SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

No matter how you prep for the ACT—whether you have a tutor, take a class, or study by yourself—you must get access to official ACT tests. These tests are released by ACT, Inc. and contain real questions given to actual students on previous test dates. These questions have been removed from circulation (so you won't ever see them on a real test), but their quality is second to none when it comes to ACT realism.

In this post, I'll tell you how to find all currently available official ACT practice tests. Most are free and offer a good way to get your feet wet with ACT prep. We'll also discuss how to use these tests to improve your ACT score.

Timing is everything. Nowhere is this saying more true than in the college application process. From taking the SAT to writing your personal essay to submitting your Common App, the process takes months, if not years, to complete.

So when do you need to finish gathering all your application materials and submit them to your colleges? That all depends on your deadlines. This guide will go over the different options for college application deadlines, plus step-by-step instructions on how to keep track of them all.

First off, what are the different options for applying?

The SAT score release dates are always tense for students. Did you get the score you were aiming for? Do you have to take the SAT again? Checking scores immediately when they come out gives you the most time to plan ahead.

In this article, find out when you'll receive your SAT score report depending on your test date, and learn the fastest way to check your SAT score.

Did you know that early decision isn't necessarily early? "Binding decision" might be a better name for it, since some schools now offer "early" decision deadlines in January as well as in November.

Either way, applying early decision is a big commitment. If you apply this way, you should be totally sure you want to attend that school. Let's review the pros and cons of early decision and look at all the schools that currently offer early decision admission.

Are you aiming to attend an Ivy League school? What ACT/SAT scores do Ivy League universities—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Yale—expect? Here, we look at what test scores these eight highly selective schools consider good, as well as what scores are considered borderline.

What are the easiest AP classes and/or the easiest AP tests? Answering this question isn’t so simple as just giving you a list, since there are a lot of factors that could make an AP class easy.

The easiest AP tests could have hard classes to go with them, or vice versa. You also have to think about your school, the national average scores, and your own personal strengths when figuring out which AP courses are relatively easy. But don’t worry—we’ll help you break down these factors and decide which AP tests will be easiest for you!

Are you hoping to increase your salary but aren't sure how to ask for a raise? Are you also wondering how much to ask for a raise or when to ask for a raise? Asking for a raise can be nerve-wracking, especially if you aren’t sure how to go about it, but we have all the answers you're looking for.

In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about asking for a raise, including the steps you need to have done beforehand, the best times to ask for a raise, how much you should ask for, and eight tips to keep in mind when you ask.

Wondering how to convert decimals to fractions? Or how to convert fractions to decimals? It’s easier than you think! Keep reading to see the steps for decimal to fraction conversions (including why you need to follow different steps if you have a repeating decimal), steps for fraction to decimal conversions, a handy chart with common decimal/fraction conversions, and tips for quickly estimating conversions.

The hottest news in college admissions these days is the release of documents from the lawsuit filed against Harvard University for unfair admissions practices against Asian-Americans. For the first time in recent memory, an elite institution's opaque admissions practices have been laid bare. More than 90,000 pages of internal Harvard admissions documents have been made available for use in the lawsuit, with excerpts made publicly available in court filings.

In this article, I'll summarize what this lawsuit is about and what we learned about how top-tier schools like Harvard choose which students to accept. (Spoiler: most of it confirms what I wrote about in my How to Get Into Harvard guide. If you haven't read that, I suggest you open it in a tab right now, and read it after you finish this article).

Most importantly, we'll cover what this means for how YOU should be preparing for college admissions.

Most students know what the SAT is, but what is the PSAT? Sure, it's got "SAT" in its name, but is the PSAT actually connected to the SAT? More importantly, how does the PSAT test work and what is its purpose?

In this article, we’ll answer your most pressing question: what is the PSAT test? First, we'll explain the meaning of PSAT and why students typically elect to take the PSAT and then go over the logistics of the test and how scoring works. After, we'll culminate our analysis with a brief discussion about how important PSAT scores actually are for students.

You've taken the ACT, and now you're waiting for your scores. This can be a tense time, but knowing when exactly to expect your ACT results can help you plan ahead.

So when do ACT scores come out, exactly? In this article, find out when your test scores will become available, how to get your ACT results as fast as possible, and what to do once you have them.

A piece’s writing style can help you figure out what kind of writing it is, what its purpose is, and how the author’s voice is unique. With so many different types of writing, you may think it’s difficult to figure out the specific writing style of a piece or you'll need to search through a long list of writing styles.

However, there are actually just four main types of writing styles, and together they cover practically all the writing you see, from textbooks to novels, to billboards and more.  Whether you’re studying writing styles for class or trying to develop your own writing style and looking for information, we’ve got you covered.

In this guide, we explain the four styles of writing, provide examples for each one, go over the one thing you need to know to identify writing style, and give tips to help you develop your own unique style of writing.

Not sure what number comes after trillion? Interested in the names of other very large numbers? What is a Googol exactly? Read on to learn what comes after trillion, the name of every important number that’s larger than trillion, and some ways to help you conceptualize extremely large values.

Have you ever seen the full list of AP classes? Are you confused about which ones you should take? We’ll help you choose by showing you a list of all AP courses available. We'll also reveal which ones are the most popular and which are the hardest to pass. Read on for advice to help you pick your ideal advanced placement courses!

Taking an AP class this year? You might be wondering about average AP scores or what good AP scores are for certain classes. Or if you are thinking about taking AP exams in the future, you might want to know which exams have the highest passing rates.

In this post, we will break down the average score for each AP test, as well as the average passing rate. We will also show you how to interpret this info and how to use it to make decisions about your schedule.