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Executive Summary
This case study examines the story of a junior/rising senior student athlete in high school looking to increase her ACT score. She worked with MyGuru for a total of 30 hours, received help from two different tutors to focus on different aspects of the test, and ultimately achieved a 6 point increase.
Introduction: Why We Develop Case Studies
MyGuru students seek private tutoring for a variety of reasons.
Some are already scoring above the 90th percentile on a standardized test, but realize that getting into an Ivy League university or one of the top graduate, MBA, Law, or Medical schools is only getting more intense, and thus seek private tutoring to squeeze out a few extra points on the test. But, others are truly struggling, scoring well below average.
For some students, the key issues are knowledge-based –meaning the students don’t know certain facts or understand certain concepts that they need to master to perform better. But, in more cases than many people might realize, the issue is more emotional or psychological – the student just needs a private tutor to help them build confidence, relax, and perform.
The benefit of customized, private tutoring is that the particular situation, strengths, and weaknesses of the student can be understood and addressed by the tutor, thus improving performance. The purpose of MyGuru’s Case Studies is to illustrate how a particular student benefited from private tutoring. Of course, your or your child’s particular situation is different – but if you can draw some comparisons and identify some similarities, you might be able to envision how private tutoring would benefit you.
Student Situation
This particular individual was a successful high school student looking towards college scholarship opportunities. She is a competitive ice hockey player, participating in travel teams throughout the year. The student was taking the ACT to have the best chance of being offered a hockey scholarship, ideally from a Division 1 or Division 3 school on the East Coast.
Achieving a good score on the ACT was important to attract scholarship attention from an Ivy League school; she knew that wouldn’t happen if her score remained in the 24-26 range (she had taken the test twice previously without tutoring). If she were to play for a scholastically high level school, she would need to raise her score to at least a 30.
The Tutor
The tutor we matched with this student was Brian, a longtime student with a BA in Biology and a Masters and PhD student in Theology and Philosophy. Brian is known as a well-rounded, “jack of all trades” tutor with knowledge in various subjects. The tutor has scored in the 99th percentile on both the SAT and ACT and has tutoring experience with the Huntington Learning Center. He has also been an adjunct professor at Joliet Junior College and Parkland College and a teaching assistant at both the University of Notre Dame and Illinois University at Urbana-Champaign.
Tutoring Approach
As per usual approach, Brian started off with a practice test and developed a specific study plan for the student. Immediately Brian formed a strong relationship with the student and was able to build up her confidence, allowing her to relax and grow comfortable with the subject matter. The tutor focused on showing her how to approach different types of questions one will encounter on the ACT.
The student was already strong in math, so that was not a particular area of study. She had done poorly in reading and was also struggling with the science section. Brian recognized these weaknesses and addressed them with practice and established test-taking strategies.
After 20 hours of tutoring with Brian, the student took the test again and achieved a 27 (slightly higher than her previous score). She was very happy about the drastic increase in her science section score; she had spent a lot of time with her tutor focusing on that area.
After much discussion with her family, with MyGuru, and with Brian, the family decided to invest in 10 more hours of tutoring, but with a different tutor. Due to the fact that her reading score was still consistently low, Brian decided that another tutor may be able to offer different, more effective techniques to the student.
Another qualified MyGuru tutor, Jim, took over the case, focusing only on reading. He discussed the idea of going through the questions and all potential answers to the reading passage before actually evaluating the passage itself. This way, the student could get a sense for what the answer choices are and what to focus on when reading.
Results Achieved
After taking the test one more time, now with a strategy for handling the reading section of the ACT, the female student scored a 30. With a six point improvement in her overall score, this case demonstrates solid, drastic improvement. Through the use of two effective tutors focusing on two core areas, the student is now able to consider Ivy League schools for scholarship options.
