Lots of students strive for that perfect 36 ACT composite score. You might think you need a completely perfect test, but that's not the case. You have some leeway in how many questions you can miss and still get a 36.

In this article, I'll explain my research into official ACT grading scales, and I'll tell you how many questions you can get wrong and still get that 36.

The ACT is a time crunch, and most students have trouble finishing the whole test in the allotted time. So how many questions can you skip for a good score?

In this article, I'll let you know how many questions you can skip or answer incorrectly and to get a composite score of 26.

The SAT score is one of the most important parts of your college applications because it's one of the only things that's standardized. When all student applicants are taking the same exam, admissions officers can use it as a barometer to compare students that come from different backgrounds, educations, strengths, weaknesses, and intellectual abilities.

If all students take the same exam, and all admissions officers look at those exam scores in the same way, then it should be easy to figure out what an excellent SAT score is, right? Not necessarily. Like most things, an excellent SAT score is all relative. In this post, I'll talk about different types of "excellent" scores in relation to the entire US, your general peer group, your prospective colleges, and (maybe most importantly) yourself.

Between college applications and standardized testing, you’ve probably heard CEEB codes mentioned at some point during your high school career. You may have even wondered what they were other than mysterious four digit numbers.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about CEEB codes.

If you’ve already tackled your single variable equations, then get ready for systems of equations. Multiple variables! Multiple equations! (Whoo!) Even better, systems of equations questions will always have multiple methods with which to solve them, depending on how you like to work best.

So let us look not only at how systems of equations work, but all the various options you have available to solve them.

This will be your complete guide to systems of equations questions—what they are, the many different ways for solving them, and how you’ll see them on the ACT.

Colleges generally say that they don’t have strict ACT score requirements. However, if you get a low ACT score, your chances of gaining admission to a selective college could be slim to none. There is no specific ACT score requirement to be admitted to the school of your dreams, but your ACT score will increase or decrease your likelihood of getting in.

In this article, I will discuss ACT requirements for college and how to determine your target ACT score to help you reach your college goals.

For those of you who have started researching college admissions, you may have heard the term “reach school.” What is a reach school? Simply, a reach school is one that you shouldn't expect to be admitted to. It would be a reach to get in.

In this article, I will define and explain the concept of a reach school. Furthermore, I will discuss how to identify your reach schools and determine the number of reach schools you should apply to.

Are you thinking about applying to an art program? Do you know what you should include in your portfolio? Your art portfolio is usually the most important part of your application, and having a great one can significantly improve your chances of getting into your top schools.

As stressful as the ACT can be, you shouldn’t take it too seriously. It’s an important test, sure, but just a test all the same.

Here are five weird facts about the ACT to help you feel less overwhelmed by studying.

Unfortunately, studying for the SAT isn’t much fun. There’s really no way to make reading passages or dissecting math problems super entertaining — and believe me, I’ve tried.

But if you’re looking for a quick break from studying, check out these 8 random SAT test facts. You may even learn something helpful!

In many lists of colleges, research universities are listed or ranked separately from other schools that focus exclusively on the undergraduate experience, like liberal arts colleges. Why? What's the point?

In this article, I’ll list the main characteristics of research universities, give you some information about what life is like at a few different schools, and help you decide whether a research university is the right choice for you.

Reflections, rotations, translations, oh my! Whether you’re dealing with points or complete shapes on the coordinate plane, you can spin 'em, flip 'em, or move 'em around to your heart’s content. And, often enough, you’ll be asked to do so on the ACT.

This will be your complete guide to rotations, reflections, and translations of points, shapes, and graphs on the ACT—what these terms mean, the types of questions you’ll see on the test, and the tips and formulas you’ll need to solve these questions in no time.

Deciding which guidebooks will be most useful to you in the college research process can be pretty tricky. The Fiske Guide to Colleges is a commonly used resource for prospective college students, and it does contain a lot of useful information. However, it also has some major drawbacks and may not be very helpful in making a final decision on where to apply.

In this review, I'll tell you all about the exclusive content of the guide, its overall pros and cons, and whether you should actually buy it and use it in your college search. 

Not on our watch.

To do well on the SAT/ACT, you need to commit to a certain amount of study hours. The higher the score you want, or the more points you need to improve, the more hours you need to put in. (Read more about how long exactly you need to study for the SAT or ACT here.)

If total hours is your main goal for studying, then procrastination is what you need to defeat to be successful. So we’ll talk a bit about why procrastination happens, and then give actionable advice for fighting it.

Read in to conquer procrastination once and for all!