SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Justin Berkman

Justin has extensive experience teaching SAT prep and guiding high school students through the college admissions and selection process. He is firmly committed to improving equity in education and helping students to reach their educational goals. Justin received an athletic scholarship for gymnastics at Stanford University and graduated with a BA in American Studies.

Recent Posts

How to Ace SAT Writing/ACT English for Math and Science People

Are you a math or science person who feels intimidated by SAT Writing or ACT English? Do you think that your natural abilities will prevent you from doing well on the Writing and English sections? This article should alleviate your concerns.

I'll let you know how you can excel on Writing or English even if you're more skilled in math and science. Furthermore, I'll provide you with important tips and strategies that will enable your success.

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Organization Questions on SAT Writing: Tips and Tricks

 The SAT Writing and Language section tests you on where to place sentences within a paragraph and where to place paragraphs within a passage. You may not know exactly how to approach these questions if you've never encountered these types of questions on other tests. Fortunately, organization questions aren't overly difficult if you know how to recognize and approach them.

In this article, I'll do the following:

  • Explain the different types of organization questions on SAT Writing
  • Provide a step-by-step approach to answering each type of organization questions
  • Offer tips to help you answer organization questions on the SAT.
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Add/Delete Questions on SAT Writing: 6 Steps to Answer

Add/Delete questions require you to determine whether a sentence should be added or deleted from a passage. There are multiple add/delete questions on SAT Writing, so figuring out how to tackle these questions is imperative to improving your Writing score.

In this post, I'll do the following:

  • Explain add/delete questions
  • Teach you the basic constructions of add/delete questions
  • Provide example questions
  • Give you strategies and a step-by-step approach for answering these questions
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Possessives and Apostrophes on SAT Writing: 4 Key Tips

Do you know how to determine if a noun should have an apostrophe? Do you know where to place apostrophes in possessive nouns? Do you know when to use there vs. they're? These are all topics that are tested on the SAT.

The SAT Writing section has questions about possessive nouns and pronouns. In this article, I'll provide you with all the rules and strategies to correctly answer these questions.

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The Best Way to Read the SAT Writing Passages

The format of the SAT Writing section is very unique, and you may not have taken a test with a similar format. To reach your target score, you're going to need a specific approach to tackle the passage-based questions.

In this article, I will explain the various approaches you can take when reading the SAT Writing passages, and I'll guide you on how to identify the strategy that will work best for you.

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How to Analyze Data Graphics on SAT Reading and Writing

On both the Reading and Writing sections of the SAT, there are questions that incorporate graphs, charts, and tables. On the Reading section, the Official SAT Study Guide refers to these questions as "interpreting data presented in informational graphics." On the Writing section, they're referred to as "drawing connections between words and data." Both question types contribute to your Command of Evidence subscore.

For the purposes of brevity and clarity, I'll call the Reading and Writing questions that use data and graphics quantitative questions. In this article, I'll explain the different types of quantitative questions on Reading and Writing. Furthermore, I'll give you example questions and strategies to help you correctly answer quantitative questions on the SAT.

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SAT Punctuation: Tips for Commas, Colons, and Dashes

 

The SAT Writing and Language section will test you on your knowledge of punctuation. Understandably, many students are utterly confused by commas and semicolons and clueless when it comes to colons and dashes.

In this article, I'll eliminate your confusion and explain all of the punctuation rules you need to know to ace SAT Writing. Furthermore, I'll provide practice questions to test you on what you've learned.

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Transition Questions on SAT Writing: Tips and Examples

In writing, transitions are important because they help establish logical connections between ideas. On the SAT Writing and Languge section, questions about transitions are a major component of the test. In this article, I will thoroughly explain the types of transition questions on the SAT and provide detailed advice on how to correctly answer these questions.

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The 12 SAT Grammar Rules You Must Know

The SAT Writing and Language section is comprised of questions that test your knowledge of grammar and writing style. By learning the grammar rules that are tested on SAT Writing, you'll be preparing yourself to do exceptionally well on the Writing section, and you'll be one step closer to getting your target score. In this article, I'll explain the most important SAT grammar rules and provide related examples from the official practice tests.

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The New SAT Writing: What's Changing?

March 5, 2016 shall be a monumental day in SAT history. The format of the SAT will officially change for the first time since 2005. Each section of the test, including SAT Writing, will undergo significant changes.

In this article, I'll explain the content and format changes to SAT Writing and provide guidance for how to prepare for the SAT Writing and Language section. If you follow the advice in this guide, you'll be prepared to get an amazing score on the SAT Writing in 016 and beyond.

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College Decision Day: How To Notify Colleges

If you've applied to colleges, received acceptances, and selected the college you want to attend, then congratulations! You've done considerable work and made it through the college application and selection process. With May 1, also known as College Decision Day, just around the corner, how do you notify the college you've selected that you'll be attending? How do you let the other colleges that admitted you know that you won't? Do you even have to let them know?

In this article, I'll explain how to accept an offer of admission and why it's important to notify the colleges you won't be attending of your decision.

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College Fairs: How To Get the Most Out of Them

Every year, there are college fairs across the country. These fairs can be valuable tools to help you as you try to figure out which colleges you want to apply to, and eventually, which college you want to attend.

In this article, I'll explain what a college fair is, how to find college fairs, and what you should do to get the most out of the experience.

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The 22 Best Colleges in the Midwest

 

Are you from the Midwest and want to stay close to home for college? Do you want to experience life in the heartland or in one of America's underrated flyover states? If you’re considering going to college in the Midwest, you should have an idea of which schools are the best in the region.

In this article, I’ll provide my rankings of the best colleges in the Midwest and explain how you should use my ranking list of the top Midwestern schools.

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SAT Score Chart: Raw Score Conversion to Scaled Score

You may be wondering how your SAT score is determined. Where does that score of 200-800 on each section of the SAT come from? What does your SAT score mean? Or, maybe you're familiar with the concept of raw scores, but you don't know how your raw score is converted into a scaled score. Hopefully, this article will answer your questions and clear up any confusion.

In this post, I'll clarify the difference between raw scores and scaled scores and provide charts that show the SAT raw score conversion to scaled score. Furthermore, I'll explain why the data from these SAT score charts can be helpful to you in your SAT preparation.

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What Is Financial Aid? How To Pay Less For College

As college costs continue to rise, financial aid has become a necessity for most college students. Ideally, the listed cost of attendance won’t deter you from applying to or attending the college of your dreams. Knowing about the process will enable you to maximize the amount of financial aid for college you receive and prevent finances from becoming an impediment to reaching your college goals.

In this article, I will define and explain the different types of financial aid that are available for college. Furthermore, I will explain how colleges determine your eligibility for financial aid, and I’ll offer you guidance and resources to make sure you know all the different types of aid available to you.

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