Are Group Tutoring Classes Worth it for the ACT® Test?

Introduction

Group tutoring can be really valuable by itself. Deciding between group tutoring for the ACT® and something else calls into question the value of taking a class with several other students. What’s the something else? It could be private tutoring. It could be self-studying.

Parents sign their kids up for a group tutoring class or course to make sure their kids receive some help. The form of a group class doesn’t allow tutors to provide much specific help as I’ll explain in depth in this article.

It’s hard to conduct a group class where all students are on the same level. The sessions tend to be quite general with little time allowed for helping any individual student with something more complicated than the basics to intermediate information. After much reflection, I’ve realized releasing the same information for free online provides better value for most families.

What’s in this article

I’ll 1) explain why most families don’t get value from group tutoring classes or sessions and 2) provide the information a student could learn from a group tutoring session for free. That way, each person can decide what benefit, if any, paying for group tutoring would provide.

A little about me:

About Me

In addition to my tutoring and writing skills, I’ve been flown around the country to do group bootcamps. I’ve also taught group courses over several months live online. I’ve had plenty of experience providing high value sessions to students of all backgrounds. Those experiences have shaped my thinking on this topic.

Group Tutoring Classes

Group tutoring classes usually work in 1 of 2 ways:

1) a class on the same night every week for a few months. 2) a “bootcamp” for one or two days, usually on the weekend.

Class sizes vary from usually no fewer than 20 students all the way up to 50. They can be taught successfully both live online an in person.

I’ve done both a combination of all of the above. The energy in these courses is great. You really get the feeling that students are being helped and are happy to receive the information.

When I initially set out to create a curriculum for group tutoring, I realize that all of the information that can be feasibly covered in a class or bootcamp is already online. The problem is twofold. The first is organizing the information into a neat format so students know they’re getting good advice. The second is making sure the information is top-notch, excellent quality material.

Group Tutoring Material at a Glance

With a class size of at least 20 students, it’s impossible to focus too much on one student lest you ignore every single other student in the room. That’s just not fair to everybody else.

Instead, the group classes are limited to reviewing general information. Too introductory and everyone knows it already. Too advanced and that’s not really what at least 90% of the students are there for.

The “Greatest Hits of The ACT® Test” then are usually as follows.

English

This rules on this section aren’t taught in high schools. Public schools, private schools, domestic or international – hardly anybody teaches this stuff. That’s why most students need some help on the English.

Punctuation

Students usually know enough about diagramming sentences to learn this topic. They aren’t used to punctuation rules in English being so rigorously applied. That’s a lot of what the ACT® English Test tests on: methodical, rules-based applications of English grammar.

Comma Rules

Commas follow much the same logic as Punctuation. There are a few different rules, but they’re just as rigorously applied on the English Test.

Kept/Deleted

This type of question talks about rhetoric, using words to create a certain affect. Students can usually pick this up quite easily. There is a little bit of strategy involved here too.

Main Idea

There’s usually 1 main idea question per section for a total of 5 on the English Test. That’s not really a score breaking number of points. But most students tend to miss these questions, so we review the questions and talk about some strategy to solve them.

Math

A lot of students mistakenly think they’re not good at math. The ACT® Test doesn’t ask much math beyond the 11th grade level. Most students actually struggle with either reading the question (because that’s not how they’re used to seeing math tests) or with keeping their positive and negative signs straight (because the ACT® Math Test tries to trick students this way).

Read the question

The ACT Math Test puts a paragraph or so of information above a fair number of their math problems. Often, the question contains information vital to solving the problem. Students may feel frustrated when they look at a problem but can’t solve it without reading the question.

One of the first things we do is go over a question to show them the ACT® Test’s own internal logic. It’s a pretty big confidence boost when that’s complete. Many students need help with this topic on Math.

Signed Numbers

This is a fancy way of saying keeping positive and negative signs straight. At every difficulty level on the ACT® Math Test (the questions get increasingly harder from 1-60), there are tricky positive and negative signs embedded throughout the questions. One of the next things we go over is how questions at various levels turn on whether or not the student correctly carried the signs throughout the problem.

