SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

If you’re applying to college soon, you might have heard about the Universal College Application, a service that allows you to apply to multiple colleges with one application.

So which colleges are on the Universal College Application? And is it worth using? We will give the complete list and also weigh the pros and cons of the UCA.

You know you want tutoring, but do you go with in-person tutoring or online tutoring? Right now, I can practically hear the face some of you just made at the idea of online tutoring (yes, the face was so awful it actually made a noise).

The world is full of dire warnings about the issues with online learning. “How can you possibly learn if you’re not in there in person with your teacher? Won’t you just slack off?” On the other side of the issue are people like me, whose reactions to hearing about online tutoring are more along the lines of "Woo! No travel time means I get to spend more time doing non-SAT/ACT-related things!"

To help you get a better sense of whether or not online tutoring is right for you, I’ve blocked out the three areas in which there are significant differences between online and in-person tutoring. For each of these areas, I’ll explain when online tutoring is the right choice…and when it is not.

feature image credit: Thought plus action by Ben Tesch, used under CC BY 2.0.

Have you taken the ACT recently? Do you think you did badly? Or maybe you’re just wondering what the minimum score you need to get into college is.

We will explain what a bad ACT score is, both in terms of the national averages and colleges you want to go to.

Tutors are an investment in both time and money. Just because someone calls themselves a “SAT tutoring expert” doesn’t automatically confer the skills of that title upon them. (If it did, I would have become a master dinosaur expert by age 4.)

Bad or ineffective tutors can actually hurt you and your potential SAT/ACT test score in two ways:

#1 Financially: bad tutoring takes away from your budget and limits the resources you can spend to recoup your loss.

#2 Time-wise: the time you spend on ineffective tutoring takes away from the time you could be spending better elsewhere.

So what makes a tutor effective? In this article, I’ll go over the key qualities of the best SAT/ACT tutors.

You’ve decided that you want to do online test prep for the SAT or ACT. Congratulations! You're already ahead of many students in the test prep game/process. The question now becomes: Do you opt for tutoring as well?

feature image credit: Yes No by Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier, used under CC BY-SA 2.0/Cropped from original.

Historical test dates for the SAT are important for many accurate records. However, the College Board at this point doesn't maintain an easy database of SAT dates for 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and so forth. We at PrepScholar have done the hard work to dig up the old records. See below!

Don't get lost in the crowd.

Do you want to stay close to home for college, but don’t want to get lost in the crowd of a large state school? Or do you want to know how to make the most of your experience at large university?

It’s possible to get a selective, small college experience at a large university, through programs like honors colleges and merit scholarships.

But how can you find these programs, and how can you ensure you'll be considered for merit scholarships and honors colleges? We will give you the info you need to make sure you don’t miss out on opportunities near you.

All these tips apply equally to the SAT and the ACT, though for simplicity I'll mostly use the SAT for specific examples in this guide.

Have you not taken a geometry class yet, or do you feel like geometry's not your strong suit? If that's the case, how well can you do on the ACT without a strong knowledge of geometry?

Let's approach this by first considering how many of the math questions on the ACT cover geometry and, its close relative, trigonometry.

While the vast majority of articles on our blog are about immediate tips for the SAT/ACT test, from time to time we also feature some latest products we at PrepScholar are coming out with.  This time, we're announcing our new PrepScholar Tutor service.  It combines the affordability and customization of PrepScholar Automated Prep with varying levels of premium tutoring, giving you many advantages of each.

What are the best books for the SAT critical reading section (which used to be called the verbal section)?  Here we review a few of the top books that we feel helps students the most.  We discuss which skills you should be learning from books, and which you should instead be learning from flashcards or practice.  You can get these books online, or better yet from the library.

Math problems come in all shapes and sizes on the SAT, but only a few of them test geometry. If you've never taken a geometry class or feel it's not your strong suit, it may still be possible for you to get a high SAT math score.

This article will let you know how much geometry appears on the SAT and how well you can score with little or no previous knowledge of the subject. First, just how many of the math questions are going to ask you about shapes and angles? 

Did you recently get your SAT scores back and do, well, amazing? If you got above a 2200, you should proud – you’re in the top 2% of test scorers. In fact, you’re in the top 1% with a score of 2220 and up. (For the New SAT, any score higher than 1480 is likely to put you in the top 1%, but we will have to wait a few months for percentile data.)

But if you’re a perfectionist, you might be wondering, "Since I did so well, shouldn't I try to retake the SAT for a perfect 1600?" We will help you decide if an SAT retake is right for you.

In 2014, the makers of the ACT rolled out a new pre-ACT test: the ACT Aspire. Unlike the ACT Plan, which was given just to tenth graders, the ACT Aspire is meant to be given to 3^rd through 11^th graders, with the goal of testing Common Core standards as well as ACT readiness.

The ACT Aspire has its own scoring scale, content, and goals compared to the ACT. But it provides a predicted ACT score based on your performance. So is that predicted score accurate? We’ll give you the answer.

Both the ACT and the SAT let you rush your score for an extra fee.  When is it worth it and when is it a waste of money?