ACT Critical Thinking Boot Camp

Spring/Summer Course: June to September

In 2020, 1.67 million students took the ACT exam. 1.1 million students took the SAT exam. Many SAT testing centers were cancelled.

Taking the ACT June and July exams will increase students’ possibility of being able to take any ACT or SAT exam. Taking both ACT and SAT exams doubles students’ chances of achieving good scores. Scoring well on the SAT and ACT exams showcases a student’s academic mastery. This may be especially important when applying to top universities.

Our ACT Critical Thinking course description:

In this course, we will sharpen the essential reasoning skills that students need to succeed in high school and beyond. We will develop their abilities to read passages quickly and efficiently, identifying which parts are most important. We will also teach students to approach texts as critics, and not simply passive observers, showing them that understanding what an author is trying to do is only a starting point, and that true comprehension involves being able to identify the author’s successes and failures. We will place a heavy emphasis on logic and mathematical reasoning.

This description can be used for college applications and college summer programs. I routinely write letters of recommendation for students stating that they participated in a critical thinking course with Lee Academics. Our Critical Thinking Course will teach students to think with ACT questions.

Lee Academics ACT Spring Critical Thinking Course (80 hours) includes:

• 40 instructional hours.
• 16+ office hours.
• 6 proctored exams
• Makeup lessons as needed
• Access to 80+ real ACT exams, many with answer-explanations.
• ACT math book by topic with explanations. It is desirable to learn a topic at a time to gain mastery.
• Access to 4 books of ACT questions with answer-explanations from former released exams.
  • English
  • math
  • reading
  • science

English, Reading, Science, Writing (optional 40-minute essay)

• Critical reading section – introduction to and procedure for each of the segments
• Critical reading (more in depth) – analyzing and deconstructing difficult passages with the intent of improving general critical reading skills as well as attempting to define words by context alone.
• English section – grammar, rules and tips.
• Essay – Lee Academics instructors will individually go over essays with students. This verbal feedback will allow a student to ask questions. On some essays, an instructor will email critiques for students to refer to as they write future essays.
• The test – How to read the test makers. Lee Academics teachers can answer questions on the ACT critical reading sections with more than 50% accuracy without reading the relevant passages. Our teachers can also get close to 50% correct without even reading the question based on certain “tells”.
• Essential guessing and test taking strategies (no scoring penalty for the ACT).
• Basic Introduction to the ACT – What it is, time periods, how it’s graded.
• ACT science passage – How to analyze and interpret scientific passages, charts and
  graphs.

ACT test prep with Lee Academics:

• Scott will email essay critiques. Scott and/or Chris will give face to face one on one reviews. Our instructors will teach students to understand words. We teach students to break up words into components.
• Students will learn how to analyze the meaning of these vocabulary words.
• During some lessons, multiple teachers may work with various individual students and/or small groups of students. A teacher will work one on one with a student, while second teacher works with the main group. A third teacher may work one on one with another student or with a small group, specially going over the students’ questions.
• Our teachers will go over student’s mistakes so that they can learn the concepts missed. This will be done individually, small groups or with the main class.
• We will use many practice ACT questions in our Critical Thinking Course. We will go over your questions. For the math, Mamie will teach you the background math of each problem. This will help students to do problems of similar topics.
• Mamie has extremely detailed knowledge of the ACT math. Mamie teaches all math/SAT/PSAT/ACT/AP calculus. Mamie is familiar with the teaching styles of many local math teachers. Based on who a student’s math teachers have been, Mamie will usually know about a student’s math knowledge level.
• Mamie will teach tricks and shortcuts to make math problems easier.
• Geometry is a foreign language to some students. Mamie will teach the geometry necessary for the ACT test.
• Mamie will teach a math logic in class. Some ACT problems can be logic based.

Many of Lee Academics ACT students do very well on their first try at the ACT. Work hard. Aim high. We will help you to get the score of your dreams.

ACT and SAT comparison

	SAT	ACT
Reading	The evidence based reading passages and vocabulary are more challenging than the ACT reading section.	The ACT reading passages and vocabulary tend to be easier, but students have less time per question.
Writing	Evidenced Based Writing section is very similar to the ACT English.	ACT English (grammar) has more questions and is very similar to SAT writing and language.
Calculator	section 3 is no calculator section 4 with calculator	60 questions with calculator. Formulas can be stored in a calculator.
Math question type	58 questions multiple and short answer	Multiple choice
Math skills required	algebra 1, data analysis, some algebra 2, a little trig, a little geometry Formulas are usually given. Some SAT math problems are multistep. The SAT has less geometry.	algebra 1, algebra 2/trigonometry, vectors, matrices, conics, geometry and data analysis Formulas can be stored in a calculator. ACT math has about 20% geometry. A basic knowledge of most of algebra 2 is helpful. There are fewer hard math problems on the ACT.
Science	The SAT has one science passage in the critical reading section.	There is a full science section on the ACT. The science section is based on reading charts and graphs. Some scientific background could be helpful with the pacing on the test. The science section could demonstrate variability between testing sessions.
Essay – optional	The SAT has no essay.	The 40-minute essay score will not be factored into your ACT composite score. It will, however, be factored into your English-Language Arts sub-score, which averages your English, Reading, and Writing scores and rounds up to the nearest whole number.
June and July test available	no	yes
Online test	no	In the future you will be able to test online and get results as soon as two business days. Having fast scores can be great for early action/early decision as well as allow a student to decide to retake the next test. Due to COVID conditions, ACT was not able to offer online testing starting in September 2020. ACT Computer-Based test
Number of times the test can be taken	There is no limit. However, some universities require that all scores must be sent. A parent of a Lee Academics student working for an elite college shares this with us, “Withholding scores are not in the student’s favor, indicating the student does not follow directions, may not be sincere, and may have something to hide.”	The ACT can be taken 12 times. Each test report must be sent separately. For “practice” or a benchmark, taking the ACT first may be a good idea.
Rounding	no	31.5=32 31.75=32 32=32 32.25=32
Score Conversion	SAT 1570-1600	36 ACT is a perfect score
Number of students who took SAT or ACT exams	2020:1.1 million 2019: 2.2 million 2018: 2.1 million 2017: 1.8 million 2016: 1.6 million 2015: 1.7 million 2014: 1.7 million 2013: 1.7 million	2020: 1.67 million 2019: 1.8 million 2018: 1.9 million 2017: 2.0 million 2016: 2.1 million 2015: 1.9 million 2014: 1.9 million 2013: 1.8 million

