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.

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.

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.

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.

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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. How much of it you need, and in what order, is what the first session 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 · 60 hours

Sixty hours across the required sections, in classes of six, with timed section work every week rather than a single mock test at the end.

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.

How it runs

How the teaching works

A diagnostic before anything is planned

The first session is spent 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.

Teaching in the order your deadline allows

A group course works through the syllabus in a fixed order because a class of six 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 tests
A full-length test every week or ten days with a section-by-section review, focused on where the clock ran out rather than only on 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.

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