SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

There’s nothing quite like the white-knuckle feeling you get when you realize your ACT scores might be missing. You studied, you stressed, you planned, so it makes perfect sense to be feeling a little crazed with frustration.

But before you lose yourself in missing-score panic, let me reassure you that in the vast majority of cases the problem is small and easily solved. In this article, I'll explain what to do whether you are having trouble finding your scores yourself, or whether it's your target college that seems to have lost the score report from your application.

I'll go through some probable – and improbable – reasons for your missing score, and describe how to fix each one.

Many students worry that a bad SAT score will be the kiss of death for their college applications. The SAT is an important part of the admissions process, so you obviously don’t want to submit a crummy score—but how do you know whether your score is all that bad to begin with?

If you're worried about low scores, understanding where your scores stand in relation to other students’ is the first step to improvement. In this post, I’ll talk about comparing your own scores to those of the general population, your peer group, your target schools, and even your own potential scores. I'll finish off with strategies to bring up scores no matter your goals or study timeline. With this information, you'll be well-prepared to make necessary steps in improving your SAT scores.

While the definition of a “Good SAT Score” is can seem subjective, in fact, there are valid and objective ways to quantify it.  In this article, I’ll go through four different methods you can use to decide what a good SAT score means for you. Having the wrong definition can be catastrophic to your college future, and having the right definition can be a strong motivator to achieve your SAT goals.

The SAT is a long exam, and it tests your knowledge of a lot of topics. To get a top score, you'll need to have strong skills across reading comprehension, algebra, grammar, geometry and more. The SAT is also infamous for its tricky wording and sometimes confusing questions.

To excel on the SAT, you need to know what to expect from it, and the best way to do that is to become familiar with the types of questions you'll see on the test. That's where we come in! This guide includes official sample questions from Khan Academy for every type of SAT question you'll see for both the Reading and Writing section and Math section. There are over a dozen question types, and we explain them all with these new sample SAT questions. We'll also go over what to expect from the exam and where you can find additional study resources.

It’s hard to define a good ACT score because every student has different goals and standards. However, there are various specific ways you might think about your scores to decide on what a good score means for you. In this article, I’ll go through four different means of defining what a good score might look like for you on the ACT.

The same way that musicians practice their concerts before going in front of a live audience and athletes have scrimmages before a game, it’s important to practice taking the ACT before you sit down for the real exam.

There are many free ACT practice tests available that you can take in your own home, however; it can be difficult to simulate real test-taking conditions. The closer the conditions of your practice test are to the real ACT, the more useful and accurate your results will be.

Read this guide to learn ways that students and parents can create realistic test conditions in order to achieve the most accurate results from ACT practice tests.

Are you trying to register for the SAT but can't find any testing centers close to where you live? What should you do?

College Board, the corporation that develops and administers the SAT, offers a way for students to take the SAT at a location closer to them, called “testing closer to home.” Read on to learn more about this special accommodation, its benefits and drawbacks, and how to apply for it.

Most colleges will use your ACT scores in some capacity when making admissions decisions. If you take the ACT multiple times, however, it's not always clear which scores they will consider most strongly.

In this article, I'll give you an overview of the policies that exist at different colleges when it comes to reviewing ACT scores in the admissions process.

Standardized test scores are an important component of the college application process. However, since most people take the SAT multiple times, it's not always clear which scores colleges will look at when judging an applicant's potential. In this article, I'll give you an overview of which SAT scores colleges use in the admissions process. 

The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is the one application you’ll need to submit in order to be considered for all forms of federal aid. If you’re interested in financial aid at all (even if you’re thinking about private funding sources or school-based aid), it’s of the utmost importance you submit one of these applications.

The application itself seems daunting at first, but with a little bit of forethought and a few hours of your time, you’ll be able to complete it successfully! I'll start off this post with some info about the FASFA, before moving on to step-by-step instructions on how to apply for FAFSA. Finally, I'll give you some tips on what you should be doing after your submit your FAFSA.

Ready to get some financial aid? We'll present everything you must know in order to apply most successfully.

Have you heard your high school counselor or other students reference the FAFSA, and you didn't know what they were talking about? What is FAFSA, and what do you have to know about it? Well, if you're hoping to get financial aid for college, then it's critical that you know about the FAFSA.

In this article, I will explain what the FAFSA is, why it's important, and the information you need to fill it out.

Wondering how the new Common Core standards will affect the ACT, if at all?

Find out how the ACT could reflect the new Common Core standards, and how that will affect studying for the test.

You know the SAT was just revised. But were those changes driven by the Common Core? And why would that matter? Read on to find out—and to be prepared for the revised SAT!

Have you taken the ACT or will you be taking it in the future? If so, you may have heard of ACT college and school codes.

These codes are used to ensure that your ACT scores get sent to the proper school. Read on to learn everything you need to know about them.