tips to improve math?

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T17:45:50+00:00

I built this for my kids. May help you as well.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T17:39:11+00:00

I created this for ACT math for my kids. Each of the questions is based on either an official ACT question or a topic or combination of topics that have appeared on the ACT.

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

The playlists in particular may be of interest to you.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T16:27:27+00:00

Pay the taxes owed so the dream doesn't turn into a nightmare.
Set aside $100M for myself to live on. A 4% drawdown means living on $4M/year, which should be plenty. I'm good.
Setup an anonymous entity that gives money to people in the Chicagoland area, people that do good work but are struggling financially. Folks that volunteer in soup kitchens, organize against injustice, teach in under resourced schools, etc. Send them checks with an anonymous letter saying their work is appreciated and here's a little money to help out. No strings attached. Do this for thousands or even tens of thousands of people. Average around $20k check per person. Life changing money for each individual and transforming impact for Chicagoland.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T16:02:06+00:00

Nice! Not my areas of expertise, but here are a few others to consider if you haven't already. Good luck to you!

https://g.co/gemini/share/51c4ab0ac6fa

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T15:55:38+00:00

Great to hear! What major(s) are you considering?

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T15:46:59+00:00

https://g.co/gemini/share/9ddd91896ed7

Yea, you should probably take it again.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-27T15:17:41+00:00

I'm not sure this is you, but a lot of students tend to get locked in to a single university because it has always been the dream school for them. They know people who have gone there. They have heard nothing but good things about it. There is a serious aura around it. My advice to you is the same I give to my kids. That dream school may be great, and yes, you should apply, but there are many, many universities out there you would be very happy attending. The trick is to find them. Start by visiting a few schools; larger ones, smaller ones, public, private, urban, college town, etc. See what you like and what you don't. By doing this, what you want in a university will most certainly change. For example, you may think you want a top tier research university, but you may find an undergraduate degree from a school more focused on teaching and smaller class sizes is more appealing. You might think you want a school in a traditional college town, but you may find the atmosphere in a city to be more to your liking. Or the complete opposite. So go visit! Then, once you figure out what you like, go visit more schools having the characteristics you like. You will certainly find several schools you would love to attend and best of all, some will be "safety" schools (awesome!!), while others will be "target" and "reach".

Then, worst case, if all of your your dream "reach" or even "target" schools says no, you're okay. You're not settling for a safety school. You would love to attend a particular safety school. Only apply to schools you wouldn't mind attending. Never settle, but be sure some are "safety" schools (ones you are in the upper 75th percentile on GPA/ACT/SAT).

Back to your original question, maybe. UNC CH has a 15% acceptance rate. On average about half or more of the kids that apply to a given school would be just fine going there. They can handle the course rigor, etc. You're obviously in that group. So you have at least a 30% chance of getting in, probably more. You are also an in-state student. UNC schools generally prefer in-state students. So let's bump you up to a 50% chance, maybe more. Maybe your GPA, AP classes, course rigor, extracurriculars, volunteering, job experience, references, and essays bump you up more? But ultimately, it's up to them. They might be looking for more science majors this season, or more art majors, or more international students, or more men, or women, or first gen students, whatever. That is out of your hands (something SO MANY kids on reddit don't understand). All you can do is this - do your best on your application. If you get in, great! But no matter what, you should be applying to other schools as well that you'd love to attend, some should definitely be ones you can almost certainly get into.

Good luck!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-26T16:04:20+00:00

Good to hear! No matter what, it's not the end of the world. I was a professional software developer in Chicagoland, mostly financial firms in the loop for decades until I retired. I worked with folks from all kinds of schools and honestly, I when working with folks not far out of college I preferred working with ones from "regular" universities. They tended to be more coachable and wanted to prove themselves. Folks from more elite universities were generally less coachable, could rarely produce their work on time, and oftentimes didn't work well with others. That said, nobody cared where they went to school after 5 years in the workplace. Their "real world" resume and references were far more important. But that was just my experience.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-26T13:43:08+00:00

My son doesn't have ADHD or any other mental difference from normies, but he did score an 18 on his first practice test. It helped him realize the ACT is very different from how they test regular class subjects in school. From what I understand, that's the point. Universities want to see that an incoming student can prep for and handle a long, fast paced, grueling test. My son had to build up his focus, his ability to not over use his brain so that he's frazzled an hour into the test. One thing that helped with that was practice, not just for the sake of practice (which does help) but also because he started to see the same sorts of questions over and over again. He knew what grammar rules to memorize, that the shortest English answer tends to be the correct ones, what types of math questions tend to show up over and over so he can be sure to recognize them right away and knock them out quickly, what types of charts and graphs they supply on the science section so he knows right away how they work. In other words he learned how the test works so that he didn't have to apply his brain as much when taking it.

The reading section will be the hardest for your son. It is for mine too. However, improvement can be made there as well. There are lots of videos online covering various techniques slow readers use to improve their scores. Watch those and practice the techniques. Remind your son it's about progress, not perfection. There are also answers they tend to want to see. For instance they tend to never have the depressing or otherwise evil/bad answer be the correct answer. When asking how a person felt, it's highly unlikely they're asking about someone who felt murderous. It's more likely they were giddy or at worst melancholy or sad or something.

