SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Are you interested in converting your GPA to ACT scores or vice versa? This can be useful if you're trying to estimate your ACT score based on your current grades. In this guide, we've pored over the statistics to give you the information needed to convert between GPA and ACT scores! However, before we get started, let's briefly go over a few caveats.

Ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos all stem from rhetoric—that is, speaking and writing effectively. You might find the concepts in courses on rhetoric, psychology, English, or in just about any other field!

The concepts of ethos, pathos, logos, and kairos are also called the modes of persuasion, ethical strategies, or rhetorical appeals. They have a lot of different applications ranging from everyday interactions with others to big political speeches to effective advertising.

Read on to learn about what the modes of persuasion are, how they’re used, and how to identify them!

Because colleges accept both the ACT and SAT, it can be had to figure out which test to take. The changes to the SAT in 2016 made the two tests more similar than ever, although there are still some significant differences in content and format between the two tests.

So how can you tell if you'll do better on the SAT or ACT? Drawing on my experience as a 99 percentile scorer on both the SAT and ACT, I'll give you a surefire way to figure out which test will result in the best outcome for you.

Whether you’re an experienced artist or a beginner, one thing’s for sure: drawing ideas are hard to come by. Though it might be tempting to wait for the inspiration to strike you, many people recommend spending some time drawing every day to build your skills! You don’t have to produce a masterpiece every day, but investing just a little time in honing your skills can make a big difference over time.

But that raises the obvious question of what you’re going to draw. Rather than letting yourself get frozen with indecision, let this list of cool drawing ideas be your guide!

If you look closely at the United States Pledge of Allegiance, you’ll see that it calls the United States a republic. It reads: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” So what does that mean, exactly? Can the United States be both a democracy and a republic? And what is the difference between a democracy and republic, anyway?

As it turns out, there are subtle, but important, differences between a democracy and a republic, and that the definitions aren’t mutually exclusive. In other words, it’s complicated.  But don’t worry! Knowing the differences between a republic vs a democracy is important for tons of AP exams, including both history tests (U.S. and world) and both government and politics tests (U.S. and comparative). That’s why we’ve put this guide together for you.

By the end of this article, you’ll know the definitions of a democracy and a republic, how they operate, the differences between them, and where the United States fits into the discussion.

So let’s get started!

Wondering how many zeros are in a billion? A trillion? A nonillion?

Whether you’ve recently won the lottery and are trying to make sure your bank account has the correct number of zeros or you’re simply trying to find an easy way to understand how many zeros are in large numbers (over a million), this is the article for you.

We’ll break down an easy trick for figuring out how many zeros are in large numbers and provide a handy chart for easy reference.

If you’re thinking about taking the AP U.S. History or AP World History exams, it’s important that you have a good understanding of the major events and organizations that have shaped the nation—and the world.

One critical topic that you should know about is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. If you’ve watched the news (or listened in history class!), you’ve probably heard the term NATO mentioned quite a bit. But what is NATO, exactly? And why is NATO important?  

In this short but sweet guide, we’ll give you all the need-to-know information about NATO, like NATO’s definition, an overview of NATO history, and a look into how NATO works today. We’ll also give you a short list of additional resources that you can check out for even more information.

So let’s get started!

Have you heard the term “rational numbers?” Are you wondering, “What is a rational number?” If so, you’re in the right place!

In this article, we’ll discuss the rational number definition, give rational numbers examples, and offer some tips and tricks for understanding if a number is rational or irrational.

If you’re a student athlete who wants to play in NCAA Division I or Division II sports in college, then this article is for you! We’ll review NCAA’s eligibility criteria for your GPA and ACT score, which NCAA compares using a sliding scale. More importantly, we’ll give you the tips and strategies you need to achieve the NCAA ACT scores required for passing the clearinghouse.

First, let’s quickly review how your grade point average, or GPA, is determined.

Why buy a bunch of PSAT practice tests when you can find them online for free? To make your search as easy as possible, I've compiled all the best PSAT practice tests and sample questions available online.

Read on for 10 downloadable official PSAT practice test PDFs, along with eight bonus SAT practice tests. Since the College Board has only released two official practice tests for the current version of the PSAT, I'll also explain how you can modify older practice tests to effectively prepare for the test.

Let's get right to it with the first official PSAT practice test PDF for you to download. 

The Gates Scholarship is a program with a huge impact. Launched in 2017, the program's mission is to give opportunities to outstanding minority students to reach their highest potential.

In this guide, I'll go through all the details of the scholarship and the application protocols. After that, I'll give you expert tips and strategies for putting together the strongest Gates Scholarship application possible. Read on to learn more!

Note: The Gates Scholarship was established in 2017 as a replacement for the Gates Millennium Scholars Program, which reached its goal of 20,000 scholars in 2016.

Many students think that they should start looking at college scholarships once they actually start applying to college—so, sometime early on in their senior year. Although it’s true that many big-name scholarships require applicants to be high school seniors, there are some great awards out there for younger students as well.

So why not get a head start in applying for scholarship awards? You could win money for college, sure, but you’ll also get experience in the scholarship application process before submitting even more applications your senior year.

I’ve compiled a list of scholarships for high school juniors. This list will be a great place to start, but you might also want to search for more targeted awards (e.g., by geographic area). You can browse the scholarships below based on whether they're competitions or merit-based scholarships. Read to the end for tips and strategies on getting the most scholarship money possible!

You might be interested in going to a small college, but just how small? In general, schools labeled small have fewer than 5,000 students in total. However, quite a few schools are actually at least 10 times smaller than this.

In this article I’ll describe the characteristics of small colleges and then provide a list of the smallest colleges in the nation by category.

Don't you wish you could find out how you scored on the SAT right after you finish taking the test? Or maybe you'd like to forget all about it and pretend it never happened (better luck next time)!

Either way, your wait time for your SAT scores will be the same: somewhere between two and six weeks. This article fills you in on all the details of SAT score reporting and offers some advice for what to do once you get your scores.

When I started working as a professional tutor, I was fresh out of college with few qualifications other than high test scores and some volunteer experience. I struggled with tutoring my first few students — I didn’t feel comfortable giving them assignments and I struggled to figure out how best to use our lesson time.

But after years of tutoring, I became thoroughly familiar with the ins and outs of the whole process. I've drawn on my hard-earned knowledge to create this guide laying out the key steps to helping someone excel at the SAT so that you know where to start when tutoring your own student or child. A big part of being a great tutor is being properly prepared — these seven steps will set you on the right path to raising your student's score: