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Our daughter Abby is a junior in high school this year, which means she's thinking and praying hard about what her next step out of high school should be. She chose to take the ACT because the very first year of the new SAT fell on the year she needs to take it, and we chose not to be guinea pigs as they work out the kinks. The ACT also plays to Abby's academic strengths, so it was a good fit for her.

After her first run at the ACT, Abby could see that she needed to brush up on the math section, because even though math is one of Abby's stronger subjects, the ACT tests on mathematical concepts she hadn't practiced in awhile. She needed a good, solid review.

But which test review? Many test prep programs or courses are very expensive, and we've got a houseful of kids who all want some sort of higher education. We need to do things as carefully as possible. If we're going to shell out several hundreds of dollars, we want to make sure we're getting our money's worth.

When we saw a review opportunity for the Mr. D ACT Math Bootcamp, we jumped on it. We love and liberally use online math programs in our homeschool, and we thought we'd start here for ACT preparation.

A Brief Intro to Mr. D Math

Before I tell you about our experience with the Mr. D ACT Math Bootcamp, I'll give you a brief intro to the website and its creator. Mr. DiNola has been a classroom teacher for over 25 years. After working with homeschoolers, he left the public school system to develop an online curriculum for all levels of high-school math, from pre-algebra to pre-calculus.

The ACT Bootcamp is not the only program available from Mr. D Math. He also offers SAT Math Bootcamps, Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus.

What Does the ACT Math Bootcamp Entail?

6-week Online Math ACT Bootcamp
live, interactive program
cover everything your student needs for success on the math portion of the ACT
test-taking "secrets" and strategies (more about this below)
review all the formulas they'll need to memorize (Mr. D says there aren't as many as you'd think)
multiple practice tests so they can see the results of what they've learned in action
personalized feedback from Mr. D
Mr D. Math Test Prep Portal, with hours of bonus video training and lots of other valuable resources (see Abby's reaction to the site below)
cost of the program is $197, which is half the price of some of the more popular or well-known online test prep courses we've considered

What Did We Personally Think of Mr. D's ACT Prep?

There are several things I want to mention about my experience as a parent with the Mr. D ACT prep materials, website, and the teacher himself, but I think it's probably more important to tell you Abby's opinion. She's the one who has to take the test, after all!

I received this text from her (she was upstairs and I was downstairs - that's how we roll) the day I gave her all of her login information:

“The Mr. D Math website is awesome. I just checked it out and I’ve been messing around. The videos are really explanatory and helpful. It’s also easy to find them and find the subject you want to practice.

It has general math info videos that are helpful for my math classes, as well. Which is nice!”

She jumped into bootcamp immediately after she saw the site and videos. I think it's obvious to see why Mr. D is appreciated by his students; he's excellent at explaining and teaching concepts. Abby loves her classroom math teacher where she takes on-site classes, but sometimes it's helpful to have someone else explain a concept in their words and with their particular teaching style.

On my end of things, I have to say that when I had questions or comments, Mr. D himself emailed me immediately. He was helpful and friendly and on the ball. It's clear that he's actually invested in his program and his students. He believes in both.

Mr. D has a 2-Step method for taking tests that, I kid you not, has totally changed the way I'm teaching not just mathematical concepts, but other subjects in our homeschool. I emailed Mr. D to tell him how excited I was to discover this, because once I realized how basic and helpful it was, I applied it this week to the 3rd-grader's math lessons, the 9th-grader's research paper assignment, and the 7th-grader's pre-algebra.

I've written here before about how I don't teach math past 6th grade anymore because math, my homeschooling friends, is not my first love. Because of our exposure to and experience with the Mr. D Math site, I'm also enrolling my 7th grader in the summer program for Algebra I readiness. It's just 6 weeks and live, so I think she'll enjoy it. Enjoy math? I wish I'd been able to do math this way when I was in school!