Our program includes the following:
Matching Tutors and Students: When assigning a tutor, we strive to make the best possible match for each student. Among factors we consider are a student’s skills, general interests, and temperament. While all of our tutors are highly skilled, we have made sure to assemble a staff that is diverse in personality and style so as to maximize our ability to make a good match.
Tutoring Sessions: Our standard ACT tutoring session is 90 minutes and takes place weekly in the student’s home. (Other arrangements are possible and sometimes recommended.) As we only hire tutors who have mastered the test as a whole, we assign one tutor per student. The sessions themselves focus on developing and honing the skills—critical reasoning and speed—that are needed to do well on the test.
Homework: Homework is a key component of the prep process. The work that students do between sessions enables them to internalize the instruction they absorb during the tutoring and to develop the pace and stamina that will help them perform at their best on the ACT.
Practice Tests: Brownstone Tutors offers ACT practice tests at our location in Midtown. Ideally, students will take at least two practice tests before they take the real thing.
Supervision: We have great confidence and trust in our tutors, but we also take care to monitor each student’s progress. We check in with both tutors and parents on a regular basis in order to ensure that maximum improvement is achieved.
Although the elements of the tutoring process are constant, the structure of the program varies depending on when the process begins. For students who start sufficiently far in advance (6 months or more before the test) we offer an assessment interview, which helps us make the best possible match for the student in question. We are also able to help with strategic planning. The ACT is a piece of a larger puzzle. Given enough time, we can help students develop a plan and a schedule for tackling all the various challenges of the college application process.
When students begin tutoring relatively close the test date (3 months or less), it often makes sense to begin with two sessions per week (if possible) in order to jump-start the training process.
