If ACT math makes your athlete nervous, you are definitely not alone.

This is the section that causes the most stress, especially for busy athletes who already feel stretched thin. Many athletes come to us convinced they are "bad at math" before we even start.

Here's the truth.

ACT math is not about knowing everything. It's about knowing what to focus on.

Why ACT Math Feels So Overwhelming

The ACT throws a lot of topics at students, and it does it quickly. When athletes try to relearn everything all at once, it feels impossible.

That's when panic sets in.

And once panic shows up, nothing sticks.

The ACT has 60 questions and 60 minutes to answer them. Just the timing of the ACT alone will set your heartbeat racing. Combine that with all of the topics that you haven't seen since your first year of high school, the formulas that almost all of us have forgotten, and the stress that comes along with college application deadlines, and it is easy to understand how this portion of the ACT has become the "bad guy" in a lot of students' testing experiences.

What many students may not understand, however, is that the ACT is not a test of whether or not you are a mathematical genius. The ACT is a test of your ability to identify patterns, process information, and focus your energy in the most effective way possible when under pressure.

Focus on High Impact Topics

The ACT is predictable. It loves:

• Algebra

• Functions

• Basic geometry

• Plugging answers in

Spending hours on rare or advanced topics that show up once in a blue moon is usually not the best use of limited time.

This alone is often a huge relief for athletes.

If you had a limited number of hours per week available for preparation, wouldn’t you prefer to devote those precious few hours mastering concepts that appeared 40 times over 60 questions rather than stressing over trigonometry identities that may appear once or twice at the most?

There are too many students wasting time by trying to cover everything equally. The focused effort of an athlete that has similar success is put forth to develop and seek out what they find most important, leaving everything else up to chance. A completely new way of viewing this level of effort and focus gives you the opportunity to see what you want to achieve-especially when preparing through Online ACT Prep Courses or structured Online ACT Test Prep programs designed to target what matters most.

And here's another secret. The ACT loves to repeat itself. Once you start practicing with real ACT questions-whether through Online ACT Prep Courses or guided Online ACT Test Prep-you'll notice the same types of problems showing up over and over again. Different numbers, same structure. That predictability is your biggest advantage.

Short Sessions Work Better

We recommend math prep in short bursts.

• Twenty to thirty minutes at a time

• One topic per session

• Immediate review of mistakes

Long math marathons usually lead to frustration, zoning out, and very little retention. And no one needs more of that.

Due to the long school day and physical training, the brain has a limited amount of information that can be acquired at one time. Therefore, doing two hours of math homework in the same night can be frustrating; after trying to solve the same math problem for ten minutes with no success, you are likely to give up.

Instead of cramming in so much information or studying too many units at once, divide the studying into smaller, manageable time frames. For example, spend 20 minutes studying linear equations one night, coordinate geometry (different concepts) another night, and review word problems for a few minutes on the way to school the morning before school.

By taking smaller amounts of learning and studying them in shorter amounts of time will help your brain retain the learned material much better.

Plus, shorter sessions are way easier to fit into a packed schedule. You don't need a three hour block to make progress. You just need consistency.

Strategy Beats Speed

Many athletes think their biggest issue is speed. In reality, it's a strategy.

Knowing when to skip a question, when to guess, and when to move on saves more points than trying to rush through everything.

This is a game. And once athletes learn how to play it, math feels much more manageable.

Here's what we mean by strategy. Let's say you're stuck on question 15. You've read it three times, and it's still not clicking. A lot of students will sit there, determined to figure it out, because skipping feels like giving up.

But here's the thing. That one question is worth the same as every other question. If it's eating up three minutes of your time, you're losing the chance to answer three easier questions at the end of the test that you might actually know how to solve.

Strategic students circle it, move on, and come back if there's time. They also know that plugging in answer choices is often faster than solving algebraically. They guess smartly when they need to. They protect their time like it's the most valuable thing they have, because on the ACT, it is.

Speed matters, sure. But strategy wins.

Confidence Changes Everything

When athletes understand what matters and have a plan, their confidence improves. And when confidence improves, scores follow.

ACT math stops feeling like this huge scary monster and starts feeling like something they can actually handle.

We've seen it happen over and over again. A student walks in convinced they'll never break a 20 on the math section. A few weeks later, they're hitting 25, then 27, then higher. What changed? Not their intelligence. Not even their math skills, really.

What changed was their belief that they could do it.

Having confidence gives you a huge advantage. If you go into an exam confident that you prepared correctly, with some level of understanding of what to expect from the exam, and a solid plan on how to tackle it, you won't feel as anxious about answering the questions. You'll stop second-guessing your answers because you'll believe in the answer selection process. As a result, you'll answer the questions more quickly than if you were paralyzed by fear.

That shift is everything.

Our Philosophy

We don't try to turn athletes into math robots. We teach them how to be strategic with their time and energy.

Because ACT math becomes far less stressful when athletes stop trying to do everything and start doing what actually works.

ACT math feels a lot less intimidating once you know what actually matters and what doesn't.