SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

The AP Spanish Literature and Culture exam is an excellent opportunity to show off your critical reading, writing, and analytical skills in another language while earning college credit in the process. 

But conquering the course material is only the beginning. You need to learn everything there is to know about the exam to boost your chances of earning a passing score (and college credit) to boot!

In this guide, we’ll go over everything you need to know to start prepping for the AP Spanish Literature and Culture exam, including: 

• The structure and format of the AP Spanish Lit exam
• The core themes and skills you’ll be tested on
• The types of questions that appear on the exam and how to answer them (with real AP student sample responses!)
• How the AP Spanish Lit exam is scored, with official scoring rubrics
• Four crucial tips for prepping for the AP Spanish Lit exam

There’s a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

The transition to high school causes academic whiplash for many students. It’s hard to adapt to a new environment and get good grades when you’re given more independence in your assignments and are expected to learn more challenging materials.

In this guide, I’ll go through the most important strategies that will help you to get good grades in high school and beyond.

Before deciding to take any AP class, it's helpful to get an idea of whether you'll be able to manage the coursework and the exam. AP Computer Science Principles is less known by many students than more popular AP exams like US History and Biology, and many don't know what to expect from it.

Is AP Computer Science Principles hard? What if you're already pretty good at coding? (Or what if you've never coded before?) In this guide, we'll go over the five factors to consider when judging the difficulty of any AP class and explain how you can use this information to predict how hard AP Comp Sci Principles will be for you.

After canceling their summer residential programs in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID pandemic, Duke has officially announced that they’ve permanently canceled their TIP program. 

To take its place, Duke has created the middle school pre-college program! This program is brand new in 2022, and it’s designed to help middle school students get a jumpstart on their college prep. 

Since the Duke University middle school program is brand new, we’ll go through everything you  need to know about what it is, how to apply, and the benefits you’ll receive as a participant. We’ll cover: 

• How the Duke pre-college programs changed, and how the new Duke summer programs are different from the old Duke Tip program
• If Duke University middle school program is still used to identify and enrich talented students
• What you should consider before applying to the Duke pre-college program for middle schoolers 
• How to apply to the Duke middle school program 

Read on to find out everything you need to know about the new system!

The AP Comparative Government and Politics exam tests your knowledge of how the political systems in different countries are similar and different. The exam requires endurance, strong critical thinking, and top-notch writing skills…which means you’ll need to be extra prepared!

If you’re looking for an AP Comparative Government study guide to carry you through all of your AP prep, look no further than this article! We’ll walk you through: 

• The structure and format of the AP Government — Comparative exam
• The core themes and skills the exam tests you on
• The types of questions that show up on the exam and how to answer them (with sample responses from real AP students!)
• How the AP Comparative Government exam is scored, including official scoring rubrics
• Four essential tips for preparing for the AP Comparative Government exam

Are you ready? Let’s dive in!

Are you taking the AP Music Theory exam this spring and want to be well prepared on test day? The AP Music Theory exam in 2022 will be held on Friday, May 13, at 8 am. AP Music Theory is different from most other AP exams; it's more like a foreign language exam than anything else, with lots of audio clips and "translation." Knowing what to expect will go a long way to helping you feel confident on test day.

In this guide, we'll answer all your pressing questions like, "What is on the AP Music Theory exam?" "Is AP Music Theory hard?" and, maybe most importantly, "Do you have to sing in AP Music Theory?" (spoiler: kind of!). Read on to learn all those answers and more.

Reading is a skill many people take for granted, but the act of reading and properly comprehending a text is a complex and interactive process. It requires several different brain functions to work together and most often requires one to puzzle through multiple layers of context and meaning.

Because reading comprehension is so complicated, we can often find ourselves understanding the most basic interpretation of a text, but missing the emotional core or the "big picture." Or we might just find our brains spinning with no clue at all as to what a text is attempting to convey.

But luckily for everyone who struggles in English classes, on standardized tests, or in daily life, reading comprehension can be improved upon (and it's never too late to start!). In this guide, I explain step-by-step how to improve reading comprehension over time and offer tips for boosting your understanding as you read.

Studying is about finding a right balance between concentration, understanding, retention, and rest. And, just like any task that taxes your energy—be it physical or mental—it is often just as difficult to get started as it is to engage in the task itself.

But don't despair! Whether you need to study for just one test, or want to learn how to study over the long haul and retain a whole term's worth of information, we've got you covered. We'll explain exactly how to study better, helping you revamp both your daily and long-term study habits and giving you the best study tips for managing your time and keeping your focus as you actually study.