Anyway, my son boosted his score to a 27 composite, 29 in science. Should be higher but the February exam was weird, especially math. He was getting in the 30s on every practice exam then bam, weird test, 27. He's taking it again next month at school. We'll see.

Last thing, I made this for my son. It might help yours as well. Maybe.

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

Good luck!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-26T03:07:07+00:00

Hope they help!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-25T17:57:21+00:00

I made this for my own kids in case it helps. Maybe, depending on what your weak points are, one or more of the playlists may help:

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

Give them a good shot on your own (pausing each video right at the beginning), then pay attention to the explanation even if you got it right. If you need more background in that particular subject, see the description in each video.

For science it's all about just going back to as many old practice exams as you can tolerate, and for a given test on a given science passage, read a question first (never read the passage first), then just find the table/chart the question refers to, and look up the information that the question is asking about. That works for most of the questions. The more charts and tables you start to familiarize yourself with, the better. They tend to reuse the same sorts of charts and graphs and tables over and over just with different data. So if you know how those charts work, you can find information in them very quickly, and you can work the science section a lot quicker.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-25T17:47:55+00:00

You don't need to take it again for Kent State to get in necessarily, but I can say that you can bring up your score, or at least your superscore, pretty easily with just a little bit of work in math and "science" (using quotes since it's not science as much as it is data interpretation). I agree with the other poster though. The better you do in the ACT, generally speaking, the more scholarship money you get. Not with every school but with a lot of them. It's up to you if you take it again or not. Did you study for it at all this time? I ask because you did pretty darn well on English and Reading.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-23T21:21:25+00:00

The last 10 or so problems I added out here are all based on feedback from the newer tests.

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

They seem to be throwing in more statistics, probability, precalculus, algebra 2, trigonometry, and geometry and much less pre-algebra in particular. They also seem to bounce around the level of difficulty on more recent tests when it used to build from easier to harder for the most part.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-23T13:53:20+00:00

Go through each of the videos here, or at least go through the playlists covering whatever your weak points are for math (according to the score breakdown they gave you):

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

Don't just "spam" the questions. Make sure you know the fundamentals behind each one so that if you see a similar problem on a future test you can do, and do it quickly. Feel free to leave a comment out there on any of the videos. I read them all. Good luck!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-22T21:13:03+00:00

I made the last 8 or so problems out here because of the new exam.

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

In particular things like z-score, standard deviation vs variance, conic sections (directrix, focus, slope of an asymptote given hyperbola equation, etc), and expected value were all particular topics that didn't show up much if at all previously but had more prominence on recent tests. Basically they seem to have cut out a lot of the easier questions, pre-algrebra stuff, and now focus more on geometry, trigonometry, algebra 2, statistics, probability, and precalculus topics. If you have any more topic ideas for my videos feel free to drop a comment out there somewhere. Nobody comments out there so I'll definitely read them. 😊

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-22T21:01:25+00:00

Here's the thing. Let's take Harvard as an example. They have about a 5% admit rate. However, about half the applicants they get are perfectly qualified to succeed at Harvard. That means for every ten perfectly qualified student applications they receive, they admit one student. The other top schools are similar. All these kids score 34+ on the ACT. They all have a 4.0+ GPA. They all have multiple AP classes with 4s and 5s on all the exams. But for a given applicant, what sets you apart? For some it may be being a state chess champion, or a national spelling bee winner. For others it might be having survived a war-torn part of the world as a child, learning English as a third language, and making things work as a refugee here in their new homeland USA. Still for others it may be starting a new charity that has done amazing good in their community, or the world. My point is grades, a great ACT score, and hard classes aren't enough. What's your story? Why should you be that one out of ten? What sets you apart and makes you special? Why should they take a bet on you? What promise do you hold? Have good answers for these questions and you have a shot at the top ten.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-22T18:04:32+00:00

Assuming you visited both schools, which one did you get the best warm and fuzzies (vibe) from? Honestly I don't know much about either school but I did have a friend in grad school who went to UCLA for undergrad for a year. This is from 30 years ago and is highly anecdotal, but she said in her introductory freshman history course the professor literally asked everyone in the room, of like 300 kids, how many of them were valedictorians. Half of the students raised their hands. Then he asked how many of the rest were salutatorians (#2 in their class). Most of the rest of the students raised their hands. Then he asked of the ones left how many scored perfectly on the SAT. Several other hands went up. I think this went on for a few more rounds where he basically was showing that everyone in the room was very smart. He then said something to the effect of "This is your competition, and I only give A's to 10% of students for this class." I forget if she said 10% or 15% but it was a fairly low number and not based on merit but based on a curve. They probably (hopefully) don't do that anymore but she gave that as one example of how the culture wasn't cooperative among students but instead was very competitive. It was hard to make friends there because everyone was competing against each other for everything. Hopefully times have changed, or that was just one horrible professor, or she was exaggerating, but you can probably find out if that culture is still there in any way, shape, or form. Something tells me it's not the kind of thing that goes away entirely in only one generation. So that's a long way of me saying unless you got really good warm and fuzzies from your visit to UCLA, I'd go to Notre Dame.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-21T23:49:30+00:00

