SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

If you’re a current high school student, then you’re caught in a big transition between the old SAT and the new SAT. You may have thought you were all set with a high SAT score, but now you’re wondering, “Should I take the new SAT?”

Not to worry, help is here! You can easily resolve this concern by asking yourself two key questions. First, find out whether your colleges require the new SAT. If they don’t, feel free to scroll down to the next important question: is your score on the old SAT really high enough to achieve your goals?

Read on to consider one or both of these questions, and determine once and for all whether or not you need to take the redesigned SAT.

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.

Searching for the perfect high school or school district for you or your child? You've come to the right place. When looking at different high schools or different school districts, average ACT score can be a helpful comparison tool.

Average ACT score can help estimate the quality of education and quality of students at a particular high school or school district. There are a few different ways to find average ACT scores by high school or district. I’ll explain the different methods and why you should care about average high school ACT scores. 

Are you preparing for the SAT by taking practice tests? Awesome! You’re on the right track! How can you ensure that you’re getting the most out of each practice test you take? You need to make sure you’re taking each practice test under realistic testing conditions. What’re you doing (maybe subconsciously) that’s ruining your realistic testing conditions?

On June 6th, 2015, the College Board made a huge mistake. This mistake resulted in some sections of the test being canceled and forced the College Board to use an abnormal scoring method. To make amends for the mistake, the College Board offered a free retest for June 6th test-takers in October 2015. What’s the situation today? How did the retest go? What should you do if you took the June 6th test? I’ll address all of this and more in this news update. 

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.

Finally, a practice test from the ACT with a name that doesn't include a corny inspirational verb! That's right - the ACT is rolling out a new test called the PreACT this upcoming school year. It's similar to its SAT counterpart, the PSAT, although not exactly the same. In this article, I'll tell you what's on the PreACT, how its different from the PSAT, and what it means for you as a student. 

The SAT Reading and Writing 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 Reading and Writing. Furthermore, I'll provide practice questions to test you on what you've learned.

Are you taking the ACT soon? This complete guide will go over exactly what to expect on test day, from when to arrive at your testing center to when it’s safe to turn your cell phone back on.

Beyond the logistics, we’ll discuss what you can do in the days and weeks leading up to the test to fully prepare and feel confident. Read on to learn what to expect on ACT test day when you arrive, take the test, and finish up, alongside the most useful tips for doing your best throughout the day.

Tuition is one of the biggest (if not the biggest) costs associated with attending college. Because of this, it’s important to know exactly how much of your money will be going towards this expense.

In this article, I’ll explain exactly what’s included in this “tuition” line item on your college bill. Then, I’ll get into some of the nitty-gritty details, like:

• What isn’t included with tuition
• Average college tuition cost and the wide range of possible tuition prices
• Ways to pay less for college tuition

Read on to learn more!

Do you have a high GPA, perform well in school, but can’t seem to do well on the SAT / ACT? This is a common pattern, and there are certain strategies that work especially well for you. First, we'll figure out why this is happening to you, and, depending on the reason, suggest ways to improve your SAT / ACT score. Second, we’ll go over what a high GPA but low SAT / ACT score signals to colleges and how to counter that signal.

If you’re looking for a concise, effective list of the best ACT advice, you’ve found it. Sometimes too much information can do more harm than good - in this post, I’ll lay out the five most important things you should do in order to do well on the ACT. 

Let's get to it!

Stephen King once wrote, "To write is human, to edit is divine." Anyone who has written papers for school knows that first, second, and even third drafts can be full of errors. Through editing and revising, you can polish a piece of writing into its best form.

The Writing and Language section of the SAT asks you to be that "divine" editor. It asks you to improve paragraphs that contain both little picture mistakes and big picture weaknesses.

Writing and Language will be combined with your Reading score, but it’s a unique section that requires its own specific approach to prep. This guide is your first stop for preparing for the Writing and Language section of the SAT; read on to learn everything you need to know!

SAT Reading questions are notoriously tricky. They'll ask you to analyze passages in unfamiliar ways that seem confusing if you're not used to the format. It's helpful to have a basic game-plan for approaching tough Reading questions to make the Reading and Writing section less overwhelming. This article lays out a step-by-step process for interpreting Reading questions and lists a few tricks you should look out for to avoid making careless mistakes.

When test day’s just around the corner, what final steps can you take to feel prepared? This guide will go over exactly what happens on the day you take the SAT so that you don’t have any surprises. 

Read on to learn what will happen at your test center, along with an overview of the materials you need to bring. Finally, we’ll discuss some strategies you can use to deal with nerves and feel confident going into the SAT.

To start, let’s discuss what will happen when you arrive at your test center to take the SAT.