SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

Choosing the best way to practice for the SAT can be difficult; there are a lot of study options out there, but not all of them may give you an accurate indicator of how well you’ll do on test day. Taking SAT practice tests under realistic testing conditions is a great way to practice for the SAT and get an estimate what your score will be on the real test. 

There are many free SAT practice tests available that you can take in your own home, however; it can be challenging to simulate real test-taking conditions. The closer the conditions of your practice test are to the real SAT, the more useful and accurate your results will be. Read on to learn how you can recreate realistic testing conditions at home in order to get the most accurate results from SAT practice tests.

You got your SAT score back, and you're not sure what to think of it. What does your SAT score mean? What does your SAT score measure? Is your SAT score high? Is it low? Will it get you into the college you hope to attend?

I'll answer all of these questions below so you can start understanding SAT scores.

Every year nearly 2 million students take the SAT, but what's it out of? I'll answer this question and more in this article.

Taking an SAT practice test is one thing, and using the results to actually improve your scores in the future is another. If you’re spending five hours on a practice test, you should make sure that you’re getting the most out of it and not sweeping your mistakes under the rug. In this article, I’ll give you some different strategies for making your practice test sessions count.

The first step in preparing for the SAT is learning basic info about the test. If you’ve decided to take the SAT, or even if you’re still choosing between the SAT and ACT, it’s important to understand how the test is scored.

I’ll give you a crash course in the SAT and its score ranges before talking in more detail about what these scores actually mean—what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s average.

You probably already know that the gold standard for studying for the SAT is to use the official practice tests released by the College Board. Unfortunately, the SAT is getting completely redesigned after January 2016 – and there aren’t that many official questions for the new test yet. But the great news is that there are many ways to use other resources to study effectively!

Questions from other standardized tests, materials from your high school education, magazines and other publications—there is no shortage of ways to practice the knowledge and skills you’ll need for the new SAT!

In this article, I’ll go through each section of the new SAT and talk about all the possible alternatives to regular practice questions. When it comes to the SAT redesign, the world really is your oyster.

There’s no doubt that a good SAT score will give you a leg up in college admissions, but is this advantage justified? It’s been argued, especially in recent years, that SAT scores are not reliable predictors of success in college academics, the job world, and beyond.

In this article, I’ll explore these claims and see just how relevant your scores are to your future.

I don’t know what the number one most stressful college application drama is, but a list of the top three has got to include missing SAT scores. You’ve invested time, energy, and maybe even a little of your sanity into reaching your SAT goal, so it’s totally reasonable to be rattled by this kind of curveball.

But before you panic, read this article to troubleshoot some of the most common reasons that SAT scores go missing. I will talk about what to do if you yourself can't find your scores, as well as what to do if the college you're applying to says your scores are missing.

Either way, most likely, you’re looking at a pretty simple problem with a pretty painless solution.

Many students worry that a bad SAT score will be the kiss of death for their college applications. The SAT is an important part of the admissions process, so you obviously don’t want to submit a crummy score—but how do you know whether your score is all that bad to begin with?

If you're worried about low scores, understanding where your scores stand in relation to other students’ is the first step to improvement. In this post, I’ll talk about comparing your own scores to those of the general population, your peer group, your target schools, and even your own potential scores. I'll finish off with strategies to bring up scores no matter your goals or study timeline. With this information, you'll be well-prepared to make necessary steps in improving your SAT scores.

While the definition of a “Good SAT Score” is can seem subjective, in fact, there are valid and objective ways to quantify it.  In this article, I’ll go through four different methods you can use to decide what a good SAT score means for you. Having the wrong definition can be catastrophic to your college future, and having the right definition can be a strong motivator to achieve your SAT goals.

The SAT is a long exam, and it tests your knowledge of a lot of topics. To get a top score, you'll need to have strong skills across reading comprehension, algebra, grammar, geometry and more. The SAT is also infamous for its tricky wording and sometimes confusing questions.

To excel on the SAT, you need to know what to expect from it, and the best way to do that is to become familiar with the types of questions you'll see on the test. That's where we come in! This guide includes official sample questions from Khan Academy for every type of SAT question you'll see for both the Reading and Writing section and Math section. There are over a dozen question types, and we explain them all with these new sample SAT questions. We'll also go over what to expect from the exam and where you can find additional study resources.

Are you trying to register for the SAT but can't find any testing centers close to where you live? What should you do?

College Board, the corporation that develops and administers the SAT, offers a way for students to take the SAT at a location closer to them, called “testing closer to home.” Read on to learn more about this special accommodation, its benefits and drawbacks, and how to apply for it.

Standardized test scores are an important component of the college application process. However, since most people take the SAT multiple times, it's not always clear which scores colleges will look at when judging an applicant's potential. In this article, I'll give you an overview of which SAT scores colleges use in the admissions process. 

If you’ve taken the SAT or will be taking it, you may have heard of something called SAT college and school codes and wondered what they are.

This guide will explain everything you need to know about SAT college and school codes: what they are, why they’re important, and when you’ll need to use them.

When you register for your SAT, you have to submit codes for your high school and test center, the location where you are going to take your SAT. The codes make it easier for the College Board to keep track of the high school and test center of everyone who takes the SAT.

You want to make sure you submit the right codes, since making a mistake can result in your having to take the SAT at a random high school that's far away from where you live or sending your scores to the wrong college.

In this article, I tell you how to look up SAT high school and test center codes and advise you how to use them properly.