Your senior year is coming up, and you're ready to blow those standardized tests out of the water once and for all. It's time to figure out the best study plan for you that still leaves time for summer jobs, shameful levels of ice cream consumption, and acquiring incomprehensible tan lines.

Follow these five steps to make the most of your summer studying before your SAT or ACT test date!

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

Studying for the ACT doesn’t have to include sitting in a library and flipping through piles of prep books. You can find lots of ACT study resources online! From official practice tests to short, targeted quizzes that make it easy to hone specific skills, you can study for the ACT whenever you have an internet connection.

However, if you find an ACT practice test online, it isn't guaranteed that it's a great resource. Some online ACT practice tests very different than the actual ACT, and using them won’t help you raise your score. Fortunately, in this guide, we’ve found all the best official and unofficial online ACT practice resources for you to use. We also end with tips to help you get the most out of these resources.

You've taken the ACT and are now waiting for your scores. This can be a tense time, but knowing when exactly to expect your ACT results can help you plan ahead.

When do ACT scores come out exactly? In this article, find out when your test scores will become available, how to get your ACT results as fast as possible, and what to do once you have them.

After you take the ACT, the anticipation isn't over! You have to wait to get your scores. While the scores aren't available immediately, you don't actually have to wait too long to see your scores or have them sent to colleges.

This guide will go over when you can expect to see your ACT scores for each test date, as well as the differences in score release dates for students who took the ACT with Writing.

Do you want to know your exact ACT score up to six digits of precision? Every digit can help when you want to know your exact performance. I've used real ACT data, newly-released in 2024, to calculate these ultra-high-precision percentiles.

As a high school student, I took both the SAT and the ACT. I’d been taking the SAT every couple of years since I was in middle school, so I planned to focus primarily on it. However, as a public school student in Colorado, I was required to take the ACT by my school. My scores on the two tests were relatively similar and I ended up submitting both.

Taking both tests, whether because of school requirements or personal preference, has become an increasingly common choice for students, especially those applying to top colleges. Though it isn’t necessary to take both the ACT and SAT, doing so might be the right plan for you. This guide will walk you through the pro and cons of taking both tests.

Here at PrepScholar, we understand how important it is to pick the right ACT test date. Choose a date that's too early and you won't have enough time to study. However, choose a date that's too late and you may not be able to retake the exam, if needed, or get your scores to colleges by their deadlines. 

To help make choosing the best ACT test date easier, we constantly review data to keep you up-to-date on new ACT testing dates. When you know future ACT registration and exam dates, you can stay organized so you can focus on studying for the test with less stress.

In this article, we go over the confirmed ACT test dates for 2021-2022 and explain the steps to take to pick the best ACT test date for you.

The ACT is the second-most popular college admissions standardized test in the US, with nearly as many test-takers each year as the SAT.

But what does ACT actually stand for, and why does this actually matter? We answer all your questions in this guide.

Future ACT dates are only officially confirmed about a year or year and a half in advance. However, here at PrepScholar we've researched patterns from previous testing years to predict future ACT test dates and help you plan your exam schedule. Having an idea of when future ACT test dates will be can help you organize your schedule and know when to register and begin studying for the test.

In this article, we discuss the anticipated ACT test dates for 2022-2023 and explain how you can use them to be well-prepared for the date you decide is best for you.

The ACT is a nerve-wracking test considering the impact scores can have on college admissions prospects. But how hard is the ACT, really? It's intimidating, sure, but it's not as difficult as it seems. The material on the ACT becomes much less challenging if you're familiar with the structure of the test and the way questions are asked.

In this article, I'll go over a few aspects of the ACT that tend to make it more or less difficult and provide essential tips on how to get past some of these obstacles and end up with a great score!

I spent four years as a test-prep tutor, working with students on all aspects of the ACT and SAT. When I started out, I knew how to take the tests, but I wasn't that good at teaching them. Over the years, however, I've learned a lot about how to be an effective teacher, and it's largely not about the kinds of tips and tricks you might expect.

Standardized testing isn't most people's idea of fun—quite the opposite actually. Why take the ACT, then? And is it a better choice than the SAT? You may have heard that many colleges have become test optional (either temporarily or permanently) because of the coronavirus pandemic and are wondering if it's still worth it to take the ACT. Read this article to help you decide if taking the ACT is the right choice for you.

Standardized test scores are an important part of college admissions, but they also have value beyond that: taking the ACT can earn you tens of thousands of dollars in financial aid or help you get a job! Below are the five key reasons why to take the ACT.

If you're planning on going to college, is the ACT required? The rise of different university testing policies has made the question more complicated to answer in recent years. Read this article to learn if the ACT is required for college, what different college testing policies mean, and why your ACT scores--even for colleges that don't require them--can still be the factor that gets you accepted.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, many institutions have gone to a test-optional admissions model, where students won’t be penalized for not submitting test scores as part of their application. And over recent years, some universities have adopted a permanent test optional policy. 

So if many colleges aren’t requiring test scores…do SAT scores matter? Do ACT scores matter? And should you take a standardized test at all? 

The good news is that this article will help you understand the general importance of SAT/ACT scores and whether you should take the SAT or ACT. We’ll go over:  

• What test-flexible, test-optional, and test blind admissions policies are
• Why schools care about standardized tests...and why they can be controversial
• Four tips to decide whether you should take the SAT and ACT

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