The following is from ACT.org
(http://www.act.org/content/act/en/new-act-options/section-retesting.html)

In the future, retake one specific test section, instead of the full test.

Section Retesting FAQs

Why Section Retesting is Important and How it Promotes Student Success

Available for all students who have taken the full ACT test.

• • Lets students take individual ACT test sections or subjects again.
  • Students must first take a full ACT test and have a valid composite score on file.
  • Students may take up to three section retests on any one test date.
  • There are no limits on the number of times a student may take a retest.
  • Offered seven times a year, on the same dates as the national ACT test.

Lee Academics ACT Critical Thinking teachers:

• Mamie Lee Nicholson: I have a plethora of material to draw from to teach students concepts for the ACT math. Additionally, based on a student’s school, teacher and percent earned in the math class, I will know that student’s ability level. For 3 decades, I have taught students from many of the bay area tri-city schools and private schools. Additionally, Lee Academics has also taught SAT, ACT, math, philosophy courses and Pathways to College for the James Logan High School forensics team with Dr. Tommie Lindsey. I am so fortunate to do what I love every day. I love teaching math and talking about education. It is amazing to wake up each day and shine light to those in “math darkness,” to be able to build students minds, to promote education. I am so privileged to work with so many great students, parents and educators. Many of my students become my friends. Thanks for the great adventure.
• Scott Nicholson: Scott started teaching SAT and ACT for Lee Academics as a sophomore in high school. Many of his students attribute their success on the English, reading, writing and science to Scott’s teaching. Over his years of teaching, Scott has developed methods of teaching to make reading comprehension easier for students. Some students report being able to hear Scott as they take the ACT exams. Scott had a 4.7 GPA at James Logan High School. In Scott’s high school junior and senior years and as a Lee Academics instructor, Scott taught SAT and ACT at James Logan High School for Dr. Tommie Lindsey’s speech and debate team. Scott attended Rice University with a 4-year half tuition scholarship and a 2-year research fellowship before returning to California for medical reasons, finishing his degree at UC Davis. Scott is a National Merit Finalist and received many full-ride scholarship offers.
• Chris Nicholson: Chris graduated from Yale Law School in 2013. He is currently a PhD candidate in philosophy at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, where he has taught several classes. In the 2017-2018 school year he took a break from his studies to serve as an instructor teaching philosophy and law at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Alabama; one of his students was recently accepted to Harvard Law School. Many credit him with improving their LSAT scores by several points, especially on the logic games section. Lee Academics is proud and fortunate to employ a highly skilled, trained and educated instructor. Our students will benefit from being taught by a graduate of top universities. Yale Law School enrolls 200 students annually and has been ranked number one every year by the US News and World Report. The University of Michigan’s philosophy graduate program is ranked fifth in the world by the Philosophical Gourmet Report and enrolls about five students each year. As a high school speech and debate competitor Chris won and placed highly at numerous tournaments, competing in parliamentary debate, public forum debate, extemporaneous speaking, and impromptu speaking. Chris coached for the James Logan Forensics Team for five years after high school. His students have won the California state championship and reached the final round of the national championship. As a Lee Academics instructor, Chris taught SAT, ACT and philosophy at James Logan. He has coached the Pioneer High School ethics bowl team in Ann Arbor for three years. His A team reached the quarterfinals of the Michigan state championship in February 2019. His B team defied expectations and went 7-0 to win the state championship.
• Jessica Nicholson: Jessica graduated from UCLA. She was accepted into UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, UC Davis and many top universities. Jessica received full ride offers and many great merit packages. Jessica taught math from age 13 and came up with “The Jessie trick” for graphing. She noticed a pattern while graphing and taught it to me. Jessica was using “a, h, k” transformations long before common core made is a part of many chapters. She did not graph with routine “T charting” until precalculus when her teacher required it. Jessica taught 2 groups of 6 physics and honors physics students while she was a junior in high school. Most of her students received A grades. As a Lee Academics instructor, Jessica taught at James Logan.

ACT Critical Thinking Course cost and discounts

Please email for details. Group rates are offered for students registering for an ACT Critical Thinking Course with concurrent enrollment of students new to Lee Academics.