SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

SAT Summer camps are cram school for the SATs. They include long hours and intensive sessions, promising students increases in their SAT scores or their money back. They range from online tutoring programs held over the summer (there are a lot of these), day camps like Elite's Summer Test Prep, and month-long residential camps where students live and breathe SAT prep and college admissions, like Columbia University's SummerFuel.

They all promise score increases, and some even guarantee them. But how do you know if you even need an SAT summer camp? Keep reading to find out!

Running out of time on any test is extremely frustrating. For me, it’s always a fight between my anxiety arising from racing the clock and the feeling of "if only I had more time, I could do better!" (spoiler: no matter which feeling wins, I lose). It’s even worse on tests like the SAT and ACT because they’re so lengthy: if you run out of time on a section, you don't get the relief of "Well, at least I'm done with the test" because you have to move right on to the next section.

Since you can’t actually stretch out time (probably?) and, except under special circumstances, can’t get extra time, you'll need another solution to help you avoid running out of time on the ACT. So what strategies can you use? I’ll discuss the top misconception students have about running out of time on the ACT Reading section and give you strategies to avoid running out of time.

The DBQ, or document-based-question, is a somewhat unusually-formatted timed essay on the AP History Exams: AP US History, AP European History, and AP World History. Because of its unfamiliarity, many students are at a loss as to how to even prepare, let alone how to write a successful DBQ essay on test day.

Never fear! I, the DBQ wizard and master, have a wealth of preparation strategies for you, as well as advice on how to cram everything you need to cover into your limited DBQ writing time on exam day. When you're done reading this guide, you'll know exactly how to write a DBQ.

You registered for the SAT, but as test day draws near, you find that you don’t want to take the test anymore! You may want to take the ACT instead, or maybe you decided to opt out of the SAT altogether and apply to colleges that don’t require you to report SAT scores. But what can you do?

Well, first, don't panic!

We at PrepScholar noticed how hard it was to find this information online, so we put it all together for you in one place.

Here are some things you need to consider:

1. Can you cancel the SAT test?
2. Can you get your money back?
3. Will this go on your permanent record?
4. Do you need to cancel your SAT to change your test date?

Many high school students are curious about what it means to be a college legacy. Exactly who counts as a legacy? How much does it help you when it comes to admissions? And what if you’re not a legacy? In this article, we discuss what a college legacy is, which top schools favor legacies, and what you should do—regardless of whether or not you’re a legacy!

Did you graduate from college years ago and now a prospective employer is asking for your ACT scores? Or perhaps you took time off after high school and now have to send your ACT scores to colleges. In either case, you'll need to know how to access your old ACT scores.

In this article, I'll explain how to get and use old ACT scores. I'll walk you through the process of retrieving old scores and sending score reports for any ACT tests you took long ago.

While the prohibition of a calculator on some SAT Math questions might leave you worried, rest assured that you don't need a calculator on this section. In fact, having one would probably just slow you down!

UPDATE: The Digital SAT no longer includes a No Calculator math section. This article discusses an obsolete version of the exam. 

This guide will discuss the third section of the SAT: the Math with No Calculator section. Read on to learn the types of questions you can expect to see and how you can get a high score. But first, let's go over the format of the SAT Math No Calculator section.

If you've found this article, you might have heard the term SAT Verbal. It's an older, outdated term to describe the SAT Reading and Writing section. However, the content of the SAT Verbal section is still very important today.

Many of the topics and skills from what used to be known as SAT Verbal are now tested in the SAT Reading and Writing section. To do well on the Reading and Writing section, you need to understand what SAT Verbal is, what types of skills it tests, and how to practice it.

If you've been sitting in front of a blank screen, unsure of exactly how to start a personal statement for college, then believe me—I feel your pain. A great college essay introduction is key to making your essay stand out, so there's a lot of pressure to get it right.

Luckily, being able to craft the perfect beginning for your admissions essay is just like many other writing skills—something you can get better at with practice and by learning from examples.

In this article, I'll walk you through exactly how to start a college essay. We'll cover what makes a great personal statement introduction and how the first part of your essay should be structured. We'll also look at several great examples of essay beginnings and explain why they work, how they work, and what you can learn from them.

Are you worried that your college plans will be derailed by an underwhelming GPA? Don't be discouraged and don't give up on your dream of college! You can still go to a great school, even if you have a low GPA.

Whether you are just starting high school or already at the application stage, read on to see the many things you can do to either raise your GPA, boost the rest of your application, explain your circumstances, or even find an alternate route to a degree.

How many students get a high score on the SAT?  How many students get a perfect score?  Here we look at the number of students and the percentile of these top ranks. Then we find out whether you should retake the SAT if you get these scores.

Note: This guide was created when the SAT used its old 2400 scoring scale. Unfortunately, we don't have the same data for the current version of the SAT (out of 1600 points), but we do have a conversion chart below so you can convert your 1600-scale SAT score to a 2400-scale score and still make use of the information in this article.

After months of planning and prepping, test day is finally upon you! What exactly do you need to bring to the SAT—and what should you just leave home?

We’ll talk about what to bring to the SAT for certain and some not so obvious things that might come in handy. Make sure your bag is packed and ready to go so you can focus on performing your best—and not on tracking down a pencil sharpener!

If you're interested in going into the entertainment industry in any capacity, be it directing, writing, producing, animation, editing, or otherwise, you should consider attending film school. I wrote this article to share my knowledge as a USC film school alum and to help you get accepted to film school as well!

Think you did horribly on the ACT? Need to cancel your scores? Or are you just wondering what you would do if you ran into an emergency on test day?

In this guide, we'll cover three actions you can take to deal with a bad ACT score: canceling scores, stopping college score reports, and deleting existing scores. Likely you would only need to use one or two of these methods if you run into trouble, but we will cover all three to make sure you know all of your options.

Not sure where to begin your college research? There are tons of online resources to help students match up with the right schools. In this article, I'll outline ten of the best sites to conduct your college search and then explain how to get started researching colleges using three of the best sites. Within each section, the sites are ordered from the absolute best to those that are still good but not #1.