IMO, it really depends on your child's commitment. You can buy him/her books and you can put him/her in John Baylor or any other course, or get him/her a tutor. If the child doesn't commit to working at it in earnest, those things won't do any good. Some kids don't need any help, because they are smart enough and naturally think in a manner that is conducive to scoring well on the ACT. Some kids it doesn't matter how much tutoring you get them, 23 or so is their max at this point in their life. The courses can't teach kids much more than some simple concepts if they didn't pay attention and develop those concepts during their high school careers. But, there is a whole middle of the bell curve who could improve their scores by being trained in how to go about recognizing, analyzing and answering certain questions. The difference between 30 and 32 is not much. Couple of questions in each section and she's there. If the kid will put in the time to think about and apply what the good courses, like John Baylor or others mentioned, teach, it can help. Both of mine took John Baylor after taking the test first time, and both had their scores go up by 4 points overall, with good improvements in English and Reading Comp areas. Each tried 4 times, and took John Baylor a second time before last try (which is steeply discounted second time through). The difference in scores will save me easily $100,000 in tuition from where each started and allowed each to attend the college of choice rather than having to settle for something cheaper. Maybe they get there anyway without taking the courses, and maybe they don't. That's an answer that won't be known. But, I am much happier not knowing if it helped than I would have been wondering whether it would have helped while figuring how to cover the extra tuition $. But, don't pay the money if you aren't going to follow through and make sure he/she works at it.
