SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

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 It's an older, outdated term to describe the SAT Reading and Writing section.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.

Do you want to convert your GPA to SAT scores, or vice versa? Perhaps you're wondering what SAT score you might get based on your high school grades. In this article, we've pored over the statistics to let you do just that! Before we jump into the data, though, we do have some caveats to be aware of.

Community service is one of the most popular extracurricular activities for high school students to do in their free time.

There are hundreds of ways that high school students can get involved in their communities. There is really something out there for everyone, no matter what your personal interests are!

Admissions officers also love to see community service on college applications. Having community service experience means you're passionate about making a difference in the world and are ready to take action and be involved.

But how many community service hours for college do you actually need in order to make sure your contribution is “good enough” for admissions officers? Is there a certain number of hours that you need for different schools?

Read on to find out!

Students with documented disabilities may be eligible to receive extended time on one or more sections of the SAT. The options for extended time vary by student and must be approved ahead of the testing date by College Board's Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD).

If you're a student, parent, or educator interested in extra time accommodations on the SAT, read on to learn about the different options and how long each one makes the SAT. First, let's briefly review who qualifies for additional time.

Paired passages on the ACT have been around since 2013, and they can make the Reading section seem a lot more difficult than it really is. After all, you're required to answer multiple questions to two whole reading passages! But there are ways to do this effectively.

How should you go about attacking ACT Reading paired passages? Read on for our best strategies.

If you've registered for the ACT, you may have noticed that you'll need to enter a school code. But what code do you put if you're homeschooled? How can you make sure your scores get to you? We answer your questions in this guide!

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or is there?

When you register for the ACT, you have the option to send your score reports to four colleges for free. So doesn’t it make sense to send them? Especially since the rest of the college admissions process can be so costly, shouldn’t you save money where you can?

Maybe, but it could actually hurt your applications if you're not careful. We will examine this issue in-depth and help you make a smart decision in regard to whether to use the four free ACT score reports or not.

The College Board recently partnered with Khan Academy to provide free SAT prep resources. There are a lot of resources offered, and they can be a great help if you know how to use them correctly.

This guide will explain exactly what prep materials Khan Academy offers, what they’re best for, when you should rely on other prep materials, and tips for getting the most of out Khan Academy's resources.