ultimate package includes them; both are also sold on their own.
Full-length practice tests
The real section timing, the on-screen tools the test gives you, and the real adaptive behaviour. A score from an untimed paper printout tells you much less than it appears to.
Question bank
Filter to one section and one difficulty band and work a narrow skill until the pattern in your wrong answers is obvious. Solved questions are remembered, so a session does not hand back what you already got right.
TestPrep AI Tutor talks you through the questions you got wrong
When your ACT practice test ends, pick a mistake on your results page and the lesson starts. The tutor won't just read out the answer: it asks you, writes the steps on the board and lets you find where you went wrong.
On the ACT it works through English, Mathematics, Reading and Science questions. Your ACT Writing text is coached against the ACT Writing rubric. The exam's own Desmos calculator is on screen too.
Your first 2 mistakes are free (up to 10 minutes)
No card needed to try it, just your account.
Then 30-minute blocks at $4. Unused minutes stay on your account for your next practice tests.
FAQ
ACT questions we get asked
- Is Science really optional?
- Yes. The Composite is averaged from English, Mathematics and Reading, and Science produces a separate score when you sit it. Whether to sit it depends on what your universities and intended major ask for — check before deciding.
- ACT or SAT?
- Sit a timed section of each and compare, rather than reasoning about it. Broadly: the ACT rewards speed and direct question-reading, the SAT rewards precision and adapts to your first module. Both are accepted everywhere.
- Can I take both?
- You can, and a few people should — but preparing for both at once usually means preparing well for neither, because the pacing and question style pull in opposite directions.
- How many times should I sit it?
- Twice is typical. Superscoring policies vary by university, so check whether your shortlist takes the best section results across sittings before planning a third attempt.
- What is the Writing section worth?
- It is optional and required by a shrinking number of institutions. Check your specific shortlist; there is no general answer and defaulting either way costs something.
- Do you follow the enhanced international format?
- Yes. The enhanced format arrived for international candidates in February 2026, and preparing on the older shape means preparing for a mandatory Science section that is no longer mandatory.
Pricing
What ACT preparation costs
Shown in US dollars. Charged in US dollars — there is no conversion at checkout to be surprised by.
One-to-one lessons
One-to-one lessons for a composite target, or for the one section dragging the average down — usually Reading pace, or the Mathematics topics that appear late in the section.
Single lesson
One 90-minute lesson, to see how it goes.
$100Book10 lessons
Prepaid, usable across subjects where the exam has them.
20 lessons
The usual choice for a full preparation run.
50 lessons, the Ultimate package
75 hours of lessons, with 20 ACT practice tests and four months of the ACT question bank included; both open as soon as they are published.
Group course · 72 hours
Seventy-two one-hour lessons over sixteen weeks, on weekday evenings: 16 in English, 15 in Reading and 31 in Math, then 10 working through practice tests together. Science and the optional Writing test are not part of the group course; one-to-one lessons can add them if your universities want them. Classes hold at most six.
Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings, 18:00–20:15, Türkiye time. Next class starts Mon 19 October 2026. Timetable and start dates
Paid in full
The whole course, one payment.
In instalments
Per instalment: 2 monthly payments, the first when you enrol.
First private lesson, or first week of a group course: if it is not what you wanted, you get your money back.
Three or more of you preparing together? We can open a private group at the group course price, with the lesson days and times agreed with the group.
Paid by card on this site, in US dollars, through Stripe. The exact amount is shown before you pay. A group place is confirmed by e-mail once the payment goes through, and what the course includes opens on the account registered here with the student's e-mail address.