The Co-Founder of Jumpstart Test Prep, Dot McClendon, Shares Her Passion for Teaching and Helping Students Raise Their Act® Scores

Jumpstart Test Prep Co-Founder Dot McClendon

​​​​​Dot McClendon is first and foremost a people person. She has been teaching science and math for 55 years. She also serves as pastor of Homeseekers Bible Church in Wesson, Mississippi. She is the primary author of the teaching modules for Jumpstart and has found its unique approach helps students of all academic ability levels stay fully engaged and gain the most improvement in the shortest time. She has mastered a technique of explaining difficult content in a way that every student can follow and understand. Score improvements by her students have led to acceptances into major universities accompanied by financial scholarships, which has opened the door to higher learning for many who would have neither been accepted nor able to afford college on their own.

Like many educators, Dot’s passion for teaching was ignited by “seeing the light come on in a student’s eyes,” the exuberant moment when a student finally understands the material. This passion led to helping students prepare for the ACT® through private tutoring and live classroom events. After more than 40 years of dedication, few professionals are as qualified to provide exam preparation as Dot.

Dot recently received professional recognition as “Teacher of the Year” from the Mississippi School of the Arts (MSA) and 55 years of service in the field of education. Some sentiments shared from students and staff from MSA include:

“Your presence at MSA has been one that will impact us for many years to come. Your leadership in the classroom and with all of us has shown us grace, patience, and wisdom. Thank you for giving yourself to all of us! Not just at MSA, but the entire field of education is better because of you.”

A former student (Lizzy S.) from MSA shared these thoughts about Dot, “Mrs. Dot, you are one of the reasons I decided to become an educator. I want to be to my students what you were for so many of us at MSA, a teacher who cares about the material but also about her students. Thank you for all that you have done for us.”

Dot has received numerous school, community, district, and state awards through the years, but says her best award comes when a student says, “I raised my score!” She is humbled and honored to have been selected nineteen years through the STAR teacher program, wherein the top ACT scorer in a school selects his/her most influential teacher. She has been inducted into the STAR Teacher Hall-of-Fame and recognized as one of the top five educators in the Mississippi Teacher of the Year program. Through Jumpstart Test Prep, her legacy of helping students will remain intact and allow many others the benefit of her proven approach.

After a lifetime of refining and perfecting her unique approach, Dot's desire to pass along this knowledge and experience has led to Jumpstart Test Prep. Jumpstart’s unique preparation approach helps students of all ability levels stay fully engaged and gain the most improvement in the shortest time by explaining difficult content in a way that every student can follow and understand.

“I am thrilled by the success of our Mississippi High School students using our Jumpstart Test Prep review,” said McClendon. “Helping to open the door to higher learning and opportunity for students feels very rewarding because we know they were coached the right way.”

McClendon cites the top three competitive distinctions of Jumpstart Test Prep:

1.       Proven exam prep expertise honed over a lifetime of successful results. The content review is delivered on-demand. It is highly visual, highly animated and students respond to the ACT® style practice questions.

2.      Engaging, not boring! Presented by a group of fun, young, diverse people, and presented in short 30-minute segments. Students must actively engage as they follow along in their workbook to complete the blanks and work ACT® style practice problems as the online review progresses.

3.      Improved time management.  Jumpstart Test Prep reviews content step-by-step, then shows how to apply that content with follow-up examples.  We follow with challenge questions, allowing a clock timer countdown. Time is critical on the ACT®, and by the end of our review, Jumpstart Test Prep students know the average amount of time they can allocate per question and what to do when too much time has elapsed.

Dot received her Master of Science degree in both chemistry and biological sciences from the University of Mississippi and her Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry with a minor in biological sciences from Mississippi College. A lifelong educator, Dot has taught at Copiah-Lincoln Community College, Brookhaven High School, and West Lincoln High School and currently teaches at the Mississippi School of the Arts. She is certified to teach chemistry, physics, biological sciences, and mathematics. Dot was married 26 years before becoming a widow. She reared two daughters and a godson, and she enjoys four grandchildren. She resides in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

About the ACT® Exam

The ACT® was first introduced in 1959 by Everett Franklin Lindquist, a University of Iowa professor as an alternative to the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT®). The test, in its current form, is administered by ACT®, a nonprofit of the same name. The ACT has seen a gradual increase in the number of test-takers since its inception, and in 2011 the ACT® surpassed the SAT® for the first time in total test-takers; that year, 1,666,017 students took the ACT® and 1,664,479 students took the SAT®.

 

About Jumpstart Test Prep

Jumpstart Test Prep (www.jumpstarttestprep.com) is a leading provider of test preparation services for individuals and schools. Established in 2015, Jumpstart's streaming video modules are delivered on-demand and are designed for classroom integration or individual study. Jumpstart’s methodology is proven to help students of all ability levels stay fully engaged and gain the most score improvement in the shortest time by explaining difficult content in a way that every student can follow and understand. Each module reviews the must-know content, and includes testing strategies specific to the exam, and concludes with realistic question practice.

Jumpstart Test Prep currently provides exam preparation for the ACT®, GED®, HiSet®, TASC®, Praxis® Core and ACT WorkKeys®.

For more information on Jumpstart Test Prep, please visit: https://www.jumpstarttestprep.com/ and visit them on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/jumpstarttestprep/reviews/

Media Contact:

Robert Cadogan​​

Email: ​info@jumpstarttestprep.com

Phone: 833-835-8329

ACT® and ACT WorkKeys® are registered trademarks of ACT, Inc.

GED® is a registered trademark of American Council on Education Corp.

HiSet® and Praxis® are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service

TASC® Test Assessing Secondary Completion is the registered trademark of Data Recognition Corp.

Jumpstart Test Prep is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of these companies.

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Source: Jumpstart Test Prep

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