<p>Given your son's profile (top 3 student, slow, methodical test-taker), it is probably a blessing he won't be able to take the school prep course. It would likely be geared toward kids with different needs than his.</p>
<p>If the two of you work well together, you can craft a personalized ACT prep plan that should be much more time effective for him than any generic course.</p>
<p>First I'd go and skim the first several pages of "xiggi's test prep advice" (maybe not the exact title, but similar) on the SAT section of CC. It's geared for the SAT, but a lot of the general concepts apply, and some of the advice I'll give here comes from xiggi's posts. Don't get too caught up in his SAT strategies, because the ACT and the SAT are different, but it would be helpful to familiarize yourself with his approaches.</p>
<p>Next, go out and buy the Real ACT book, which has three practice ACT tests. Depending on how much you want to spend, you might also buy Princeton Review's "Crash Course for the ACT" ($10) which is compact and consise. If you want to spend a little more you could pick up a couple of the fat prep books, but I find these more tedious and annoying.</p>
<p>You are buying the Real ACT book for the practice tests. Don't think of it as three tests, think of it as three tests for each of the four ACT sections, or 12 tests altogether. Get out your exacto knife and cut out the twelve tests and answer keys.</p>
<p>Next, I'd suggest that you, the parent, familiarize yourself with the test. Try taking a few sections (don't mark up the tests or answer sheets, make copies if necessary). The better you understand the test the better you can help you son. Read the advice in any prep books you bought. You'll probably come to the same conclusion that I did, that most of it is tedious, verbose, and smugly written. That's why I like the "Crash Course for the ACT", not that its advice is necessaily better than the others, it's just that it is more condensed.</p>
<p>Next, I'd suggest having your son take one full test, one section at a time, over a four day period. Let him take the sections in whatever order he choose, but only let him take one section per day. Have him take it in regular testing conditions, sitting at a desk or table, no headphones, etc., with these two exceptions: 1) Time how long he takes for each section, but don't enforce the time limits of the test. For example, the Reading Section is 40 questions in 35 minutes, so you'll need to know if he's going over on a practice section and by how much, but let him finish regardless how long it takes. 2) For the math section, let it be open book, with him utilizing his current math book or any other math guide he wants. The idea on this first test is for him to familiarize himself with the test and come to grips with what math concepts he needs to work on.</p>
<p>The tests can be stressful, so after he finishes a section, let him go relax while you check his answers and calculate his score (unless he'd rather do it himself). When he feels ready he can go back and look over the section to see what he got right and wrong and try to understand his mistakes.</p>
<p>After he's completed one full test, step back and evaluate where he is. It may be that his scores are coming in where he would like to score on the real thing, but that he is going over on time. If that's the case, skim the guidebooks for time improvement strategies and have him practice for speed.</p>
<p>If his math score is lagging, try to figure out what concepts he having trouble with and focus on those.</p>
<p>And then there's the Science Section. It isn't science at all. It's a speedreading test. The student is given 35 minutes to answer 40 questions. It's broken into subsections where you're presented with a passage followed by 5-7 questions, then another passage, etc. As the parent, I strongly recommend that you try some of these yourself to get a feel for them and help your son come to see them for what they are. If he's the type that reads too much into questions he'll not like these at all; he'll have to learn to skip a lot of extraneous crap. For example, a passage may have a dry boring intro followed by a complex chart, followed by a question that can be answered by simply glancing at the chart. At less than one minute per question, there is simply not enough time to carefully read and comprehend the intro, study the chart, etc. Your son may need extra help here.</p>
<p>You'll still have two full tests from the Real ACT book to use as you and your son see fit (timed, untimed, skip altogether).</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>