SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

It’s tempting to compare the ACT Aspire test to the PSAT, but in reality they are quite different in their goals and purpose. The PSAT is meant to be practice for the real SAT, and doing well on it can qualify you for the National Merit Scholarship.

On the other hand, the ACT Aspire is a test for 3rd to 10th graders that is meant to determine whether students are measuring up to Common Core standards. Just like the real ACT, the ACT Aspire covers English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing. But the format of this test, the structure of the questions, and the way the test is scored are all very different from the ACT.

So how do you know what ACT Aspire score you should aim for in your freshman year of high school? Or if you already got your results, how can you tell where you stand compared to your peers? In this article, I’ll talk about how the ACT Aspire is scored, give you some different ways to think about what a good ACT Aspire score is for a 9th grader, and demonstrate several tools to use when thinking about your specific score.

If you took the SAT in 2006 or 2007, you may be wondering what your percentile score is on the SAT. Is a 1700 on the SAT in 2006 the same percentile score as a 1700 in 2007? Do percentile scores change over time? 2006 was a big year in SAT history; it was the first full year of the Writing section and the maximum score changed from a 1600 to a 2400. Next year, the SAT will be going back to the 1600 maximum score.

In this article, I will explain SAT percentile scores, how they change, and I'll provide the percentile scores for SAT composite scores from 2006 and 2007.

If you took the SAT in 2003, 2004, or 2005, you may be wondering what your percentile score is on the SAT. Is a 1400 on the SAT in 2005 the same percentile score as a 1400 in 2003? Do percentile scores change over time? 2005 was a big year in SAT history; the maximum score for the SAT changed from a 1600 to a 2400 in March of 2005. In March of 2016, the SAT will be going back to the 1600 maximum score. For this post, I will be focusing on percentile scores from before the SAT changed its format in 2005.

In this article, I will explain SAT percentile scores, how they change, and I'll provide the percentile scores for SAT composite and section scores for 2005 and 2004.

If you took the SAT from 2008-2010, you may be wondering what your percentile score is on the SAT. Is a 2000 on the SAT in 2010 the same percentile score as a 2000 in 2008? Do percentile scores change over time?

In this article, I will explain SAT percentile scores, how they change, and I'll provide the percentile scores for SAT combined scores and section scores for 2010, 2009, and 2008.

The Class of 2017 is in a tough spot on the SAT.  Should you take the new SAT or old SAT?  If you take the new SAT, you would be the guinea pigs for a totally new system; if you take the old one, you have a tighter schedule.  How does it break down?

The location of a school can have a big impact on your experience as a student. It’s important to be aware of your preferences and make sure you choose a college that lines up with what will make you happiest.

In this article, I’ll give you some details on the characteristics of rural, urban, and suburban college environments so that you can decide which one sounds like the best fit for you. 

If you’re a religious Christian, you may want to consider attending a Christian college. Your quality of life could be better at a school where a majority of the students and faculty members share your values and beliefs. Additionally, Christian colleges often incorporate their Christianity into their missions and curricula.

In this article, I’ll provide you with a ranking list of the 20 best Christian colleges in the United States. Furthermore, I’ll offer you possible benefits and disadvantages of attending a top Christian college and explain how to research and find Christian colleges that could be a good fit for you.

You may have heard of this standardized test called the ACT. What's this test out of? What's the highest and lowest ACT score? And what score should you try to get? I'll answer all of these questions below.

Hopefully at this point in your college application process you have thought about your dream schools. Whether you took the ACT once and are debating taking it again or if you are just beginning the ACT preparation process, you are probably wondering what ACT will get you accepted.

While there is no one exact ACT score that will be considered “good” for your college or guarantee you a spot, there is a particular ACT score that will you give you the best chance of being accepted. What is it? I will answer that and more by guiding you through 4 easy steps. 

You’ve thought about your dream colleges and are wondering what SAT score will get you accepted. While there is not one number that will guarantee you a spot in the freshmen class, there is a range that will give you the best chance of admission. What is it? I'll answer that and more in this article.

Do you think that you may have gotten someone else’s scores by mistake or that there was another scoring error?

SAT scoring mistakes are rare, but they do happen. This guide will go over the steps you need to take in order to verify your scores, as well as what you should do to improve your score on future SATs if there was no scoring error.

You did all the work of getting into your dream schools—researching the colleges, visiting campuses, getting great test scores, putting together a polished application—and still have to deal with one major obstacle: paying for college. Few students can pay for a full year at college without some assistance, but almost 2 million students graduate with a bachelor’s degree each year in the US—they must be paying for school somehow, right?

Whether you’re a high school student or a current undergraduate, it’s never too early (or too late) to think about minimizing your college costs to make school more affordable. In this post, I’ll go through everything you need to know about how to pay for college.

I’ll start off by talking about what college actually costs before moving into application strategies, figuring out how much money you need, how much aid you can get, and how much you should actually be paying. We'll cover all the major ways to pay for college that families usually use. At the end, I’ll offer some more creative options for closing the gap between your financial need and your actual cost.

Big changes are coming to the SAT this year, and the impact that they will have on students is a topic of fierce debate. Will they provide a leg up to students who are put at a disadvantage by the current test format? Or will they make disparities between the scores of high and low-income students even more pronounced?

In this article, I'll go over both sides of the argument and provide my own take on how the changes to the SAT will affect the education gap. 

The question of how to pay for college is usually one with a complicated answer. Your own unique financial situation, interests, strengths, weaknesses, and preferences all come into play. Some of the most important factors that come up center around your ability and willingness to take out student loans.

In this guide, I'll thoroughly cover how to pay for college without loans. This can help you pay for college without going broke, or at least graduating without a load of student debt.

Maybe taking out loans for college isn’t a good financial option for you. Maybe your parents can’t or won’t co-sign on the necessary loans. Maybe you just hate the thought of having student debt. Whatever your reasons, choosing to pay for college without loans is a completely valid decision. I won’t sugarcoat this—it might make paying for college more difficult, especially if you don’t have many other financial aid options available. That isn’t to say, however, that there aren’t some viable options available for almost any student who wants to avoid taking on debt.

Before going through all these options, I’ll briefly talk about college expenses and the reasons why some people choose to take out loans. Then, I’ll give non-loan aid options for students based on whether they demonstrate high or low financial need. I’ll finish off with info on how much aid you can expect to receive without having to take on debt.

Many colleges use a holistic process to evaluate applicants, seeking to understand the "whole person" and not solely rely on grades and test scores. One way they accomplish this is by reading recommendation letters from teachers and counselors.

This guide will discuss what exactly admissions officers are looking for in your recommendation letters, and why they’re so important to your overall candidacy. By understanding the purpose of rec letters, you’ll be in a better position to gather strong ones for your application.

To begin, let’s take a closer look at what admissions officers mean when they talk about using a holistic admissions process.