SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Have you ever heard of the summer slide? Sadly, it has nothing to do with a water park or any park, for that matter. Instead, it has to do with the learning loss students experience during the summer months.

If you’ve ever realized in July that you can’t remember any of the facts you memorized for a final exam, you’ve experienced summer slide. If you’ve started a new school year needing a review because you've forgotten the material you learned at the end of the last year, that’s summer learning loss.

So what is summer slide? It is summer learning loss of the knowledge and progress you made during the school year. And yes, it’s very real and affects most kids from elementary school all the way through high school.

Summer learning loss statistics tell us that each summer, kids lose 2-3 months of knowledge they had gained during the school year, which is a lot! Math loss seems to be the greatest, and high school students tend to lose the most knowledge. You might have noticed that since COVID, you feel more behind than ever, so summer slide can really hurt you academically.

In spring 2024, the new digital SAT will replace the traditional paper and pencil SAT we’ve known for years. You might be wondering how the digital SAT will be scored and how this will affect you. Is the scoring more difficult, easier, or the same? And how is the digital SAT score calculated?

You may have heard of admissions consultants from your teachers, high school counselors, friends, or family. Or you may have done a web search on college admissions and noticed several results that included links to consultants, making you wonder…

What are college admissions consultants? These are professionals, usually from the education field, who work with you to help you achieve your college admissions goals. Whether you have Ivy League dreams, are interested in a major university, or want to stick close to home at a small college, college admissions consultants cater their assistance to your unique needs.

One of the reasons we talk about Ivy League colleges is because they belong to an exclusive club — but how many schools are in the Ivy League, actually? In fact, there are only eight universities belonging to the Ivy League. How those eight got there is a history lesson. But are those schools worth knowing, applying to, and attending? We’ll answer all those questions, so read on!