Geometry Review

Reviewing Geometry is pretty important. Most students have seen a lot of the geometry, but might be a little rusty one topic or another. Group tutoring sessions allow enough time to go over the basic formulas.

Inequalities/Absolute Value

These topics go together for a couple of reasons. They always show up on the Math Test. Students have some familiarity with how to solve these questions. But the ACT® Test makes this topic harder by asking students to graph inequalities and less often absolute values. There are also sometimes positive/negative signs involved. Most students can earn a few points by learning these topics.

Basic Trig

Basic trig is an easy way for most students to earn a point or two. The ACT® Test uses trig concepts to ask algebra questions. So instead of having the student solve for a number, the Test asks students to solve the equation all the way up to, but not including, the solution.

Students who have had trig sometimes get confused because they can solve these questions easily – but the answer choices don’t actually reflect a full solution.

Students who haven’t had trig (or pre-calc) can be intimated by these questions. Once they see we’re just applying the basic principles of SOHCAHTOA, those students can also earn a few easy points.

PIN & PIA

These are two pretty ingenious strategies that take the form of a standardized test and use it against itself. Since a standardized test has to provide certain values in the answers, sometimes you can use the answer choices to solve the problem instead of figuring out all the math. This method gets students a lot of points very fast.

Reading

It’s okay if your child isn’t a huge reader – this is the one section where a bit of strategy can go a long way. It’s great if your son or daughter does enjoy to read, as that can help them get a higher score.

Passage Order

Each passage on the ACT® Reading Test naturally lends itsefl to certain types of questions. The first passage is always literature, which tends to have more main idea questions. The last passage is always natural science, which tends to have more line reference questions, and fewer main idea questions.

Since all of the questions are of equal value, solving a certain section the student finds easier first is a good way to increase his or her score.

Question Order

The main idea question is usually, but not always, the first question on each passage. It can be very difficult, confusing, and time consuming for a student to read a passage and then immediately try to answer a main idea question. Rather than do that, I help students feel more comfortable answering all of the questions in a single passage in a way that works better for each individual. That means helping each student implement the reading strategies for him or herself.

Example Passage:

I also like to have students help me with an example passage so they gain more confidence in doing the Reading Test. We’ll usually solve questions in this order:

1. Line reference questions
2. Detail Questions
3. Main Idea Questions

Building up to the more abstract questions on the Reading Test builds a lot of confidence.

Science

Some students feel a great deal of anxiety because the section is technically called “Science Test.” I assure them that even though it says science, there is almost no science they need memorize.

Charts, Graphs, and Tables

First, we look at charts, graphs, and tables. This comprises most of the questions for the ACT® Science Test. These questions involve students reading labels, keys, and axes. It’s usually pretty straightforward for most students once we break it down.

Interpolate/Extrapolate

Along with looking at charts, graphs, and tables, the Science Test wants students to reason between values. So if a ball is rolled down a slope of 10 degrees and goes 10 mph, and the same ball is rolled down a 20 degree slope and goes 20mph, then how fast would the same ball go if it was rolled down a 15 degree slope?

The questions are slightly more complicated than the above example, but not by much. This is a very common question on the ACT® Science Test.

Validity of Scientific Conclusions

This is a common question type, though much less so than the other two above. Here’s an example: If a group of scientists is studying humidity, for example, the ACT® Test might ask why the scientists didn’t measure precipitation on days it rained. The answer is because the rain would interfere with the humidity readings.

The ACT® Science Test won’t spell out that answer anywhere in the passage or charts. The Test wants students to think about what the experiment means, and how the measurements were designed to be taken to test a hypothesis. Framed that way, most students find these questions straight forward.

