Private Tutoring, Test Prep & College Admissions Counseling in Illinois

The ACT. Illinois switched from the SAT to the ACT for its statewide high school assessment beginning in spring 2025, under a multi-year ISBE contract. For 2026-27, grade 11 takes the ACT with Science and Writing in a spring window, and grades 9 and 10 take the PreACT. Any page still telling you Illinois runs an SAT School Day is out of date.

Yes. The school-day ACT produces a college-reportable score and includes free score sends, so every Illinois junior finishes the year with a usable admissions score by default. That is exactly why preparing before the spring administration matters more here than in states where the school-day test is only a practice instrument.

Sometimes. Because the ACT is free and universal, students default to it, but the two tests reward different things. The ACT moves faster and includes a science reasoning section; the Digital SAT is adaptive and gives more time per question. We run a timed diagnostic on both, and where the SAT is clearly the better instrument, we say so and prepare for it instead.

A statewide honor from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission recognizing roughly the top ten percent of graduates. A score at or above the 95th percentile earns it automatically, and an Illinois Standard Test Score of 30 or higher guarantees it regardless of class rank. It carries no cash award, but it is a real line on an application, and the rank-independent path matters in districts that suppress rank.

Admission to Payton, Northside, Whitney Young, Lane Tech and Jones runs on a points formula that is roughly half seventh-grade core grades and half the CPS High School Admissions Test, scored within a census-tract tier system, with no sibling or proximity preference. In practice families are running an admissions campaign two years before high school. We prepare students for the HSAT and help balance it against protecting the seventh-grade GPA that counts equally.

The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora admits for sophomore entry, not freshman, so ambitious STEM families make a residential-school decision during ninth grade. We support the application and the testing that goes with it, and we plan the college testing calendar around the disruption of changing schools mid-high-school.

Most of our Illinois students start in the spring of sophomore year or the summer before junior year, so the free spring ACT lands after a full prep cycle. Students targeting Grainger Engineering or computer science at UIUC generally start earlier, since the ACT math and science sections reward a math track that is set well before high school.

Our families come from Stevenson, Hinsdale Central, Neuqua Valley, Naperville North, Barrington and the District 211 and 225 schools, the CPS selective-enrollment schools, IMSA, and the independent schools, principally Latin, Parker, Lab, Saint Ignatius, Loyola Academy and Benet. North Shore families are served through our Chicago North Shore hub.

Yes. Our instructors are trained in ADHD, CAPD, dyslexia and executive function support, and we handle ACT and College Board accommodations requests for you, including extended time, breaks and separate settings. We also coordinate with a school’s existing IEP or 504 team so the prep plan matches the supports already in place.

For the class of 2026, the most recent year with officially confirmed cutoffs, Illinois required a Selection Index of 222. The Selection Index runs from 48 to 228 and is calculated from the PSAT/NMSQT taken in October of junior year, doubling the sum of the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math section scores. Cutoffs are set separately for every state and shift by a point or two each year, so treat 222 as a planning benchmark rather than a guarantee. Cutoffs for the class of 2027 are announced each September.

The Illinois average was 961 for the class of 2025, with 99% of graduates tested. The participation rate matters more than the number. A state that tests nearly every graduate posts a much lower average than a state where only college-bound students sit the exam, so comparing raw state averages without participation is misleading. For students in the competitive districts we work with, the relevant benchmark is the admitted range at their target colleges, not the state mean.

Illinois switched to the ACT in spring 2025, so every junior finishes the year with a college-reportable ACT and four free score sends. That makes the ACT the default. We still run a Digital SAT diagnostic alongside it, because a meaningful minority score materially better on the SAT and are better off switching. The two tests are scored differently but weighted equally by colleges, and every US college that accepts one accepts the other.