SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Are you starting to ask yourself, When should I take the ACT for the first time? The answer to this is a little more complex than the question. There are several factors to consider here, so let's review them so you can make an informed decision.

First, when do most students take the ACT for the first time?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: there's no need to worry about checking "yes" and waiving your right to see your letters of recommendation on the FERPA waiver section of your college applications.

This article will explain exactly what FERPA is, why you're being asked to waive it, and how it impacts your letters of recommendations. To be honest, the FERPA waiver will probably be the easiest part of filling out your college applications!

Your first step in preparing for the math section of the SAT should be familiarizing yourself with exactly what's on it. Whatever math class you're taking in school, you should be able to conquer the SAT math topics with the right approach to test prep. Let's start this guide by reviewing the overall format of the math section of the SAT.

What do you have in common with Kesha, Bill Gates, Al Gore, and Derek Jeter? They all had to take the SAT when they were in high school, just like you!

However you feel about the SAT, it's a landmark in the lives of many American students (and lots of international ones, too). Taking the SAT is an experience that many of you will share and remember well for the rest of your lives. Let's check out some SAT scores of the rich and famous—and talk about how you can achieve some Kesha-worthy scores of your own.

Touring your prospective colleges is a great opportunity to learn from the people who study, work, and teach on campus. By keeping your eyes and ears open, you can gain a strong sense of a school and its culture, far beyond the facts and figures on its website.

To make the most of your visits, you should prepare thoughtful questions to ask on a college tour. This guide will provide you with a comprehensive college visit checklist of questions for your tour guide, current students, admissions officers, financial aid officers, and professors. Plus, we'll offer some advice on what not to ask.

School counselors play a huge role in helping students get into college. Not only do counselors support students in laying the groundwork for their applications through class selection and extracurricular involvement, but they also provide them with the very important counselor letter of recommendation.

Whether you're writing a letter yourself or getting one for your application, letter of recommendation examples can help you see why an effective letter is effective. In this guide, we've written 3 strong recommendation letter examples for you to use for inspiration.

Anyone who's applied for a job knows how important recommendation letters can be to getting hired. While you've probably asked for a reference letter in the past, you may be less familiar with writing one. If someone asks you for a reference, how can you produce a great letter that will help your employee, colleague, or friend get hired?

To help you through the writing process, we're providing nine samples of effective letters of recommendation (scroll down to skip to the samples!). By reading through these examples, you'll gain a clear understanding of how to structure your own letters.

Before getting to the free recommendation letter samples, let's briefly review the role that reference letters play in the hiring process. Why are they important, and what makes some stand out over others?

This final recommendation letter example represents a character reference. A character reference might come from a friend, neighbor, or even relative. It tends to be more personal than professional and speaks to the subject's personality and character.

In this guide, we'll explain what character references letters are and when they are needed, as well as how to write one and what to include in your letter. We also include a sample character reference letter so you can see what a complete one looks like, and we end with tips to help you write your own letter of recommendation for a friend.

Asking someone to write you a letter of recommendation can feel almost as daunting as asking that special someone out to a movie. You're putting yourself out there, just hoping they like you back enough to say yes! Luckily, most of your teachers are well accustomed to writing letters of recommendation for students and are glad to support you in your academic goals.

Plus, who wouldn't want to recommend you for college? You're great.

To ensure your request goes as smoothly as possible, you should be thoughtful about who and how you ask. This guide will go over the steps on how to request a recommendation letter for your college applications successfully (though this guide works equally well for applications for graduate school and jobs). First, let's briefly go over what you need to know before making your request.

What does a good recommendation letter look like? Below you'll find a sample letter written by a direct manager for an employee who works in software sales. If you're responsible for managing or leading a team, chances are you'll be called upon to write similar letters.

Read on to see how this manager endorses one member of his sales team, and then check out the breakdown of what this letter does well.

"I have no idea what to expect" is not a sentence you want running through your mind on your way to take the SAT or ACT. If you take control of your test prep and schedule, then you shouldn't have any surprises on test day.

Besides studying, part of your preparation should be strategically planning out your SAT/ACT test dates. Instead of closing your eyes and pointing randomly at a calendar, you can ask yourself some key questions to figure out when the best SAT/ACT test dates are for you.

The first question that every student should ask herself, of course, is, When are my college deadlines?

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."

Heed the wise words of Dr. Seuss, and get reading! The more you practice reading SAT passages, the better you'll perform on the SAT Reading section. This article goes over everything on the SAT Reading section, including the new evidence-based and data interpretation questions, so you know exactly what to expect.

First, how is the SAT Reading section formatted?

Have you started researching how to apply to college? You may know that most college-bound students take the SAT and ACT. But just how important are they, and when can you get away without taking them?

Let's look at when SAT and ACT scores are important for college admissions, and when they're not.

Are you interested in going to private school? If so, you might need to take the SSAT to get in. But what is the SSAT? It's an admissions test that independent schools throughout the U.S. and the world use to assess their prospective students.

The test is available in three levels, so students in elementary, middle, and high school can take it. This comprehensive guide will go over each level of the SSAT so you can learn all about its purpose, structure, and questions. You'll also find six useful tips for test prep. To start, let's go over the purpose of the test.

So your friend/sibling/classmate wants you to write her a peer recommendation. Being the awesome friend/sibling/classmate that you are, you've not only agreed to write the letter, but you plan to write the BEST recommendation letter of all time. 

Apart from good intentions (check!), what else do you need to write an outstanding peer recommendation? This guide will break down the content and structure of peer reference letters so you can help get your bestie into the college of her dreams (which is probably Dartmouth or Davidson, the only colleges I currently know of that require peer evaluations).

First, here is your mission, since you've chosen to accept it.