Outside Science Knowledge

There is some outside science knowledge on the ACT® Science Test. An example would be at what temperature Celsius does water freeze? 0 degrees Celsius. The outside science knowledge is rarely repeated, nor does it ever constitute more than a question on a single test – maybe once in a blue moon 2 questions.

My best advice is to worry about this topic when a student is scoring above a 32 on the science. In that case, they can do a little more digging. In particular, I recommend the Official ACT® Science Book. Otherwise, the amount of studying to earn not many points for this question type isn’t worth it for most students.

Wrapping Up Group Tutoring

Teaching all of these topics can easily take 8 hours. There’s also time for guided practice and student questions. All of that can be super valuable for students.

But this information is pretty standardized. It can just as easily be put online for free for students to do it at their leisure.

With that information available on my website, it’s hard to justify charging parents money for a group course. When I’m asked whether I’m going to have group lessons anytime soon, I direct parents to my ultimate self-study guide. The learning outcomes are at least as good, or better in my opinion. And you families save money they can use for something else.

Benefits of Private Tutoring

If you’re thoughtful about your approach to private tutoring, you can make your family’s time and money go a lot further.

Let me lead with what you’re probably thinking. Per hour, the cost for private tutoring is probably as expensive as or more expensive than group tutoring. Dollar for dollar, that calculation is correct. But.

Many students get the same results from group tutoring by self-studying. In that sense, comparing group tutoring to private isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison. The learning objectives are different.

I’ll explain. Most students should have an idea of their abilities on the ACT® Test before approaching private tutoring. My website provides free individualized lesson plans and study resources.

Self-studying will allow your son or daughter to learn what he or she can at little to no cost. Then, a private tutor can help address only the areas your child doesn’t know, or doesn’t know he or she doesn’t know.

he learning objectives of group tutoring can be accomplished through self-study. If your son or daughter has questions, it’s not guaranteed that he or she will receive sufficient attention during a group tutoring session. With your permission, students can always 100% anonymously post questions on any relevant topic. I can respond, as can others.

Anything else your child needs help on that would require more time and expertise than group tutoring sessions can provide is the purpose of private, 1:1 tutoring.

Why I Don’t Offer Group Tutoring

My primary concern is providing value to hard working families. There are several reasons I don’t think group tutoring is in most family’s best interest. Some of them are fundamental issues with not providing any specific, individualized help, as outlined above.

The other major reason I don’t offer group tutoring is as follows. I’ve received great reviews from several different companies for running large group tutoring sessions. There’s nothing we accomplish in group tutoring that I couldn’t deliver for free. That’s exactly what I did.

Parents still feel that sending their students to a group bootcamp or large class can be helpful. That’s totally true. It can be helpful. The financial cost for them seems small when compared to private tutoring. Sending your child to a group tutoring session can help you feel like you’re covering all of your bases.

Consider this math. Let’s say you get a good deal to send your child to a bootcamp for $250. You’re one of the 20 families to do so. You do the math: An 8-hour class for $250 works out to about $31/hour – not bad, all things considered.

The tutoring center makes $5,000. That’s on the low end. Some places enroll as many as 50 students. That’s $10,000 for the group class. This would all be well and good for everybody if the content delivered in a group session couldn’t be delivered better asynchronously, online, for free.

Parents often ask me whether I’m going to host group classes. There’s an obvious financial benefit for me to do so. My decision at this time is not to have group classes. Parents are looking for a good value for their money. There’s nothing we can accomplish in a group class that can’t be done for free on this website.

Doing good business is important to me. Not offering group classes is one I can remain true to that value.

Conclusion

Group tutoring can be valuable for students. I’ve provided all of that information -- and more -- available free online so families can save that money they otherwise would’ve spent on a course or group tutoring class for the ACT® Test.

When it comes to personalized, 1:1 expert from advice a tutor, the value is not comparable to a group class. I’ve designed my tutoring program to provide the greatest benefit possible to hard working families to maximize the value of private tutoring for their son or daughter.

What do you think? Are there cases when group tutoring can be more valuable than self-studying? If so, what are they?