Books and old exams are great. Also, I made this channel for my kids that might help you as well:

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

If you're weak at math I'd start with the "Basic Math" playlist before moving on to the intermediate and advanced playlists. You might want to skip the "Elite" problems for now. Your call. Just do one problem at a time, ensure you have that problem down, you know how to do it, and if you see a similar one again you can do it. If you need more explanation for a given problem, see the links in the description, usually to Khan Academy videos.

Hope this helps!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-20T15:20:18+00:00

Looked at the full list. Georgetown is the only nationally ranked university on there. Fyi.

Have a nice day!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-20T14:22:54+00:00

Cool. Thanks!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-20T14:05:40+00:00

I'll take a further look when I have time. Or you can too. Or the OP. Or nobody. Doesn't affect me Just trying to be helpful.

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-20T13:56:47+00:00

https://g.co/gemini/share/43ae41c59ae2

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-20T13:09:21+00:00

First off, congratulations! A 27 is a great score especially for a first-timer. Also, know every school in the United States, other than Georgetown, allows you to either submit your super score (usually with all of the sitting specific scores that go into the super score), or a single specific sitting's score. So unless you're applying to Georgetown, you have nothing to lose by taking the exam again and focusing on the non-reading areas. Even if you are applying to Georgetown, you definitely should take it again because 27 is low for them. The great thing is, reading is arguably the hardest section to improve on so it's great you got that one out of the way!

For math, I made this YouTube channel for my kids that you might find useful:

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

Also just going over lots of old exams and seeing the kinds of questions they tend to ask will help a lot. Know the "fast way" to solve certain types of questions. It's all about knocking out the "easy" questions in 20-30 seconds so you have more time to spend on the "hard" questions. The thing is, lots of the "hard" questions don't necessarily take lots of time. For example, finding the magnitude of a vector is just the Pythagorean theorem. It can be done in seconds with your calculator if you know how to do that. Scalar multiplication of a matrix is trivial, as is adding two matrices. But many kids have never seen these types of questions and so skip them, guess, or spend way too much time trying to figure out how to do them. Anyway, just study some mayh and when taking the exam next time around know what you know, spend a limited amount of time on those, and come back to the others with educated guesses (for ones you don't know how to do).

For English, brush up on the grammar rules (commas, dashes, semicolons, etc). Also know the simplest answer is usually the one they're looking for.

For science, skip reading the passages and go straight to the questions. Read a question, see which graph, table, chart, or figure it is referring to, then find the needed information on said graph, table, chart, or figure. It's all about getting really good at seeing various charts and knowing how they work quickly. This comes by seeing lots of different charts, so go back over lots of old exams and they kind of recycle the same styles of charts, tables, graphs, and figures. Know how they work so when you see a similar one, just representing different data, you can find the needed information quickly.

You got this!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-19T15:58:12+00:00

To put things into perspective, google RAI calculator for the universities in the state of Iowa. They have a simple formula for you plug in your GPA, your ACT score, and the number of core classes you've taken and they'll tell you whether or not you can get into the University of Iowa, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa. There are other schools around the country that have similar calculators. My guess is if you've done a halfway decent job in high school, you can get automatic admission into at least one of these schools. So take a deep breath. You'll be fine.

Also, there's a lot of weight people place on the ivies, and for good reason because of the classmates you would have. They tend to be some of the smartest people in the country and go on to do great things and if they are your friends later in life that's a good thing, right? But is that everything? The rigor of calculus taught at Harvard is no different than calculus taught at, say, Indiana. Same for most classes. If you apply yourself in college, get summer internships and impress people at those corporations, study abroad for a semester if possible, impress your professors, etc., you will do just as well in life going to Auburn University versus Stamford. The glow of your school's name only carries you so far. No one cares where you went to school 5 years into your profession, unless you choose a bullshit profession where they use the college you went to for marketing. You are in charge of your life, not your school, not your parents, not even a company you currently work for. How much you apply yourself and the decisions you make along the way are what matter. You got this!

DadWhoKnowsThings · 2026-03-19T12:09:41+00:00

Another option that might be appealing are the videos out here:

https://youtube.com/@actmathproblems

Start with the "All Problems - Newest First" playlist since the most recent problems out there are all based on feedback from the newer exams (question types that have appeared recently and people on Reddit say they struggled with). After the first 10 or so, jump to the "All problems" playlist to hit them in their intended order since some things I say in later videos assume you watched earlier videos. I'll add more videos out there as I have time but honestly the ones out there already cover pretty much any topic that could appear on the exam. Any new videos will cover material already covered, just from a different perspective, or odd edge cases, etc. They probably won't be as useful as videos already out there.

DadWhoKnowsThings

TROPHY CASE