There's not a whole lot of information out there on how essay length affects ACT Writing scoring. Are longer essays better? But the essay scoring rubric doesn't say anything about essay length, so maybe it doesn't matter? Fear not—your questions will be answered in this article.

Touring your prospective colleges is a great opportunity to learn from the people who study, work, and teach on campus. By keeping your eyes and ears open, you can gain a strong sense of a school and its culture, far beyond the facts and figures on its website.

To make the most of your visits, you should prepare thoughtful questions to ask on a college tour. This guide will provide you with a comprehensive college visit checklist of questions for your tour guide, current students, admissions officers, financial aid officers, and professors. Plus, we'll offer some advice on what not to ask.

If there's one sign of the zodiac that has big feelings, it's Pisces. With enough empathy for everyone, Pisces can make a steadfast friend and partner.

But what character traits does this bleeding heart look for when it comes to love and relationships? Our full guide to Pisces compatibility will answer your questions about what makes a best match for Pisces and more, including the following:

• The core traits of the Pisces star sign
• The character traits that make a Pisces' best match and worst match
• A ranking of Pisces compatible signs from least to most compatible
• Three main takeaways for a Pisces in relationships.

Ready to learn more about this water sign? Then let's get started.

What is pre-med? When people say that they're pre-med, what does that actually mean? If you're planning to attend med school and become a doctor, it's important that you understand the definition of pre-med and what you should be doing as a pre-med student.

Read on to learn what it really means to be a pre-med, what you should be focusing on to get into med school, and what the best majors for pre-meds are and why.

Are you interested in performing community service? Do you want examples of service projects you can do? Community service is a great way to help others and improve your community, and it can also help you gain skills and experience to include on your resume and college applications.

Read on for dozens of community service ideas to help you get started volunteering.

Whatever your ACT Math prep plan, whether you're doing self-study, a class, or working with a tutor, you need to be working with real ACT Math practice materials. The ACT Math test will be unlike any other Math test you've taken. You need to work with the real material to get used to the pacing and style of this unique test. In this guide, I'll let you know where to find free and paid official ACT Math practice tests.

Do you have messy handwriting? If so, trust me, you're not alone. Given only 40 minutes to plan and write an essay, most students end up with at least slightly sloppy handwriting. How does bad handwriting affect your ACT Writing score? Can you end up with a lower score? Can you end up with a score of zero? I've got the answers to these questions along with more ACT Writing advice.

You may have heard that extracurriculars are an important part of your high school life. You've probably been bombarded with stories about how everyone who is successful in getting into college played a varsity sport and was student body president and built homes for the poor in Costa Rica.

But do extracurriculars have to be so overwhelming? What are extracurricular activities, exactly? And just how important are they when it comes time to apply to college?

Read on for a better understanding of this important topic.

College in the United States is normally associated with images of dorms, bustling frat parties, and impromptu late-night snack runs. But at a commuter school, most students' experiences are quite different from this. What is a commuter school? What is a commuter student?

Keep reading to learn everything there is to know about commuter schools, including what it's like to attend one, what students think of their commuter schools, the pros and cons of commuting to college, and how you can ensure you have a great college experience should you decide to go to a commuter school.

The Crucible is four acts of tight dialogue and economical action. It can be hard to pick out particular moments or quotes as being key since everything moves along so quickly. Never fear! I have your back with this complete guide to The Crucible quotes.

I'll go over the most important quotes from The Crucible, explaining both their literal meaning and why they're important. For clarity, the quotes are grouped into four themes: irony, fear and hysteria, pride and reputation, and power and authority. Each section also includes additional quotes that fall under the same general theme for you to practice analyzing on your own.

What is the probability that you’ll toss a coin and get heads? What about twice in a row? Three times? Probability questions ask you determine the likelihood that an event or any number of events is to occur, and the more you practice, the better your odds will be at mastering these types of questions on the ACT (see what we did there?).

This will be your complete guide to probability on the ACT—how probability works, the different types of probability questions you’ll see on the test, and the steps you’ll need to take to solve them.

The most common advice out there for being a writer is, "if you want to write, write." While this is true (and good advice), it's not always that easy, particularly if you're not writing regularly.

Whether you're looking for help getting started on your next project, or just want to spend 20 minutes being creative, writing prompts are great ways to rev up your imagination. Read on for our list of over 100 creative writing prompts!

In most books and movies, the "other woman"—the woman having an affair with a married man—is often painted as a villain. But what about in The Great Gatsby, a novel in which both married women (Myrtle Wilson and Daisy Buchanan) are having affairs? Especially given that one (Daisy) ends up killing the other (Myrtle), is Myrtle just a one-note "other woman," or is there more to her?

Myrtle's role in the story isn't as large as Daisy's, Gatsby's, or Tom's. However, she is crucial to the plot of the story, and especially to its tragic conclusion. Find out more about Myrtle's role in Gatsby in this guide!

In The Great Gatsby, in the middle of a strange, gray landscape, hovers a giant billboard of eyes without a face—the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. It's a creepy image, and the fact that several characters seem disturbed by it means that it is very significant in the novel. But did you know that F. Scott Fitzgerald didn't make up this advertisement? If you image search "oculist shop sign," you'll see that this disembodied eyes thing was a pretty standard way to advertise places that sold glasses!

So how does The Great Gatsby transform what would have a reasonable everyday image into a sign of the macabre? And why does this billboard affect the characters who see them so much? In this article, I'll talk about the places where the eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are mentioned in the novel, explain their symbolic meaning, connect them with the novel's themes and characters, and also give you some jumping-off points for writing essays.

This makes Nick himself somewhat tricky to observe, since we see the whole novel through his eyes. How can you watch the narrator? This difficulty is compounded by the fact that Nick is an unreliable narrator—basically, a narrator who doesn't always tell us the truth about what's happening.

In this post we will explore what we objectively know about Nick, what he does in the novel, his famous lines, common essay topics/discussion topics about Nick, and finally some FAQs about Mr. Carraway.