And, once you've mastered these study techniques, we'll also show you how to prepare yourself for test day so you can do your very best when the chips are down. So let's get to it!

Online high schools can be a way for students to take high school classes and graduate at their own pace, without having to adhere to strict schedules and the distractions of a traditional school. So if you feel that an in-person school isn't right for you for whatever reason, an online school might be the perfect fit.

In this article, we'll give you a list of all the (tuition free!) online high schools available in each U.S. state. We'll also explain how online high schools work and why an online high school could be right for you.

So let's get started!

AP Biology is known for being one of the tougher AP exams, and, for most students, the free-response section is the hardest part of the test. In 2021, the average score for every free-response question was less than a 50%! However, knowing what to expect can make it easier to get a great score on AP Biology FRQ. And in this guide, we explain everything you need to know to ace this section. Read on to learn the format of AP Biology FRQ, what graders are looking for, what the questions will look like, and what you can do to be well-prepared on exam day.

AP Physics 1 is known for being a tough test. In fact, in 2021 it had the lowest passing rate of all the AP exams. Only 42% of students who took the AP Physics 1 exam passed it, and only 7% got a 5, the highest score. And the section students struggle the most with is the free-response section. 

But you've come to the right place! This guide will go over everything you need to know about the AP Physics 1 free-response section and how to ace it. We cover the format of the AP Physics 1 section, what example questions look like, what graders are looking for, and how you can come into exam day confident and well prepared.

What is the Duke TIP, and what is the 7th Grade Talent Search? In this article, I'll be writing about the Duke Talent Identification Program, also known as Duke TIP, also known as the Duke TIP Program. The Duke TIP is a conglomeration of multiple subprograms, one of which is the 7^th Grade Talent Search.

While you can find all the information about it on Duke's own website, as I did, the information is spread out and a little tricky to track down (hence the confused panda at the top of this article). For your convenience, I've compiled everything here into one magnificent blog post/guide. I recommend reading it all the way through, but if you only want to read one particular section, you can pick and choose from the Table of Contents.

Now that that's out of the way, let's dive into the Duke TIP and the 7th Grade Talent Search!

Perhaps you've read our article about Duke's Talent Identification Program (TIP), maybe you've heard about it from other students, or maybe you did your own research. You've heard vague hints of "score requirements," but don't know exactly what that means—do you have to take the SAT in order to take part in TIP? How well do you have to do on the SAT in order to become a TIPster? (I refuse to believe that students who participate in TIP do not go by this name.)

There are SAT (or ACT) score requirements for the Duke TIP: specifically, there are score requirements for Summer Studies programs and eStudies courses. I'm going to cover this complicated topic in exhaustive detail, explaining what the programs are, what the SAT score requirements are, and giving you some tips on how to meet these requirements.

Maybe you’ve read our article about Duke’s Talent Identification Program (TIP), maybe you’ve heard about it from other students, or maybe you did your own research. You've heard vague hints of "score requirements," but don't know exactly what that means—do you have to take the ACT in order to take part in TIP? How well do you have to do on the ACT in order to become a TIPster? (I refuse to believe that students who participate in TIP do not go by this name.)

There are ACT (or SAT) score requirements for the Duke TIP: specifically, there are score requirements for Summer Studies programs and eStudies courses. I'm going to cover this complicated topic in exhaustive detail, explaining what the programs are, what the ACT score requirements are, and giving you some tips on how to meet these requirements. These requirements all refer to the regular ACT, not the ACT Aspire or ACT EXPLORE.

Feature image credit: Ilyse Whitney/Flickr

You’ve been working hard in your AP US History class, and now it’s time to start prepping for your APUSH exam. 

But there’s a lot you’ll need to know if you want to do well, especially on the APUSH DBQ section. For instance, you’ll need to understand the APUSH DBQ rubric so you know how you’ll be scored on your answers, and you’ll need to look at a few APUSH DBQ examples so you understand what it takes to 

Luckily for you, we’ve compiled everything you need to know about APUSH DBQs in one easy place. (That place is, uh, here.) We’ll go over: 

• An explanation of what APUSH DBQs are and why they’re important 
• A walkthrough covering how APUSH DBQs work on the exam and what to expect
• A six-step process for writing a great DBQ
• Four tips for studying for and answering the APUSH DBQs

We’ll also give you an APUSH DBQ rubric and APUSH DBQ examples That’s a lot to talk about, so let’s get going!