Your ACT score with our complete video series. We'll cover everything you need to know boost your score, all at no cost. Let's power up!
Your ACT score with our complete video series. We'll cover everything you need to know boost your score, all at no cost. Let's power up!
Power Up Prep is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to supporting ALL students’ access to high-quality college entrance exam and college application preparation. Power Up Prep’s comprehensive, video-based ACT curriculum is freely accessible on its YouTube Channel, and corresponding resources (notes sheets, practice tests, and other supporting materials) are available on the Resources section of this website.
Power Up Prep’s curriculum creator and video tutor is Katie Halcrow. Katie, who lives with her husband Casey and two kiddos in Minneapolis, MN, is an educator at heart. She loves learning and teaching, and has been involved in education her entire life. She has an undergraduate degree in Math and German, a Masters in German, and a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Since 2005, she’s worked in education, tutoring and teaching German, math, writing and the ACT. In 2015, she started Empowered Minds Tutoring and Consulting, and has been tutoring high school students in math, college essay writing and the ACT ever since. She loves working with individual students, the 20-foot commute from her kitchen to her office, and the flexible schedule that makes it possible for her to spend time with her family.
When not tutoring, you’ll most often find Katie hanging out with Maddie and Hank – playing pretend, facilitating art projects, reading hours of books, and participating in the recursive (and futile) process of keeping the children fed and the house from total disarray. In spring, summer and fall, you’ll find Katie speed-walking everywhere with her stroller: parks, playgrounds, pools, libraries, grocery stores and even the doctor’s appointments. In the winter, you’ll find her trying to not freeze in the Minnesota chill with hot tea, really warm mittens, hefty boots for snow play, copious pairs of wool socks, and space heaters.
Katie is an obsessive recycler, eats an extreme amount of vegetables, loses her phone constantly, loves reading the Science and Health section of the newspaper, does punishing Tabata workouts on YouTube, and hopes someday to convince her husband to take up ballroom dancing. She is passionate about educational equity and motivated to empower all students to achieve their full potential. And she’s so glad you found Power Up Prep.
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“As both a parent and an educator, I found Power Up Prep to be a wonderful resource for students who are preparing to take the ACT! Not only are the videos full of the most important content your child needs to know to be successful in taking the ACT, they are also highly engaging, thorough, and FREE, allowing EVERY student to be fully prepared, regardless of income or economic status. Thank you Power Up Prep!”
"My daughter came back really happy and said she enjoyed it!! So whatever you are doing to get those kids excited about a standardized test - you are doing an amazing job!! Thank you so much!"
"Thank you so much for all the time you spent working with her!! I know she really enjoyed her time with you and the knowledge you taught her will help her in the future!"
"Katie has helped me and my sister tremendously. She has taught us the key strategies to taking the ACT. Using some of the rules such as simple is best, how to figure out the right answer when there are comma hugs, etc. She is a really nice person and a great teacher!"
"Katie's strategies were super helpful and improved my score in every subject. In particular, I found that memorizing the English tricks allowed me to navigate every type of English question the ACT asked and I began to consistently score in the 30’s."
"Katie was extremely helpful in preparing me for the ACT. Going in, math was the subject that I needed the most work on, and Katie taught me many useful strategies for not only solving problems and remembering formulas but also navigating the formatting of the test so that I could answer the most questions in the allowed time without guessing. I am thankful for the strategies and materials, and am really excited about the results!”
Power Up Prep is nonprofit 501(c3) organization (EIN 87-1344674).
All donations are fully tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.
© Copyright Katie Halcrow 2021 All Rights Reserved Use With Permission
Contact Us: powerupprepares@gmail.com