SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

The SAT and the ACT are both hard pills to swallow, but one might be easier for you than the other. If you're still trying to decide which test to take, these charts will give you direct comparisons between them in terms of format, timing, and content. Then you can figure out which one sounds like the right fit for you!

Want to prep for the ACT on you own? Chances are you’ve ordered a prep book to help you study.

One of the most popular prep books around is The Real ACT Prep Guide. But how can you make sure you get your money’s worth out of the book – and make sure you actually study well enough to improve your ACT composite? Read our guide to using The Real ACT Prep Guide to find out.

Are you studying for the SAT? Chances are you've heard of, or maybe even already purchased, The Official SAT Study Guide. It's the #1 best-selling test prep and study guide book on Amazon.com, and used by thousands of students around the country to prepare for the SAT.

But before you dive into The Official SAT Study Guide, you need to make sure you're using it correctly. Read our guide to getting the most out of the nation's most popular SAT study guide.

Many SAT math questions involve the use of integers, especially in the early and middle ranges of each math section. This means that integers are a foundational element to SAT math and you should have a solid understanding of what integers are and how they work if you want to do well on the SAT math section.

This guide will cover the basics of integers—what they are, how they relate to one another, and how you’ll see them on the test. For the more advanced integer concepts (including prime numbers, absolute values, exponents, and roots), check out our advanced guide to SAT integers.

ACT English tests you on a number of specific grammar rules. Being able to understand and apply these rules will help you maximize your ACT English score. Besides knowing specific grammar rules, there are some general strategies to keep in mind that will help you correctly answer more questions. 

One of these tips is that the ACT prefers shorter sentences. Wordiness and redundancy are common errors on the ACT English section. The goal for each sentence is to express the same information in the shortest grammatically correct way.

Every SAT test has 6 special questions in the writing section that test not just your grammar skills, but how well you are able to use them in context. Can you tell which correct version of a sentence best suits the paragraph that it’s in? Are you ready to tackle one of the most unique parts of the SAT?

Oftentimes, if I make an outlandish comparison, someone will turn to me and say, "You can't compare apples and oranges, Alex."

Grammatically speaking, however, you absolutely can compare apples and oranges—they're both fruits! However, it's true that some comparisons are nonsensical, like a comparison between apples and eating apples.

This kind of construction is called an illogical comparison, and it's one of the most unusual concepts on SAT Writing. Though essentially simple to spot, illogical comparisons are unfamiliar for most students because they rarely come up elsewhere. 

A general rule to follow when answering SAT Writing questions is that the given sentence should be written in the most concise grammatically correct way. Often, especially in sentence improvement questions, the error in a sentence is only that the sentence is too wordy. Similarly, sometimes specific words in a sentence can be eliminated because they are superfluous. Wordiness and redundancy are common errors on the SAT Writing section, and I will be explaining how to identify and correct these errors.

“Parts of speech” is a fancy way of saying that every word in the English language can be put into one of eight categories, depending on how it is used. Of these eight parts of speech, only 7 are tested on the Writing SAT and on ACT English.

Understanding the different parts of speech is absolutely essential to having a firm grasp of English grammar, and in succeeding on the SAT and ACT. Unfortunately, nowadays many schools no longer focus on teaching this type of grammar.

Are you a bit unsure about what, exactly, a preposition is, or can’t tell the difference between an adjective and adverb? Feeling a bit rusty after learning this years ago? This article will provide the foundational information you need before moving on to more complex grammatical concepts. I'll also go over a few important SAT/ACT grammar rules.

You may recall the good ol’ days of elementary school when you learned about adjectives and adverbs. If you had realized that you would have to know about these parts of speech for the SAT, perhaps you would have paid better attention instead of daydreaming about Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel.

Don’t worry. If you’ve forgotten or never learned about these parts of speech, I’ll teach you everything you need to know about them for the SAT Writing section.

The SAT tends to be seen as an immutable barrier that all students must overcome before getting into college. But standardized testing is a business, and the College Board has its own motivations behind maintaining the status of the SAT as the definitive test for college readiness.

In this article I'll take a look at SAT history, its successes and failures, its motivations, and how it might evolve in the future. 

Like most ACT Science questions, Interpreting Experiments don’t require you to understand the hard science behind the experiments. Instead, these Interpreting Experiments questions will give one interpretation of part of the passage and ask you whether that interpretation is true or not, using the data from the experiment. These questions have a predictable pattern to the question and answers, which you can use to your advantage.

In this article, I'll cover the general format of Interpreting Experiments Questions, solve several ACT Science practice questions, and provide ACT Science tips to answer these questions.

Many students struggle with ACT Science. Students, who came to me for tutoring after taking their first official ACT test, typically performed worst on this section. It is very fast and unlike any other science test. This section more than any other is about pacing and strategy. I was able to boost my ACT Science score 5 points with a few tips. So, what simple tips and tricks can you use to boost your ACT Science score right now?     

Every day you have a plan: whether it’s going to school or the movies. You make plans if you don’t already have a plan. Scientists / Researchers are major planners and control-freaks (get it science nerds?). 

The ACT Science section asks you to figure out what that plan was and how it could hypothetically change. These two types of questions are typically found in Research Summaries Passages. 

Interpreting trend questions can sometimes feel like looking into a crystal ball and predicting the future. Thankfully, no psychic powers are necessary to answer these questions. These questions do require you to interpret the data you are given, going beyond the basic factual questions. Interpreting Trends questions only appear in Data Representation and Research Summaries Passages. For more information about these types of passages and the other types of questions, check out the 3 types of ACT Science passages.