How to become an ACT/SAT Tutor

Being an ACT tutor is a greatly rewarding experience. But before you start imparting your wisdom to others, you need to know the ins and outs of tutoring. The responsibilities of an ACT tutor revolve around helping students prepare for the ACT exam. A tutor usually teaches students how to prepare for the test, facilitate practice tests, and teach strategies for test-taking. Your duties include offering advice and practice for Math, Science, and English, as well as any other subjects with which a student needs assistance. Your exact role may depend on where you work. Whether you're just starting your work as a tutor or have been tutoring for a long time now, we hope you'll find some new tips and strategies to help your students who are striving for excellence. You need to guide your students according to the following steps to go through the ACT preparation process.

  • Getting to Know Your Students

Every student you tutor will have the same goal, improve their ACT scores but have completely different drawbacks between them and success. This is why, when you meet your students for the first time, get to know them as individuals rather than just test-takers. Learning a little about the person can say a lot about what he or she needs to succeed on the ACT.


  • Set Your Goals and Strategies

This step will vary a lot depending on who you are and who your student is. If you're a parent, sibling or friend, you'll need to determine whether you're qualified to teach this student and what challenges you'll face. If you're a professional or volunteer tutor, you'll want to focus more on the student's own score goals.


  • Learn the Test

If you want to be a tutor of ACT, you must have the knowledge of the whole ACT process. You need to understand the test's unique logic and format in order to guide your student to a higher score. You need to know about each section including English, Maths, Science, and Reading.


  • Gather the Best Resources
  1. Official Practice Test: Official ACT will be the backbone of any tutoring program. Practicing with real tests will give students the best idea of what to expect on test day. There are a number of official ACT available for free online.
  2. Best General Books: There are many more general books available based on ACT Test Preparation as like Official ACT Prep Guide, ACT Prep Black Book, The Complete Guide to ACT English, Ultimate Guide to the Math ACT, The Complete Guide to ACT Reading, etc.


  • Make a Plan and Tracking Progress

Once you know the goals and have the materials you need, sit down with your student and work up a full plan for how you're going to get him/her to the score he/she needs by the test date he/she's signed up for. As a tutor, one of your most important roles in making sure that your student stays on track. Whether you have one student or twenty, tracking progress is an important step in both your success as a teacher and your student's success on the ACT. 



How to become an SAT Tutor

An SAT tutor works one-on-one with students to help them prepare for the exam, which is required to get into most colleges and universities. Tutors work both independently and for tutoring services, and may meet with students in person or over video chat. An effective tutor understands the skills and strategies crucial to performing well on the test and must stay up-to-date on changes made to the exam. Because your clients are young, you may work to help them strengthen their overall study skills and develop self-confidence.


  • Determine the Challenges

Before you get started with a student you need to make sure you're genuinely going to be able to help your student and determine if there will be any special challenges you'll face. If you want to be an effective tutor, you'll have to take the time to really understand the SAT. A good rule of thumb is that you should be scoring at least 4 points higher than your student. If she's already high-scoring you'll want to be at or near perfect. One of the biggest challenges of tutoring is convincing your student to put in the work needed to improve. The single biggest key to raising standardized test scores in practice. Part of your job is convincing your student to put in the work to raise her score. Motivating your student can be especially challenging if you're working with a family member or friend. This kind of tutoring generally works best when the student is still quite young or is independently motivated and simply coming to you for extra help.


  • Study the Test

If you want to be a tutor of the SAT, you must have the knowledge of the whole SAT process. You need to understand the test's unique logic and format in order to guide your student to a higher score. You need to know about each section included Writing, Math, Science, and Reading


  • Set Goals

Once you feel prepared, it's time to get started with your student, which means you need to establish exactly what he/she's hoping to get out of tutoring. You'll need to ask his/her about personal aims and the schools he/she's considering applying to so you can help his/her determine an appropriate score goal.


  • Collect Great Resources
  1. Official Practice Test: Official SAT will be the backbone of any tutoring program. Practicing with real tests will give students the best idea of what to expect on test day. There are a number of official SAT available for free online.
  2. Subject Specific Materials: The following books and guides can help you review key concepts from each of the three sections with your student. 
  3. Reading: Barrons SAT Vocabulary Flash Cards, Barrons Critical Reading, Kaplan's Critical Reading, etc.
  4. Math: The Official SAT Study Guide, SAT Math Problems, Khan Academy, etc.
  5. Writing: The Ultimate Guide to SAT Grammar, The Official Sat Study Guide, Maximize Your Writing Score on the SATBarrons SAT Writing Workbook, etc.


  • Build a Plan

As a tutor, one of your most important roles is making sure your student stays on track. Let's go over some ways you can help your student meet her goals by her test date.


  • Analyze Weakness

Before you start, spend some time determining what your student needs the most help with. Whatever you learn you have to find out what are your weaknesses are. Only then you can take yourself to the upper level.


  • Give Homework

Keep your students busy and engaged with the study by giving homework after each lesson. Doing homework will make him/her a better version of himself/herself.


If you want to know more in detail about ACT, take a look at "Best ACT Books" and if you have any queries about SAT in detail, take a look at "Best SAT Books".


Thanks for reading this post. If you have any opinion don't hesitate to comment here. Also please subscribe our newsletter to get more updates.