Outlier's Advantage: ACT Prep Academy is a rigorous prep program designed to help students achieve a five-point increase or greater on the ACT. We specialize in assisting students in scoring above the 30s. We built the program to train students for the ACT in a similar way to how elite athletes train for an event. Students can take the skills, methodologies, and success principles they learn in the program to achieve challenging goals in several areas of their lives.

        Students learn much more than just how to get a higher ACT score. In our program, students learn advanced techniques for goal setting, top-performance mental game, performing under pressure, focusing on mastery before moving to the next step, overcoming self-limiting beliefs, embracing failure as a part of learning, time management, memorization, teaching themselves anything, thinking bigger, self-talk, and planning for success. We also rebuild grammar and math foundations, improve reading speed and comprehension, and simplify reasoning skills.

        We have structured the program for maximum engagement and individual attention. We divide the classes into teams who compete against each other to win gift cards for members of their team each week. Each team has an Academic Coach who has coached more than 100 students. In addition, each student gets a dedicated Assistant Coach who is in contact with them almost every day of the program to look over their goals, provide feedback, answer questions, and give encouragement or whatever else is needed to achieve their goals. These Assistant Coaches also make it possible for us to custom design every program and modify it to the individual student's needs throughout the semester. Every one of our coaches scored in the top one percentile in the world on their own ACT. 

          Our president and founder (Bobby Nicholson) is the instructor of our classes. Bobby's background is very different from what most expect from an ACT prep coach. He was a horrible student when he was in high school. He never went to class, had to retake algebra 1 five times, and eventually dropped out of school. He tried to make it in the real world without having a high school diploma and found that things would not go as he had hoped. So Bobby got his GED, enrolled in Pellissippi State Community College, and was fortunate enough to have mentors take him under their wings and teach him how to succeed at school and in life. And it worked! Bobby became president of his student body, made almost a perfect 100% in every math class he took, graduated with a 3.84 GPA, and made it on U.S.A. Today's All Tennessee Academic Team. Then, after he graduated from Maryville College, he won the International Student Excellence Award from Southwestern Advantage. Bobby considers himself one of the "dumbest people to ever superscore a 34 on the ACT." On official ACT tests, he has achieved a 36 on English, 36 on reading, 35 on math, and a 30 on science. His background allows him to understand and connect with students of all different academic levels. Bobby started Outlier's Advantage in 2012 to use his life experience to make a difference in the lives of others.

        The program only works if the students do, but the results speak for themselves. More than 70 percent of students who keep the Five Pillars of Success achieve at least a five-point composite increase or a 32. Greater than twenty percent of students who complete the program achieve at least a 32 superscore. One out of every five students who completed our program in 2019 achieved at least a 10-point improvement on the English section. More than ten percent of students earn a 36 in at least one section on the ACT. Though most of our students achieve incredible results, some do not. For any family unsatisfied with our services, we will give part or all of their money back, whatever they think is fair.

         Though our headquarters are in Knoxville, TN, our live-online program allows participation from students from all over the nation. The live-online program works the same way as our in-class program. Both live-online and in-class students are in the same class. Both live-online and in-class students engage in the program to the same degree. No other program in the nation consistently helps students achieve the types of increases our students get every class. We see almost identical percentages of students who achieve 5, 6, 7, and greater composite point increases in the live-online program as in the physical class. If students put in the work, they will achieve the same results.

        We offer custom one-on-one programs, our flagship 13-week group program, our 31+ Guaranteed! year-long program, and a Fast Track 5-week program. Our 13-week and 31+ Guaranteed programs have start dates almost every month. For our 13-week and 5-week programs, students will have 1.5 to 2 hours per day of homework (with one day off each week). Therefore, students should do the program when their schedule allows them the necessary time to devote to the program. We recommend students start the program as soon as possible after completing or while enrolled in Algebra 2 and geometry.